God Moved In And Laid In a Manger

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men . . . the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory . . . and she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (John 1:1–4; John 1:14: Luke 2:7) 

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, born to young, poor, peasant parents who could provide for him only an animal-feeding trough for a bed. Births do not get much more humble than that. Yet in the midst of this meekness, angles descend from heaven to announce the baby’s birth, proclaiming him King and Savior, the cause of great joy to all humankind. This humble and helpless baby, dependent upon his parents for life itself was the author of life itself, the creator who spoke all of creation into being. God himself chose to put on flesh and blood, not as a costume to be put on, but as humanity to be lived, fully human and fully God. He not only chose to become as we are, but to do so not as a one privileged or elite, but as a member of the outcast and marginalized. He didn’t have to do any of it. But, he chose to. He chose to do it so that we can know God, know life, know hope, know peace, know joy and know love. He chose to do it because he loves us – he loves you. As you enjoy Christmas, take a moment and reflect on this reality. God knows you – everything about you – and madly loves you. The baby in the manger – Christmas – came about because of God’s deep love for you. Find yourself in the Christmas story. Merry Christmas Peace, hope, love and joy Doug P.S. A number of people have asked for a link to the video I showed on Sunday. You can view it here.

Don't worry, be . . .

There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:8–11

The angel announced “good news of great joy,” Jesus. Throughout the Bible we read about joy – often in situations where people were in the midst of difficult circumstances, circumstances where they clearly were not happy. In the Old Testament we see the people of God waiting for the joy that would come with the arrival of the Savior. In the New Testament, we see a people living with the joy of that Savior, while at the same time, still waiting for things to be set right, still waiting for the perfect joy and for happiness.

As you read this, you may be in a season of happiness and joy, where joy is clearly visible, where joy overflows. That is a grace, be thankful. For others of you, it is harder. You definitely are not happy and although you know there is joy in you somewhere, only those closest to you can see it – it is a tough season. There is not a right or a wrong way to be. The answer is not to put on an outward mask, but to be sustained by the joy that though many may not see, you know is there. The prophet Nehemiah writes, “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) I pray that you may be strengthened in his joy, and strengthened by people who are close to you, for you and not expecting you to act happy.

You see, happiness and joy are not the same; happiness is transient, joy is transcendent. Happiness is dependent on circumstances; joy is built up within us and sustains us in all circumstances. On this side of the Kingdom of God, happiness and joy do not always co-exist. When God's Kingdom is fully realized, happiness and joy will both be present, always.

Peace. Hope. Joy. Love

Doug

The Prince of Peace

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 KJVS

You might have heard the John Lennon song where he says, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.” Even if you were not around when the song came out, you probably have heard it. What does it mean to give peace a chance? What does it mean to have peace? What is peace?

So often we think of peace as the absence of something – war, conflict, noise, strife, difficulty. While each of those things clearly affect our sense of peace, I don’t think the absence of them is peace. You see, peace is not primarily an absence of something. Rather, it is fundamentally the presence of something; something so deep that even in the midst of conflict, noise, strife and difficulty you know it is there. This peace, true peace, allows us to move into and through the challenges to it without our hearts and our minds being overwhelmed. This peace, true peace, is not natural – it is supernatural.

The Bible tells us exactly this. The apostle Paul, who had every right to not be at peace, wrote about this true peace. He wrote, “The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5–7).

Two phrases stand out to me first of.1) “do not be anxious about anything.” 2) “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” The two phrases lead to two questions: 1) Is it possible to not be anxious about anything? 2) How can you have peace that cannot be understood?

Does the passage raise other questions for you?

For me, the answer to both of those questions is found in last three words “in Christ Jesus.” I believe that as I connect regularly into who I am in Jesus, I learn who he is and I learn who I am. As we connect with him, we learn to hear his voice and to experience his deep love for us. As you connect regularly, habitually, with Jesus (through set aside times in his word, in silence, in intentional walks where you look for and recognize his presence etc.) you will find yourself more and more without anxiety over things you cannot control, you will find yourself at peace over things that that are only within his control. You will have a peace that defies explanation outside of the supernatural; you will have the presence of Christ, the Price of Peace, within and flowing through you.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Waiting For; Rejoicing In -- HOPE

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent -- four weeks of preparation and anticipation leading up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Immanuel (Lord with us). The history of the people of God is one of waiting -- it still is. We wait for what one day will be, even as we attempt to partner day by day with God in the what is. The history of the people of God is one of hoping -- it still is. We hope for what one day will be, even as we attempt to partner day by day with God in the hope of what is. We hope, we wait, and in the midst of the hoping and the waiting, God is there inviting, leading and guiding us.

Advent is a time to enter more fully into the already and not yet reality of the Kingdom of God. We wait and hope as Israel did, waiting and hoping for God's Kingdom to break in -- even as it has already done so.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear,
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel.

How does the reality of hope sit with you as you sit with it today?

It might be that you are in a place of seeming hopelessness, as were the disciples of John the Baptist who went to Jesus and asked him, doubtingly, “are you the one, or should we look for another?” My prayer for you, “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and rescue captive Israel.”

It might be that you are in a time where the hope of Jesus is obvious, as did Peter who by the grace of God was able to recognize Jesus saying, “you are the Christ, the son of the living God . . . to whom else would we go?” My prayer for you, Rejoice! Rejoice!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.(Romans 15:13)

Step Into Your Life

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:5–11

Hi Everybody

This past Sunday we wrapped up our series The Keys to the Keys to the Kingdom of God by having a conversation with Killian Noe founder and director of Recovery Cafe in Seattle. I chose to have Killian come and share with us because she is one of the people I know who truly embodies what it means to live in the intertwined rhythm of INWARD (toward our identify as God's perfectly loved child), OUTWARD (as redemptive agents in a broken world) and TOGETHER (as a unique people of God). Killian Noe has all of the credentials one would need to be an "expert" in transformation, but more importantly she lives it out. She has learned by experience that in order for her live as the hand and feet of Jesus in the world (and to sustain the very successful ministries she has founded) that she needs to be grounded in -- to abide in -- Jesus, first. All the ministry in the world, all the love, the forgiveness, the life of transformation begins in the intentional INWARD journey and shows it's fruit in the ways that we live OUTWARD and TOGETHER as Kingdom people -- it is the key to the keys to the Kingdom of God.

