The Christmas Gift

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2-5a)

The people of God are called to live with the posture of Expectancy - the day of the Lord is coming. 

The people of God are called to live as Exiles - oh come, oh come Emmanuel, and ransom here your people still. Who morn in lonely exile her, until the Son of God appear.

The people of God are called to live as Emissaries - it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, called to Kingdom partnership and participation with the King who  has a uniquely tailored call for you - painted with Justice, mercy and humility; a call that connects your deepest longings with the deepest need of the world. 

If you really understand your call as emissaries it is understandable for you to be both exhilarated and terrified. “Me called to partner with God?” “Who am I?” “Maybe one day when I get my act together, but not now.”

Christmas answers these objections. 

• God choose a peasant Jewish girl, so no parent of privilege could boast “Of course the savior is my son, that only makes sense.” 
• God chose a stable, so no innkeeper could boast, "He chose the comfort of my inn!" 
• God chose a manger, so that no wood worker could boast, "He chose my beautifully made bed!" 
• God chose little Bethlehem, so city could boast, "It was because of the greatness of our city that God chose it!" 
• God chose shepherds, so that no one could boast that they deserved to hear the good news first.

And God chooses you with no regard to the good or bad you have done, but freely and unconditionally, because of his grace, mercy and deep love for you so that you can neither say say, “of course he chose me,” nor “God would never choose me.” He chooses you for amazing things - emissaries of the King -- not because of who you are, but because of who he is.  

It’s the wonderful gift of Christmas.

Peace, Hope and Love

Doug

Expecting Advent Hope

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.” “In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.” Jeremiah 33:14–16

As we enter into Advent we enter into the reality that “the day’s are coming.” Thus has been the posture of the People of God since the fall, “the days are coming,” and in that posture the reality that the days are already here. Here, and yet coming. 

WAITING. REJOICING. SALVATION Now. SALVATION COMING. EXPECTING. 

Earlier this week, I came across a writing on the first week of Advent, HOPE, by my friend Todd Hunter.  Todd writes:  

Throbbing physical pain; fearful financial hardship; anguished heartache coming from the injustice of being wrongly accused—all these are bearable for a moment, a time, and a season—but only when we have hope. Without hope we wither; we crumble. Our confidence is ground to smithereens by relentless cycles of fear.

Our ancient Jewish forefathers and mothers, waiting for the coming of The Messiah, had deep familiarity with the struggle to maintain faith, optimism and hope. Their Psalmist reminded them that, no one who hopes in [God] will ever be put to shame. Their prophets, speaking for God, rekindled anticipation in the hope that the days are coming when [God] will fulfill the good promise [he] made.

We who live between the first and second coming of Jesus know a similar reality. We wonder, sometimes fearfully, what will happen to our lives, our families, our nation, and the world? But as the Psalms and Prophets comforted Israel, Jesus gives us enduring hope, saying: heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Jesus' words were Reality. They remind us of the source of hope: we can be care-less about the despairing anxieties of life through the knowledge that he is care-full in his attention to us.

Advent Practice: be especially attentive this week to the moments when you experience God's care. How might you allow his care to bring hope to the difficult parts of your life?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Just In Time

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6

Five amazing words, “at just the right time.” What an comfort to know the reality that God always acts “at just the right time.” 

Yet so often it seems like God is not on time. So often it feels like he doesn’t know that we need him to act, NOW. “Where is he?” “Doesn’t God know what’s going on?” “Doesn’t God realize this is an emergency?” So often when our lives seem to be spinning out of control we think that God is out of control. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

God is the only one who always acts at just the right time. He existed before time existed. Every person who ever lived does so in a time bound way; each of us born on a specific date, each of us to die on a specific date. Each of us lives today -- a day that Jesus told us has enough trouble to occupy our minds without worrying about tomorrow. 

These constraints of time do not bind God who has no beginning and no end; is not bound by the constraints of time, who entered into time at just the right time, and who moves in perfect time, all the time. 