As we move from our specific emphasis on the INWARD, we must not think that we are leaving it behind. If we do, if we move on from this, it will just be a nice idea that we might agree with but one that does not change us. We need to take the things that God teaches us and incorporate them into our lives. The INWARD journey is something that you must take responsibility for -- not purely individualistically, but as part of the community of Creekside. How do you keep yourself focused on this crucial piece? What book might you read next? What smaller group of friends will hold you accountable as you journey together? What practices will you commit to for extended periods of time (90 days) to see if they in fact connect you with God? Perhaps you have immediate answers to these questions and are developing action steps. Perhaps you think it is a good idea and will now do so. Perhaps you'd like to and do not know how to begin. That is why it takes a community of people to come alongside one another. If you do not know how, there are others that do. Ask me, Lynn, Noah or Jesse. Ask your small group leader. Ask. Act. Move.

If God has revealed to you the necessity of actually learning how to abide in him, don't let time pass before you move. If you do, you will lose the momentum. Connect with at least one other person and step into continuing on in the INWARD Journey. Grab the keys, they are yours.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

P.S. Some other resources you might want to explore are: Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen (speaks of our identity as beloved by God), Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ by Jeanne Guyon (speaks of our need to simply sit with God and how to do so); or Prayer by Richard Foster (introduces a number of helpful prayer techniques) to name just a few.

Infinitely More

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 NIV

This past Sunday we had the privilege to have Alex Krutov share his story at at Creekside. His story started in apparent hopelessness – disposed of at three days old in a garbage dumpster in St. Petersburg, Russia. It seemingly did not get much better for a long time.

An orphan, abandoned and neglected, he was introduced to the person of Jesus and embraced his new identity as the beloved of God – an identity bought by God, salvation. Sometimes here the word “salvation” and we limit it to Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. While this amazing act of love did in fact accomplish that, his work on the cross, his life and his resurrection accomplished so much more. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). The Message paraphrase says “more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” That is why Jesus came, that is what Jesus bought.

This “more and better life” is so often misunderstood, so often defined by a lack of hardship or difficulty. And so when hardship comes we dismiss Jesus and his words, “this is not more, this is not better – I need to look elsewhere.” But more and better life is not dependant upon the circumstances of our life. It is dependent and flows from our identity and the hope, which that identity brings. This is such a hard concept for us to understand. How can I have more and better life if my marriage is going bad, how can it be more and better if I get diagnosed with cancer, where is the abundance if I am estranged from my child?

Hardships will come; difficulties will come – most often in unexpected ways and at inconvenient times. How will you survive if your world is crashing down around you? The answer is only when you are anchored – planted and nourished – into Jesus and his deep and unchanging love for you. As we clear away space for the INWARD journey toward Jesus we make space to rest in and be convinced of our identity as his beloved so that when the hardships come, we will not be crushed by them – Jesus is not a panacea that paves the way for an easy life, rather he is life itself, in the midst of both hardships and joys.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Poured Out

Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:9–14 ESV

The apostle John’s account of the good news of Jesus is my favorite of the four Gospels. I love words and so I appreciate how John communicates the most profound truths known to man in ways that even through translation into English retain their poetic flayer. In the 15th chapter of his Gospel, John captures the organic and healing words of Jesus. We his disciples are braches, planted and nourished in the vine of Jesus, planted and nourished in the vine of the Father. Our charge, our invitation: abide, rest, and be fed by the love, which flows into us as we are as we are rooted in Jesus.

We are told by Jesus to love as he loved. He instructs us in Matthew’s gospel to love our enemies. These are not mere nice sounding platitudes, but commands, commands that are not possible for us to do – unless we are rooted in and abiding in the love of Jesus. Our INWARD journey is not just a nice diversion for a season before we move onto the important – more measurable – tasks. Rather, our INWARD journey is the only way that we can ever hope to love as Jesus loved, ever hope to realize the abundance of a life infused with transcendent joy. “We love, because he first loved us.” (I John 4:19)

As we end our seven-week INWARD small group emphasis, what practices are you putting into place to ensure that you create and maintain the space and the time to abide in Jesus? This is a very important question for each of us to answer and put into practice – the freedom of INWARD contentment and OUTWARD impact awaits! Share your thoughts and your plan with me and with others.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Did Anybody Else Hear That?

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1–2

- Have you heard God’s voice? - Would you know if you had? - Imagine how your stress level, your contentment level change your life in general might be different than it is now if you were regularly guided by the voice of God?

As a follower of Jesus, it is God’s intention for you to be guided by him; his plan is for you to know his will, not for it to be some secret that only a few of his followers can decipher. He wants you to be able to ask him for anything so that he can give it to you. Do you believe that? This truth is straight from scripture very often straight from Jesus' lips (Read John 15 for example). For most of Jesus' followers, however, this is not their reality. Why?

I think that a big part of the answer is that we do not put ourselves in situations where we create the likelihood of hearing his voice – maybe because we are just so busy we don’t make the time, maybe because we don’t really believe he will speak, maybe because we actually believe he might and are not sure we want that kind of clarity about what God wants from us. In any event, few followers of Jesus regularly hear his voice – and that’s not ok. So, what do we do?

Like I said, we need to create the likelihood that we will hear his voice. We need to carve out space to put ourselves in situations where that happens. Solitude and silence is a start; sitting at God’s feet, coming regularly -- not occasionally -- clearing the way to be with God as a pattern, a habit, learned and experienced over a long period of time. As you do this, you will hear your true God bought identity (fully loved, fully accepted), see your brokenness (without condemnation), see your healing (as you are fully known and fully loved by God), and see God. You will hear his voice and know that you heard it. Once you experience it, you will want to hear it again, to return and sit with God, to hear his voice again. Once you experience it, it will be easier to order your life around the likelihood of hearing God’s voice and then to move into the ways he guides you.

Ruth Barton in her book, Introduction to Solitude and Silence says, “God’s will for us is generally for us to do more of that which gives us life and to turn away from those activities that drain life from us and debilitate us.” (p. 123) I believe that is true. I believe that is what happens when we are guided by the voice of God. I am convinced that this reality is available to you and to me, and that stillness, solitude and silence in the presence of God are gifts given to us by God, which increase the likelihood of hearing his voice.

What do you think? Let me know and discuss it with others who you are in community with.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Behind The Curtain

We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:5–7

We want to follow Jesus. We want to hear his voice. We want to know his will for our lives. Yet most of us are never still enough to hear God when he speaks to us. Our lack of listening creates a silence, the ramifications of which permeate into all of the spaces in our lives.

At Creekside this fall, our focus has been on the INWARD journey. We are attempting to step into this dissonant reality. Our approach has been three-fold:

1. To help us as a community to see (without beating ourselves up) the reality of how unstill and unhearing we are;
2. To help us as a community to catch a glimpse of splendor and a desire for what life can be when lived in the simple rhythm of listening to God and moving in the direction he points; and,
3. To help us as a community to learn practical steps and methods that can lead us into the experience of the presence of God.

Last Sunday we looked into the reality of our emptiness, the reality of who we are – sinful, broken, incomplete; jars of clay. The freeing truth is that as we establish routines and disciplines of being in God’s presence we are then able to see our full brokenness in the greater fullness of how much we are completely known, and completely loved by God. We are set free to move as he calls us, realizing that it is God who does his work through us, not we who do God’s work with him. The INWARD journey is the path OUTWARD.

So, let’s get real, just between you and me, how’s it going?
What are you thinking about?
What are you learning about yourself? What are you learning about God? What questions has this brought to your mind?
What are you hearing from God?

Peace. Hope. Love

Doug

It's Your Move

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 1:29; 2:16-17; 3:6–13 NIV)

The story of sin entering the world.
The story of the fall of man.
The story of good verses evil.
The story of responsibility and choice.

The story of Adam and Eve is a reminder from the Bible that from our very first breath, God created us with responsibility and with choice. The lesson from the garden: There is not a scenario where God creates humanity without the power and the freedom to choose.

Most people feel that their life – especially their spiritual life -- is not what they wished it were. But so often we stop there, we hope and we pray that it gets better. We need to move to the next step of examining what we are doing to actually grow. What are the practices and priorities that are shaping us? What are we choosing?

The reality is that God will never do anything that overrides your will in your life. He respects your will, he allows you to choose. He gives you the power and the desire to move, but ultimately it is your move.

If you are going to experience transformation, if you are going move towards the life you were meant to live, you have to own your choices. And realize that the choices you make today create the life you are going to live tomorrow.

Two simple questions:

1. What are the choices you are making that prevent you from moving toward God?
2. What choice do you need to make to move to where you want to be?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Who Do They Tell You You Are

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him . . . and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13–17

What emotion does God feel when he thinks about you? What stirs in his heart when you come to his mind? Your identity, and all that’s connected with identity, flows from your answer to that question.

The reality is that the one who makes something always knows best the thing that has been made, whether it is a car or a poem, a painting, a building or even a person. Your identity only truly can come from the one who created you, your maker, and your sustainer, the only one who fully knows you and fully loves you. Our lives are full of voices that try and tell us who we are, what we should be, where our value comes from. These voices drown out the voice of God. Most of us are really never still, we don’t set aside time to listen God’s voice. So, we don’t hear it -- we can’t hear it -- we drift, untethered from whom we really are.

The reality is that God is madly in love with you. He calls you to himself; calls you to hear that love. God invites you, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) But, how often are you still? Stillness does not come naturally to most people. Stillness and silence take practice. It takes intentionally setting aside times to be still and silent. The practice of solitude and silence is one way to allow God’s Spirit to descend upon you and confirm this love.

- Think through the words that God the Father spoke to Jesus in the passage above. Dwell on the word “beloved.” Why did God choose to say that? What do you think Jesus felt when he heard these words? Can you imagine God saying this about you? What does it mean for you to be beloved by him? In what ways can this belovedness impact your own feeling of mission in the world? What else does this passage unearth for you? How can it point to a deeper sense of his love for you? How does his belovedness give you identity? What tempts you away from your identity in God’s love?

Only with the love of God can we face the temptation to leave who we are in order to settle for a lesser good and a false identity.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

The Rhythms of the Kingdom

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. (Matthew adds to heal the sick and all diseases) Mark 3:13–15

Jesus spent three years in an inward, outward and together process of growth and transformation with 12 regular people who he called to be his disciples and sent out as apostles: INWARD (“with him”); OUTWARD (“to be sent”); and, TOGETHER (“as a community”).

At the end of his time with them, as he prepared to leave them to return to his father Jesus commissioned those whom he discipled to replicate this process, to make more disciples. Matthew, one of the 12 recorded Jesus’ words in his gospel. Jesus told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

What is a disciple? In short, a disciple is an apprentice: discipleship is apprenticeship. It is a person intentionally learning to be like someone who has mastered something, watching and then trying, sitting with, listening to, learning, and doing. In time, an apprentice grows to resemble his or her master. Apprenticeship, discipleship, is God’s plan for humanity. It is the process of learning to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. It is the very process of following Jesus, every Christian is called to live as and to make disciples of Christ.