• How does the reality that God is not bound by time give you confidence that he will act at just the right time?

A Cure For The Pain?

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5

The idea that we should rejoice when we suffer is a hard one to wrap your mind around.  Imagine your dearest friend has just been dealt a deep, deep lose and is suffering greatly. Do you go to them and say, “cheer up?” No, of course not. And here, in this passage, Paul is not telling us to “cheer up.” Later in the letter, he says that we should  rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn -- a theology of presence that meets people where they are. So, how can we imagine rejoicing when we suffer?

The quick answer is that there is no quick answer. Rejoicing in suffering is not a switch that you mentally flip on and off. It is, like all of transformation, a process. That said, the reality is that most often it is only when things are going bad that we gain perspective on what is important. When we suffer, our souls cry out in search of hope, and as we cry out we meet God in ways that may not possible without that soul cry. We suffer, we cry out for God, we taste and see his goodness -- even in the midst of the unexplained and unwanted pain. And though he is there, we still suffer, but in his presence we receive the strength to persevere as our character is shaped more into one resembling his, one that always hopes even as it grieves. 

• Are you currently in a season of suffering? 
• Have you been in one in the past? 
• Or, have you been graced so far to avoid such a season? 
• In all of these, where do you find God? 

God is there, rejoicing with you when you rejoice, mourning with you when you mourn, offering hope, and the peace that transcends our ability to understand it. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Worship: A Gift of Grace from God

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1–2

Many years ago I was at a church conference where each person was asked to go off alone and answer the question: How do you worship? And then, to come back and share our responses with the others. 

They gave us 20 minutes to write up our answers. I was at a loss. How do I worship? Well, that wasn’t going to take 20 minutes. My definition of worship at that time did not really move beyond the singing that was done at church before and after the sermon. When we re-gathered, I heard responses far, far broader than my definition. Could all of these things be worship? For me, worship was so small; it began to grow that day. Hopefully, it will continue to grow until the day that I die. 

Worship is central to who we are as followers of Jesus. Worship is central to both the life of the Church and the mission of the Church. John Piper says, I believe correctly,  “missions exist because worship doesn’t.” God’s desire for people is that they become worshipers of him. When we see God, we worship him. It is very hard to worship God if we do not see him, and so many things block our vision. 

I shared the below quote about worship this past Sunday. Take some time to read it through slowly a few times. As questions arise, sit with them. Do you agree with what he says? What surprises you? Where are you challenged? How do you worship? How can you grow in worship, individually and corporately. What does that look like practically? 

"Worship derives from “worth-ship” and it means giving God all He’s worth.Worship is humble and glad; worship forgets itself in remembering God; worship celebrates the truth as God’s truth, not its own. True worship doesn’t put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn’t forced, isn’t half-hearted, doesn’t keep looking at its watch, doesn’t worry what the person in the next pew may be doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark. Worship will never end; whether there be buildings, they will crumble; whether there be committees, they will fall asleep; whether there be budgets, they will add up to nothing. For we build for the present age, we discuss for the present age, and we pay for the present age; but when the age to come (Christ’s return) is here, the present age will be done away. Worship is nothing more nor less than love on its knees before the beloved." 

- N.T. Wright

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Gambling on a "Sure Thing."

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

Abraham has always been a beacon of courage for me. The above verse has always been a strength. I think of the uncertainty that faced Abraham, the fear that he must have felt everything he knew for nothing that he did, yet doing so because he knew God was with him. I’ve been on that journey more times than I would have chosen, stepping out and hoping that God would meet me there. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that “against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.” Abraham was an old man -- retirement age -- married to a wife unable to have kids when God told him he would be a father of many nations, calling him to leave the known for the unknown, the voice of God whispering “trust me.” 

He hoped against hope because It was hopeless. But God had promised.

He hoped against hope because It was hopeless. But he knew God was good. 

He hoped against hope. But it was really really hopeless. 

You see, that is where the tension is. He didn’t know the how; he didn’t know the details, how it would end up for him. What if he made a mistake? What if God did not deliver? Hope is most hope when it is against hope. If it is a sure thing, if you can do it whether God “shows up” or not, where is hope required? 

As a pastor one of my greatest desires is for every single person to step when called into a place where if God does not show up they will be in trouble. I want them to listen, to ask God the what and the where, and then, when God provides an opportunity, to step, to trust, to hope against hope and to move; and to meet God in a more amazing way than they ever imagined. Yet most people wait and wait for a sure thing. Sure thing hope, however, never works. Either we get a sure thing and step out in “faith” only to quickly explaining away God’s role. Or, we never are presented with anything sure enough and so we never step. Either way we lose. 

“By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” He could have said no. He could have waited for a guarantee or greater certainty. But he didn’t wait, he went. And in the process he came to know God in an amazing way and was used by him to bless the whole world. 

Where is God calling you to go? What are you waiting for?

Gaining Power and Freedom Over Regret

Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them. Romans 4:7-8

We all have regrets; either regret from something we did, or regret from from something we did not do. 

What is your greatest regret? Take a moment and think through the answer to that question. Consider writing your answer down on a piece of paper. Name your regret. You see, the power to name is the power to own. If you name your regret, you own it. If you own your regret you have a choice about what to do with it. An unnamed regret owns you. 

Can you name your regret?  

The evil one wants you to be shackled by regret, to be named and defined by it. Satan wants you to be made incapable of living the life God has for you because you are trapped in the past by regret. But God want’s you free, free to embrace the fullness and wholeness the life you we were created to live. The Apostle Paul writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

Often we choose to live with regrets because we think we should. We think it’s the right thing to do—that it is our duty before God — that somehow regret and repentance are the same thing. They are not. Repentance is a recognition and response to God who in his grace has show us that there is a better way, a way of freedom, a way of the Kingdom of God. And, that this way is available to us right now. 

The Kingdom of God is regret-free. God’s invitation freedom from regrets. The pathway, naming your regrets, owning them, giving them to God and then moving on. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Against All Hope

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,  being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18–21)

“Against all hope.” Those are interesting words. I have personally been in that place where the day to day seemed “against all hope,” a place and a season where hope seemed far off or absent? Many of you have been there or are there now. I have come to see that it is precisely in these times where the mystery of hope becomes a reality, since hope at times where everything is going well is in some ways not really needed. The questions come, “what does it look like to hope against hope.” “What does it look like if hope is not even imaginable and must be brought to you by others who have been given the grace to hope against hope.” 

This past Sunday at Creekside was Hope Sunday -- a time for each of us to take on the mantle of hope, to be bringers of hope to people living in hopelessness in Congo. We watched a video that gave us a glimpse of both the darkness and the opportunity, the hopelessness and the hope for Congo. In that video, Curt Peterson of Covenant World Mission says in the video, “I weep for the children who are on the edge of life and death. It is not their fault. And they have no power to get beyond that edge to safety. They are vulnerable, invisible and God calls us to the least of these.” I share those sentiments, I share that belief. 

At this moment, our church and our denomination have been given an amazing opportunity. Through our trust in God, our joining together and our partnership with World Vision we have the ability to actually bring hope -- tangible, practical, life saving hope -- to people, against all hope. We have the opportunity to enter into the sweet spot of God’s heart for the least, the lost and the left behind, to change the world and to be changed in the process. The gateway for us in doing this is child sponsorship. This past Sunday we were all given a picture of a child from this region and asked to pray about sponsoring them, to pray about the region and to pray about our partnership. Though we already sponsor a child, Kelly and I entered Sunday with the intention to sponsor one of these children. We left sponsoring two. 

How has God been speaking to you this process? What has he been saying? Ask that you might hear him. Think about what you hear.  Check out the Covenant and the World Vision sites. 

I hope that you will join me in sponsoring a child. In doing so you will both bless that child, but also enter a partnership of hope that is bigger than the individual children, but that comes to us through them.