Author Dallas Willard correctly stresses that, “Grace is opposed to earning, it is not opposed to effort,” apprenticeship requires intentionality. Because Jesus is an infinite, our apprenticeship is never exhausted; our growth process never completed. Followers of Jesus must be continually discipling and being discipled, growing and helping others to grow into the INWARD, OUTWARD and TOGETHER rhythms of discipleship.

This rhythm of discipleship must begin with the INWARD journey. We cannot be sent if we cannot hear the voice of the one sending us. We do not have the power to withstand the challenges to our ability to love our community and our world if we are not grounded in our true identity as the beloved child of God. We do this through intentionally learning to hear his voice.

Are you intentional about setting aside time to hear his voice?
Do you even know how to go about this?
How might your life be different if you knew to your core that you were perfectly loved and accepted by God?

If you are involved in an INWARD small group, devote yourself to the process with expectancy. If you are not in a group, read through Invitation to Solitude and Silence and work through the exercises with someone else.

Share your thoughts with me and with others.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

A People and a Promise

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. Ruth 1:16–17

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Labor day is the unofficial end of summer, kids back in school, vacations now memories and photographs. I hope you had a fantastic summer. This past Sunday at Creekside we finished up our summer series – A People Together, A Together People. Next Sunday is our annual kick-off celebration and a sermon that looks at the importance of remembering how God met us in the past year and how he leads us into the year ahead – make sure you come and see all that God has done in and through us as a community. Bring someone along with you.

As we ended summer, we ended our time in the book of Ruth. One person told me, “It was great to see Ruth finally get married.” In the final chapter of Ruth, we caught a glimpse of the import role that community played in those days and in that culture. In the days of Ruth, the men of the village would gather at the city gate and in an unhurried fashion, consider the issues of life that arose among the people and families in the community. The word for this discerning group and process was Ecclesia – the very same word the apostle Paul chose when he wanted to describe the Church. Church was never intended to be a solely individual thing, but a life giving and grace filled community of people seeking to connect their faith in Jesus with the realities of everyday life.

- How does this idea of Church relate to your idea of Church?
- How might this idea of Church change the way you think of Church?
- How might this idea of Church change the way those outside of the Church think of Church?

As a people of God we are the Church. Our local expression -- Creekside Covenant Church – is called to be a people, a sign and a signpost of the Kingdom of God. Does that excite and challenge you? That notion of church is so different from the way most people think of church (as a place that you go to on Sunday). That notion is so small and incomplete. Our invitation as the Church is to partner with God in his redemptive story, collectively and individually. He does not promise that if we follow him life will be easy and financially prosperous (as some wrongly teach). He does promise that he will be with us, that his purposes will be accomplished, and that the more fully we follow him and abide in him – individually and collectively -- we will experience contentment, joy and peace regardless of the circumstances.

God calls us to be a people, he promises that he will never forsake us; he calls us to be a people together, a together people, a shining city on a hill.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Redeemed

If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest relative shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. (Lev 25:25)

The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers. (Ruth 2:20)

When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:4–7)


In the book of Leviticus, Moses delivered the law of God to the people A huge component of that law were the rules that would ensure that people who were hurting, the underdogs and the marginalized would be cared for. God’s desire is always that the hopeless could have their hope restored, that slaves could again be free. In the book of Ruth we see these rules enfleshed as two widows, hopeless and enslaved in bitterness are restored and redeemed in hope.

The story of Ruth is fascinating because of Ruth’s place in the linage of King David and of Jesus. It is at least equally important for what it shows us about God’s plan of redemption, and his role in accomplishing that plan. God’s law required that people redeem their relatives from poverty and enslavement -- regardless of how got there. God’s gift to humanity is his offer to free strangers from their poverty and enslavement -- regardless of how they God their.

So, let's get personal. Do you feel redeemed, rescued, set free, unbound? Does the reality of your redemption live with you, or, is it something that you take for granted? Talk with God (and others if you like) about your answer to these questions.

Rest in the reality of your redemption. Move out in your freedom.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

True Religion

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:9–10

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers . . . . Ruth 2:2–3

Two women, two widows, broken and poor (and in the case of Ruth, an alien) returned to Bethlehem knowing only that the chance of starvation, attack or worse was less there than where they traveled from. All appears hopeless, bitter. That is how the book of Ruth begins. But before the hopelessness can fully sink in, Chapter 2 of Ruth crashes into Chapter 19 of Leviticus and Ruth who is literally grasping at straws in an attempt to survive experiences the grace of God through the actions of a follower of God -- Boaz. Through Boaz and to Ruth, we see God’s love and care for the foreigner, the outcast and the disenfranchised. “

To paraphrase the passage in Leviticus, “I am God. I am merciful. I provide you with all you have. So, you need to be merciful to those who don’t have. So when I give you a harvest, don’t think it is all yours, because it is all mine. But, you can have most of it. Just leave enough so the people who don’t have, can have some of my stuff too. ‘Cause it’s all mine, remember? I am the Lord your God, this is what I’m about, this is the way I roll.”

God has a heart for the poor and the needy. And to the extent that we become like him, we will have a heart for the poor and the needy too. And when we see that need, and when we begin to meet that need, we not only are in line with God’s heart, we are actually allowing his Kingdom to break into the darkness of a fallen and broken world. Light breaks into the darkness of the world and into the darkness of our hearts.

Meant to be a People

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Ruth 1:16–18

God is good even when we can't feel his goodness, even when all of the evidence in our lives seems to say he is not. God is good. And often, his goodness comes through those who stand beside us – especially in those times.