Peace, hope and love

Doug  

The Gift

This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.  We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. (Romans 4:16–17 The MESSAGE)

I enjoyed listening to the message that Pastor Rick Hampton gave at Creekside this past Sunday. I loved his illustrations driving home the point made in the passage above. So many of us have spent way too long trying to pay for what God freely gives; carrying heavy things around, things that God never intended for us to have to carry. 

God is an inviter, continually inviting us to live into the reality of his free and pure gift of goodness and right standing, righteousness, adoption, salvation, peace, freedom -- from him and through him. As amazing as his gift is, I think practically we so often leave it unclaimed and unopened, not realizing in our actual lives the reality of our salvation. We choose to carry weights of earning, obligation or regret. Jesus wants us to be free form all of that. 

What weights are you carrying that you should not be?

• something from your past?
• a current facade that takes energy to maintain?
• a sense of obligation or earning that God requires for you to truly belong? 

What would it look like to be free from that the weight?  

It is not your weight to carry. As the passage above put it, “the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift.” 

Accept it, open it and enjoy it.   

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Freed

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)

What does the righteousness of God mean to you? Not how do you would describe it, or what it means theologically, but what it means you today in the actual life you live?

The good news of a righteousness from God is the good news of a whole new reality in Christ. Not merely a theological reality but a practical one; not something that is observed merely intellectually or spiritually but that is owned deep within and expressed in tangible ways.

Freed to Move Toward the Margins

An we live into the reality that our righteousness (our goodness) comes from God and not from the things we do, we will be freed to move with compassion and mercy wherever God leads us. We will be freed to move in love toward the very person, cause or concern from which we would normally pause due the judgementalism and prejudice that exist in each of us. We will be freed to  truly love our enemy because we recognize that the qualities which make them our enemy are qualities that but for the grace of God we share.

Freed to Live Beyond My Limitations

Conversely, as we live into this reality, we are freed to move into areas that in ourself we believe are off limits -- to high, too lofty, too big. Each of us engages, on some level, in negative talk: “I’m not good enough for that,” “I don’t know enough do do that,” “I could not really make a difference there.” As we internalize the reality that goodness comes from God, we are freed into the reality that there is no good that we cannot strive towards.

In a word, the gospel sets us free. Free to live into the reality where we can say, “I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but, through Jesus, I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope.”

Peace, hope and love


Doug

Living In Reality

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless;  there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Romans 3:12-18

What evil are you capable of? What evil are we as a people capable of?

The second question is easier to answer because it is someone removed from ourselves, and because we see the answer on the evening news every day. The first question is more personal, it’s you, it’s me. What evil am I capable of? The question itself can offend. And yet the reality is that the evil that society is capable of is conceived in and delivered by individuals first. it is conceived and implemented by individuals, but by me? No. I have my problems, but I could never do evil. Or could I?

In the passage from Roman's, above, Paul paints a bleak portrait of humanity -- macro and micro -- societal and individual. What do I make of that? What do you make of that? In the early 20th Century, a British magazine solicited prominent people to submit essays answering the question” What’s wrong with the world.” Author G.K. Chesterton submitted the shortest: “Dear Sir: Regarding your article ‘What's Wrong with the World?' I am.” How would you respond to that question? How do you see yourself in the puzzle of the problems of the world. The answer to this question is at the heart of the gospel. A realistic understanding of ourselves “in ourselves” and ourselves ‘in Christ” leads to a freedom giving realization that that we are actually weaker and more sinful than we ever before believed, but, through Jesus, we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope. With that realization, we no longer have to answer the question "am I good enough?" Instead we can move with the reality of the goodness from God full speed into a life of partnership with him in all the realities of our everyday life.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Invited Into the Real You

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 Msg

Oh how attractive Jesus’ invitation to discipleship. Very different I think from how we so often think of it. Jesus is always inviting us to follow him into a way of life that, rather than diminishing who we are, brings into fullness the reality of who we were always meant to be. 

Read the words in the passage from Matthew, above. Imagine you are with Jesus and he is speaking these words specifically to you. 

• How does his invitation make you feel? 
• What does it look like for you to move toward his invitation? 
• What is your next step?

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Remember

Remember is an important word in the Bible. 

After the flood, God promised Noah that he would remember his covenant with his people, using a rainbow as tangible marker, a reminder of his faithfulness. (Genesis 9:15) God tells the people of Israel to remember the horrible slavery that they endured in Egypt, not so as to cultivate bitterness, but to be freed through the wonder that it was God who delivered them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. (Deut 5:15) Much of the book of Deuteronomy is a sermon by Moses to a suffering people who were moving into a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, a time of blessing. He knew the human heart and the ease with which it can forget God’s goodness and grace -- especially when things are going well. And so, Moses writes: 

Be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.  Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,  and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  (Deuteronomy 8:9–14)

Not very long after that admonition from Moses, life got easy for the people and they forgot. God, through the prophet Hoses laments "When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me." (Hosea 13:6)  

Remembering is an important practice for us as the people of God. It is dangerous not to remember; “take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. (Deuteronomy 4:9)  

This past Sunday we took time to pause and remember the ways that we saw and experienced God this past year at Creekside. If you missed it, you can listen to the sermon here. You can also read the Annual Report and remember with us. As a people of God we live moment by moment in his grace. Remembering how he has been with us in the past gives us the courage to move into the future he has for us.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Surrender, Grace, Freedom

What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?  Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”  But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)  Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?  Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”  Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved.  Romans 3:3–8

One of the fascinating things about studying the book of Romans is the juggling of, and appreciation for, both the uniqueness of the context of first century Judaism and the applicability for us today. The passage from this past Sunday (above) was just the most recent example of this. While Paul is responding to explicitly Jewish criticism, it is not hard for us to find ourselves right there with them. You see, at the heart of their criticism was a heart that wanted to be in control of their “faith.” At the heart of their rebellion was a heart that wanted to dictate what God could and could not do; what he could and could not require of them. Like I said, we are right there with them so much of the time.

If we -- even implicitly -- believe that we somehow have earned our way to God, then he can never ask move of us than we want to give. It is a negotiated bargain, if we lived up to our end, God has to live up to his, and cannot require more from us without renegotiation. The problem is that grace does not work that way -- thankfully.  We are saved by grace as a free gift from God, we give nothing but ourselves, we trust God with ourselves and in the process discover real freedom and peace. Grace is not a negotiation. Grace is free. 

It is free, but it is costly. While we cannot do anything to earn it or to pay it back, it cannot be fully received without surrender. Surrender is the key that unlocks grace. When you read “surrender,” hear “acceptance.” Surrender seems so hard because we see look at it as a losing of something. In reality it is a gaining of something. Surrender in this context is an acceptance of God’s grace. Acceptance of God’s grace requires surrender of the things in our lives that are opposed to grace. Each of us have in our lives these grace opposing things, these earning things, these things that we have to do to “be ok inside or with God.” 

• What are the grace opposing things in your life? 
• Write down the grace opposing things -- give them a name. 
• Pray over these things as you give them up to God.
• Check back to the list and continue to give them up -- they may have owned you for a long time, it will take some time to be rid of them. But, as they decrease, you will find yourself increasingly living into grace and freedom. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

The Story of the People of God

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:10-13

I love reading The Message Paraphrase, not just the Bible portions but the introductions as well. In his introduction to the Gospel of Matthew, Eugene Peterson writes:

The story of Jesus doesn't begin with Jesus. God had been at work for a long time. Salvation, which is the main business of Jesus, is an old business. Jesus is the coming together in final form of themes and energies and movements that had been set in motion before the foundation of the world. 

Matthew opens the New Testament by setting the local story of Jesus in its world historical context. He makes sure that as we read his account of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we see the connections with everything that has gone before….