In the first chapter of the book of Ruth, we meet Naomi (Ruth's mother in law). By any definition, hers was a hard life, harder I would venture to guess than any of ours ever will be. A small town girl, Naomi flees starvation and famine in her hometown, escaping to a foreign country with her husband and her two sons. While she does not starve, she might rather have, as both her husband and then her two sons are killed by means we are not told. Returning home when the famine is over she tells the people who greet her that they should no longer call her Naomi (a name that means pleasant). She tells them, in essence, that her name no longer fits her. Pleasant? No, bitter, that’s a much better fit. Call me bitter. "I went away full," she told them, but the Lord has brought me back empty."

And yet, the Lord had not brought her back empty. Though she had indeed suffered unimaginable tragedy, she was not alone. Beside her – even as she spoke of her aloneness was Ruth, a woman who in her own right had suffered tragedy, Ruth, the widow of Naomi’s son, Ruth, Naomi’s daughter in law. You see, in the midst of understandable despair and resignation as she headed back to her hometown, Naomi had told Ruth to leave her, to go back to her own people, to let her return home alone. But Ruth did not go. Ruth stood by her, declaring that she was her people, that as for as long as she should live, Naomi would not ever be alone, Ruth would stand by her.

God uses people to heal people – body, mind and spirit. God uses community to bring out the fullness of people. God uses me to make you a better person; he uses you to make me the best I can be. Alone is not who we were created to be, we were created to be a people – together – in a way that influences and infuses who we are even when we are alone.

- Do you feel as if you are a part of a people? If so, how does that change affect your life, your choices, and your values? If not, do you wish that you felt you were a part of a people? How might it change you?

Share your thoughts with me and with others.

Pece, hope and love

Doug

Fathering (and mothering, sister and brothering) a Fatherless World

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27

This past Sunday was Father’s Day.

If you are a father, I hope you had a good day. If you have a father, I hope you made him feel honored. My family made me feel honored -- it was a good Father’s Day, and I am blessed.

So many in our world are not able to receive or to give this blessing. Many around us live without fathers. Other’s whom we look at and would say, “He or she has a father,” practically speaking do not. The land of fatherlessness is a land filled with loss, both personal and societal.

God, whom the Bible refers to as our father, whom Jesus refers to as his daddy, seems to care a great deal about the land of fatherlessness and those who dwell there. Throughout scripture followers of God, made in his image, are called to care for those who have no father. We are called as well to care for those without husbands, for foreigners, outcasts, and the discarded. We are called and invited to love with the love of God the very people whom the world seems to see as invisible, disposable. As we love people who so often feel Godforsaken, we carry the presence of God to them even as we experience it ourselves.

At Creekside Covenant Church this past Sunday we were privileged to have a conversation with Brent Christi, Executive Director of Jubilee Center REACH. Brent told us stories, which echo those of many others throughout history who step out despite uncertainty into the areas and towards the people where God is calling them, certain that somehow God will meet them. And he does. And when that happens, he exchanges their uncertainty, not with certainty but with expectant trust. And the world – including those who step out -- is changed, transformed, and restored. It’s God’s plan, and it includes us.

Have you ever experienced the joy (mingled with the fear) of stepping into these types of opportunities? Have you met God there? If you have, I probably don’t need to tell you to continue – it is contagious. Instead, I tell you to keep it up and to share your stories. If you have not, do it; do it now, step out. If you don’t know how, ask. Ask me, ask others – and then share your story as well – success or failure. We are propelled and fueled by the stories of our common journey – inward toward God, outward toward the world and together as a people.

Peace, hope and love,

Doug

Is Jesus a Nice Guy?

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. John 15:9–17

“That Jesus sure is a nice guy.”

If you ask people on the street if they think Jesus was a nice guy, most will say yes. And you know what? I think they’re right, I think that Jesus was, and is a nice guy. I suspect that if you were able to go back in time and talk to his friends from back in the day when he walked the earth, they would tell you that he was, in fact, exceptionally nice.

The problem is that we sometimes confuse niceness with social pleasantness, even passivity – especially if we don’t know the person well. When we only see someone from afar, pleasantness and passivity can come off as nice; “he doesn’t rock the boat,” “she doesn’t cause trouble,” “he is always smiling and happy,” “he doesn’t interject himself into things that don’t concern him,” “she always offers to help if it is really needed,” “what a nice guy.”

A friend, however, is not a “nice guy.” A friend, tells you the truth, a real friend loves you enough to say hard things. Real friendship can handle – and in fact grows – through the journey of hard truths shared. Jesus says in the passage quoted above, “No longer do I call you servants . . . I have called you friends.”

Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus tells us that he has “come that we may have life to the fullest, more and better life than we ever imagined.” Jesus is “the author and the sustainer of life itself.” Jesus is the one who provides “life and breath and everything else.” Jesus invites us: ”follow me.” Jesus instructs us: “I am the vine, you are the branches, abide in me and I in you.” Jesus calls us: “friend.” And he tells us, “As your friend, I will say hard things to you. As your friend, I will challenge you. As your friend, I may make you uncomfortable, I may cause you to re-think things that you have thought for a very long time.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my time on a “nice guy Jesus.” I want to give my whole life to the real Jesus, the Jesus who bids me come and die, the Jesus who invites me to drop my nets and follow him, the Jesus who calls me friend.

Offensive and Life Giving

Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. - John 6:53–58 MESSAGE

Jesus offended a lot of people when he talked about his flesh and his blood, when he told him that his flesh was real food and his blood was real drink. Ultimately, he was talking – as he did in so many other places – about abiding in him. He was talking about connecting so closely and so intimately with him that our lives naturally flow from and reflect him. The apostle Paul used phrases like, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” (Gal 2:20) and, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come,” (2 Cor. 5:17) to convey the depth of abiding that is necessary for us to live as the people God intended us to be.

“Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” That, Jesus said, is the way to think about your faith in him; devour him, take him in, let him be the source of a whole new life, the sustenance for which we have been starved. The words he spoke were offensive to those who heard them. If we are honest, they are to us as well. When he spoke these words, most of the people who heard them walked away; his words the breaking point that caused them to leave. They still cause people to leave today.

But those who left missed out on real life. They did not want to be challenged, they did not want to reprioritize their lives, so they got booked down on the semantics and used that as an excuse to walk away. Many today do the same thing, “I love you I love you I love you, but don’t ask me to go to Africa.” “I worship you, but don’t ask me to change ethics about sex, business, culture, money.” The reality, however, is that Jesus does ask us to change our ethics; he asks to change all of us. Sometimes we feel pushed to far and we leave.

The crowds in John 9 felt they were pushed too far, and they all left him; except the 12 – whose lives were changed, and who changed the world. As we take him at his word, as we “eat his flesh and drink his blood,” as die to ourselves and become alive to him, we too are changed. This change is the first step to an awakening where an entire community changes -- the way they drive, finances, how they live, they become different. (Acts 2).

The world is longing for something different, as followers of Jesus we are lounging for something different as well. Jesus did not come to simply make our lives better, but to completely transform them. It takes submission to him, even to what seems to us offensive. The result? He promises us peace, joy, contentment, love, and fulfillment – lives not wasted, a community with the power to bring about healing to both a world and a church looking for something different.

I want a to be a part of that, don’t you?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

A Story In Prayer

[Jesus] looked toward heaven and prayed . . . John 17:1

Jesus’ high priestly prayer, as John 17 is known, is one of the most amazing passages in the entire Bible. His prayer to “Abba,” “Daddy,” his daddy, recorded and preserved for us. His heart and his passion revealed. The beauty, intimacy and interconnectedness of his relationship with God the Father and with us displayed, his hopes for how we connect to him, God the Father and each other expressed. The story of God told by Jesus in prayer.

With Jesus’ words of prayer we hear and see the story of God, a story told with consistency throughout the pages of scripture and throughout the pages of history. Individually and collectively we have been written into this amazing story, a story of God, a story retold by Jesus in prayer:

· A story of God’s glory, flowing mutually in and to Father and Son. (v. 1, 4, 5, 22, 24)
· A story of eternal life, which is knowing God and Jesus (v. 2, 3)
· A story of Jesus’ eternality as God. (v. 5, 24)
· A story of Jesus’ dependence (rhythm of dependence) on the Father (v. 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 21, 23, 24, 25)
· A story of the power of God’s name (v. 11, 12, 15)
· A story of Jesus’ desire for our joy (v. 13)
· A story of Jesus’ plan for us to live as an alternative community (v. 14, 15, 16, 23)
· A story of our nature as a sent people (v. 18)
· A story of God’s desire for our unity (v. 11, 21, 22, 23)
· A story of our need to abide in God (v. 19, 21, 26)
· A story of our true identity as God’s beloved (v. 23, 26)

Do you resonate with this story?
Do you believe this story?
Do you find yourself in this story?
- - - - - - - - -
Do we as a community resonate with this story?
Do we as a community believe this story?
Do we as a community find ourselves in this story?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Abiding In Jesus - The Key To Everything

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:5

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” - John 15:9–12

These past two weeks we have been dwelling on Jesus’ invitation to abide or dwell in him -- in his power, in his person, in his love. Jesus’ promised result: lack of striving for things that can never sustain us, relief from a life of chasing things that can never be caught, peace, joy, and love. I am 100% convinced that irrespective of who you are, what you have achieved or how you would describe your faith, the result Jesus promises is one that 100% of the population longs for. During these two weeks I have heard from a number of people. One person wrote, “I realize more and more as I get older that I can't slide by in life without daily abiding with Jesus, as I face the most difficult task I've ever faced in life--raising a family.” Another commented, “This concept must be the reason why I can honestly say I love my life. Others may look at it say, ‘what a train wreck.’ I really don't see it that way. I have an angst that pulls me to want more, different or better, but I feel I am right where I need to be.”

Abiding in Jesus is the key to everything. But how does one abide in him? How does one go about it? A big part of the answer is through intentional time in his presence. Intentionality takes work -- not earning, but effort. It is not about trying, it is about training, about discipline. Dallas Willard describes discipline as simply “an activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.” Richard Foster says the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. God is the one who does the transformation and it is only by his grace, but we have to be intentional about it. The disciplines as we practice them are the means by which we undergo our transformation.”

Below is a list of disciplines, followed by a list of books. Not every discipline will be life-giving for every person, not every discipline will be life-giving indefinitely. I recommend that you pick two or three and try them regularly for 60 to 90 days.

Here are examples of some disciplines to practice:

Bible (study, reading and prayer); Prayer (active and inactive); Silence; Solitude; Fasting; Serving; Tithing; Sabbath keeping; Music/Worship; Nature; Soul Books; and Journaling.

A few books that might help you:

Prayer, Richard Foster
Celebrations of Disciplines, Richard Foster
Renovations of the Heart, Dallas Willard
The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Jeanne Guyon
The Soul at Rest, Patricia McCary Rhodes

Jesus is inviting you to abide in him, to be planted in his perfect love, in the love of the one who is the author and sustainer of everything. Abiding in him is the key to living the non-distorted life you were meant to live, to creating a non-distorted community you were meant to be a part of, and to a life of non-distorted missionality that will transform you and the world.

It is the key to everything.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Planted, Nourished and Sustained

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:9–12

Jesus described the relationship between him and those who choose to follow him as being like a vine and a branch – he the vine, the root, we the branches, we emerging from him, the source of our existence, growing and receiving our sustenance from him, our vine. Jesus’ words are beautiful and poetic, but they are so much more. They are, in fact, the key to everything; contentment and well-being in every areas of our lives; our marriages, our kids, our friendships, our ministry, our work, our faith, our life and our death – everything.