Better yet, Matthew tells the story in such a way that not only is everything previous to us completed in Jesus, we are completed in Jesus. Every day we wake up in the middle of something that is already going on, that has been going on for a long time, genealogy and geology, history and culture, the cosmos—God. We are neither accidental nor incidental to the story. We get orientation, briefing, background, reassurance. 

Matthew provides the comprehensive context by which we see all God's creation and salvation completed in Jesus, and all the parts of our lives—work, family, friends, memories, dreams—also completed in Jesus. Lacking such a context, we are in danger of seeing Jesus as a mere diversion from the concerns announced in the newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus should not -- he really cannot -- be disconnected from any areas of our lives, he forms and informs each of them. Neither can our faith in Jesus be disconnected from the story of the Old Testament people of Israel, it forms and informs us. Their story is our story; it is their story into which we have been grafted (Romans 11:17). As we continue on in our study of Romans, we will regularly see the intertwining of the story of the People of God -- now and then. As we do so, it is my hope that you will read the Old Testament with an even greater appreciation for your cousins and predecessors in the story. 

How do you think that might happen for you? How do you read the Old Testament now? Do do you see relevance for your story? How does that change when you think of your story as being added onto (or grafted) backwards into the great stories of the chosen people who preceded you?

Share your thoughts - with me and with others. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Being Preceded Doing

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:11-12

Last Sunday our journey through Romans brought us to Paul’s challenge to the Jewish people that the circumcision which marked their covenant with God was useless unless it was preceded and accompanied with a changed heart. It is the heart that must first be transformed, the behaviors then flow from that transformation; the being precede the doing. 

Why do you exist? Take a second and sit with that question. What is the purpose for God creating you? Take a minute and write it down. 

Once you have come up with something, click here. 

Hypocrisy and Freedom

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” Luke 12:1–3

When people inside or outside of Christianity think about Jesus, they generally think of him as a pretty easygoing guy; loving, accepting, encouraging. While that is generally true, there is one group of people to whom Jesus spoke pretty harshly: hypocrites, those who say one thing and do another. The word hypocrite is used 24 times in the New Testament, 20 times by Jesus, and each of the times with very strong language. Jesus hates hypocrisy, because hypocrisy is a cancer that grows, a yeast which leavens beyond our ability to control it.

God can deal with our doubts, confusion, stumbling, seeking – any number of things. God will meet us in them and engage with us where we are, while he seeks to draw us more and more fully towards himself. In order for him to do so, we need to be honest with ourselves and with him. There is nothing that he cannot do, no problem that he will not enter into with us, no problem that he does not know more about than we ourselves know. It is, frankly, foolishness to live a life of hypocrisy, essentially burying our heads in the sand, wearing a mask that hides who we truly are, and hoping that somehow God will be fooled as well.

If we are honest, we all have areas of our lives that do not align with who we say we are or want to be. Some have bigger areas, some have smaller, but we all have them. In the dark these areas grow in size, strength, and control. In the light, they lose their strength and we become free of their control.

• Is there an area in your life that has more power over you than you ever intended it to have?
• Is there an area in your life where your actions do not align with who you really are?
• Do you feel trapped? 

Jesus is the light and the power that frees us from the things that entangle us. Most often he uses other people to shine the light and free us from the darkness.

• Can you think of anybody who might play that role in your life?
• Is there someone you can ask to help you get unstuck?

 Invite God and invite others into the places. You are not alone in this, each of us needs others

 to truly be free in Christ.

 Peace, hope and love

 

 Doug

The Outworking of Grace

In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. (Romans 1:17) God will give to each person according to what he has done. (Romans 2:6) It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9) Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

It is a hard task for many of us to reconcile the duel realities presented in the Bible: 

1. We are saved the grace of God, not by anything that we have done or will do; and, 
2. We will be judged by what we do. 

On Sunday I asked folks if they had ever struggled with how to reconcile the seemingly  different messages found in these passages. The near universal nods indicated that most had. 