The reality of the human condition is that each of us looks to things other than Jesus for the source of our happiness, contentment, well-being and sustenance, we ask them to play a role they were never intended to play and in the process distort them even as we ourselves become distorted.

I love my wife; she is my best friend. But if I look to her to be the source of my well-being and contentment, I will either control her so that she will be the person I want her to be, or I will avoid conflict -- even necessary conflict – for fear that my well-being will be threatened. In either event, I will end up looking for her to provide something for me that she was never intended to provide and rather than who she really is, thus burying things that need the cleansing air and light of discussion. If, on the other hand, I look to Jesus for sustenance, to Jesus as the source of well-being, that well-being will not be jeopardized by conflict, and any conflict that there is, will be infused with the peace of God’s never-wavering acceptance and love.

Jesus says, “Remain in me.” Rest, come back when you get disconnected, return, seek, sit in my presence, rest in me, listen, abide. Only then will you will be free to love; free to be the husband, child, friend, minister, teammate, employer, boss . . . that I created and called you to be; freed from the things that claim to be sources of well-being but that in the end cause you to chase, worry and strive; free, because you are connected to me, the source of love and life itself.

It starts and ends with abiding in the vine, abiding in Christ. We move toward abiding by seeking ways that connect us to Jesus; reading the Bible, prayer, silence, giving, singing, fasting, and more (all with an idea of entering the presence of God). It is not a list of how to be a better Christian; rather, it is learning to abide in Jesus, our only hope for contentment, and a worry-free (not problem-free) life. This life is not just possible for every single person, but promised by Jesus himself as we abide in him.

- How’s that going for you today?
- Do you believe that is possible?
- Do you believe that promise?
- Are you connected to God, to the vine? - If not, why not?
- Be honest, do you believe Jesus’ promises in John 15 and elsewhere?
- What could you do to learn to abide in Jesus?
- How have you connected with God in the past?
- How can we, or others, help you do so now.

Let me know your thoughts, share your thoughts with others – we need to share our stories of success and failures so that we can grow together.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

We Are A Living Legacy

I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. - 2 Timothy 1:3–6

The passage above talks about the legacy of faith passed to Timothy from his grandmother and his mother, a gift of God, handed down to a young man by two very important people in his life, and resulting in thankfulness for a man, Paul, awaiting execution in prison; a very powerful legacy.

When was the last time you thought about your legacy? Have you ever done so? When I say, “legacy,” I am referring to the impact you have on others, which goes beyond you; past your control, perhaps past your ability to observe or even know about, maybe even past your life. What is your legacy?

Legacy is not an optional thing, which only some people have. It is something that everybody has, something that is always being created and extended. Within each of us exist pieces of other’s legacy even as we creating pieces that reside in others. And yet, we rarely think about it. Let’s change that. Let’s think about our legacy and be intentional about living into our responsibility toward others and toward our world.

Legacy is a responsibility, both individually and collectively.

- What is your legacy?
- Who is your legacy?
- What is our legacy?
- Who is our legacy?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

This I know . . .

This Sunday we looked at the encounters Jesus had after the resurrection. Why did he appear again? Why not just head back to heaven? After all, He had already died for our sins. He had already risen from the grave and conquered death once and for all. Why hang around for six more weeks and talk to Mary, then the disciples, and then several hundred other people?

Maybe King David’s view of God gives us a hint. In the midst of a life filled with riches and poverty, kingship and shepherding, sin and obedience, victory and defeat – David says these words:

“This I know, that God is for me.” (Ps 56:9 ESV)

Really? God is FOR me? He is on my side? He doesn’t just love me, but He LIKES me? That changes everything! I wrote the following words on my blog on February 9, 2010 (the day I first came across this verse):

David recognizes that God being for him is not just God loving His creation, but God choosing to celebrate His creation.

How differently – more fully, more abundantly, more joyfully, more purposefully, more passionately – you and I would live if this truth permeated our every thought: that the God who created us, who knows us, who sacrificed Himself for us, is for us.

Sit back and soak in that truth for a moment. God celebrates you. God is on your side. God rejoices over you. God wants you. God chooses you. God cherishes you. God is for you.

And now…take a deep breath and say these eight words out loud:

This I know, that God is for me.

How would you live this day differently if you believed that God is with you in every circumstance and for you at every turn?
How does it feel to know that God doesn’t just love you…but He also likes you?

Put it on your bathroom mirror, your computer monitor, your refrigerator door, and your car’s dashboard: This I know, that God is for me. Then spend every minute of every day living under the umbrella of that good news. (Because it happens to be true.)

Alongside,

Keith

It's Not Too Late

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Luke 24:1–6

“He is not here, he has risen.” Six simple words directed to a few broken and disillusioned people; six shocking and confusing words that altered the course of the universe itself. Death seems to be the final act, yet Jesus conquered death and lives in power. In his last moments with the disciples, recorded in Matthew 28, he told them (and us) that all of the power contained in heaven and all of the power contained in earth was his -- all known and unknown power, everywhere. He concludes, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:19)

Resurrection of Jesus is not just a religious tenet, it’s the proof that it’s not too late:

- for God
- for your marriage
- for your kids
- for your job
- for your dream
- for your community
- for you

What if there really is hope for that very thing you had lost hope in? The resurrection says that there is.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Despair, Hope, and a Seemingly Impossible Future

I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” Ezekiel 37:2–6

That, my friends, is one crazy, amazing story. The prophet Ezekiel paints a picture of a macabre, genocidally decorated desert restored to fields teaming with life; bones, dead dry bones encountering the word of the LORD, rattling and moving, each one finding its complimentary part – along with connective tissues, flesh, skin and finally the very breath of God, and with that life.

For you and for me, it might seem just a colorful scene or an odd Biblical passage that we do not know what to do with. But for oppressed people the world over Ezekiel’s picture is a very real reminder that no matter how bad things are, no matter how much death seems to reigns, hope does not die. When American slaves were brutalized, ripped from family, beaten, raped and killed, hope came to them like the flickering light of a candle as they sang:

Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk around;
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk around;
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk around;
Now hear the word of the Lord.

The words of Ezekiel are the cry and the hope of oppressed people everywhere. The reality (though we might try to convince ourselves otherwise) is that there is nowhere you can flee where you will not be able to see the dry bones of oppression. The bones are everywhere; if you look you will see them; God calls you to look and to see and to heal. As followers of Jesus, we are called to simultaneously be broken by a world filled with despair, yet believe in and become agents of hope for a seemingly impossible future.

Where are the dry bones that God wants you to see?

Maybe they are in your neighborhood, maybe they are across town, maybe they are in your house, maybe they are your own bones.

Do you see the valley of dry bones? Do you believe these bones can live? How does God want you and those around you to be agents of hope to make a seemingly impossible future move from a possibility to a reality?

I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

What, Me Evangelize?

One time, Jesus healed a man blind from birth. The man was called before the religious leaders to explain what happened: A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,’” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” - John 9:24–25

Evangelism. The word evokes immediate thoughts and emotions. For some it is passion, for some it is a fear, even guilt. If you have grown up in the Church, you have been told that evangelism is a necessary part of being a Christian – one of the descriptions of the job. Yet most people do not do it.

I think the reason most people don’t do it is because most of us are not “in sales.” You see, somewhere along the line we have set up a false definition of evangelism as essentially learning a pitch, coming up with the courage to deliver the pitch and then looking for folks to deliver it to – neighbors, co-workers, even strangers. For most of us this does not click, it is just, frankly, weird. And so we don’t “do” it, and we feel guilty because we are all supposed to evangelize.

So, what do we do?

First, we need to ditch our preconceived notions of what it means to be an evangelist, and replace it with what I believe is a more accurate one; simply someone who tells good news; someone who tells their story (I am not here speaking of the specific office of evangelist in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, but rather the call for every Christian to be an evangelist). Everybody has a story, and if you are a follower of Jesus, you have instances where God’s story and your story merge. We need to tell our stories.

But evangelism does not start with telling our stories. It starts with listening to others. Do you know the story of your neighbor or co-worker or friend? What if you asked them, with real curiosity and interest, about their story? I think your relationship would deepen, your care for them would deepen, you would find out you have more in common than you thought – with everybody – because everybody has a story. And in the midst of sharing stories, you will get a chance share how you have experienced God, to share about the times that you struggled, and to share about the victories, about the reality of the good news that you have experienced.

Share your thoughts with others and share them with me. If you are interested in exploring this further, one resource is Doable Evangelism.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Everybody Worships

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:1-5

Worship.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “worship?”

Is it an image of a place? A memory? An emotion? A style of music? A person? An experience?

Worship can be a controversial topic; that’s sad. Churches and Church people have fought over worship; that’s really sad. Except, I think people rarely, if ever, actually fight about worship even when they think they are doing so. Instead, when people “fight about worship,” they are actually fighting about quite tangential (though not unimportant) things like styles of music and practices. Worship, you see, is much deeper than what we see on the outside, something worth fighting for, not fighting about.

Worship is an overflowing from what is inside towards something on the outside, something bigger than us. Worship is an overflowing of our emotions, will and intellect towards what we find most valuable in life. Notice I didn’t say God? I said, “Towards what we find most valuable?” You see, everybody, whether they believe in God or not, worships. We all worship what is most valuable to us. And whatever that thing is, it will shape us. We all find our meaning, purpose, security and hope in the object of our worship. Or, to flip it and look at it from the other side, we all worship whatever gives us ultimate meaning, purpose, security or hope. What we worship becomes our god.

Rebecca Pippert, in her book Out of the Salt Shaker, writes, “Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by acceptance. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.”

Do you agree with this statement? Disagree? Does it confuse you? Do you see this played out in your life? If this is true, what do you worship? Do you see yourself being controlled by things that you never intended to give that much power, things like achievement, family, relationships, approval or status?

This is not an academic exercise. This is hugely important. Worship is serious business, with serious consequences in all areas of your life. God gives us many, many good things, but he alone is ultimate. When we worship him, we change and what we value changes to the values of the Kingdom of God, to the values of Jesus, who alone will satisfy us if we get him and forgive us if we fail him.

A 40 Day Counter Cultural Journey

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. John 17:11; 15–16

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent, a 40-day period (46 including Sundays) leading up to Easter. For some of us those words provides no new information. For others, while we understand the words, they represent an experience or practice unfamiliar to us. When you read those words, are you curious, confused, or complacent?

Entering into the season of Lent is a new thing to me. It was not part of the tradition from which I come. So, for me, it is an exciting time to enter more fully and more personally into the story of Easter. It is a time to look at my finitude, my frailty, my pain and even my death, not in a depressive or self obsessed way, but in way that allows me to intentionally step outside of the cultural milieu where these realities are simply not to be dwelt upon. In Lent, we step into those seemingly dark realities, even as we count each day closer to the approaching light of the resurrection, which once upon us tears away the veil of darkness and shouts, “death, where is your sting, death where is your victory?”

I invite you to enter into the season with me and with the community of Creekside Covenant Church. You can choose to give up some things during this period if that helps you enter into the story. Likewise, you can add things in. We have produced a Lenten Devotional if you would like a daily practice of scripture. Think about attending our Ash Wednesday service tonight at 7:00 at Highland Covenant Church. What other ways might you, your friends or family join together in this season of Lent? Whatever you do, do not let it become a legalism, but allow it to be the grace of seeing yourself through different eyes so that you can move more fully into Easter.

Share your ideas with me and with others so that we might all journey together the journey of transformation into disciples of Jesus.

Peace, hope and love

Doug