So, which is it? Do we need to do good deeds or works in order to be saved? Or, are we saved by Christ’s work alone, regardless of what we have done. The answer really is quite simple. We are saved by what Christ has done, period, end of discussion. And the things we do from a heart transformed by Christ are the evidence that we have appropriated what he has done, the evidence that we are indeed his. 

Let's go back to the basics: What is the goal of Christianity? It is not a trick question. The goal of Christianity is Chris. As we seek after him and get to know him more fully, we long to spend time with him, to do the things that bring us close to him and that reveal his heart in us. Jesus is not a means to an end, he is the means and the end. Jesus is not a ticket to go to heaven that we “accept” and then we hold until we need it for the afterlife. Rather he is the end, heaven is about Jesus our King and our life with him in his Kingdom, hear in the now, and forever when we die. Jesus is the means, he purchased our way into a restored relationship with him and he empowers a life that moves toward the way of his Kingdom, lived in and with him. This way of being, the things we do as citizens of his Kingdom, do not earn our status as citizens, but reveal that we are indeed citizens. 

On Sunday I mentioned the story in 1 Kings where two woman asked King Solomon to decide between them who was the true mother of a child. (Read 1 Kings 3:16–27 if you are not familiar with the story). When King Solomon threatened to take his sword and split the child in half, giving each woman a piece, the reaction of the true mother -- her action -- revealed to him the true relationship. It was not that the woman became the mother by her actions, but rather that her actions revealed that she was indeed the mother all along. It is like that with our works, deeds or behaviors. They do not make us fit for an eternity with Christ, they reveal whether such an eternity is really what we desire -- or, tragically, if we are just going through the motions.  So, what do you do with this? 

• Do you see evidence in your life that indicate allegiance to God? 
• Do you allow yourself to be shaped by him? 
• Do you ever make decisions that but for the reality of Christ would not make sense? 

If the answer to these questions is no, the invitation is a simple one. It is not do do more, but to seek more. The solution is to draw near to Christ, to his ways, to his life in you. If you do not know how to go about that, let me know. We are all on the Journey with Jesus together, it is a journey toward life, and it was meant to be traveled together.

Peace, hope and love,

Doug

Desperate for God

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?  Psalms 42:1–2

I don’t know about you, but when I read the beginning verses of Psalm 42, a song comes to mind. If you are like me, that song will now be stuck in your mind for the rest of the day. You’re welcome.

Weather you like the song or not, have even heard it or not, the psalm which it quotes in an interesting one. The song is melodic and slow, peaceful; almost like a scene from Bambi – lush forest and flowing streams. The sentiment of the psalmist is far different than that. The idea of the writer of the psalm is desperation, drought and desert; A deer dying of thirst, longing to find a source of water, panting, searching to find the life saving drops of a stream. The psalmist is painting a picture of his soul, desperate, panting, thirsting for God.

I an convinced that few of us rarely thirst for God that way. I believe few of us seek the presence of God with desperation. When life circumstances go bad, when we get to the end of our rope, we often find ourselves there, but short of that, the busyness, stresses, concerns and distractions of each day leave no room for desperately longing for more of God.   

These past couple weeks in our study of Roman’s we have heard Paul’s words about the wrath of God toward evil and of the sin that so permeates all of our lives. These words are not intended to make us “feel bad,” but to invite us into a better way, a fuller way. That may sound odd, but the reality is that we simply cannot understand the amazing gift of grace and life that God has freely given us if we do not understand the depth of our brokenness, the consequences of our sin and the need for daily need for that grace. We need to see our sin -- and the corresponding grace on God's part -- in order to be desperate for Jesus, to experience the righteousness that is from God and be desperate for it, because it is not in us through ourselves. Desperation for Jesus changes us; it causes us to "pant" for him. It causes us to long for him. It causes us to seek him. It causes us to worship him and to experience the joy, peace and freedom that is found in him. God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."(Jeremiah 29:13)

- Are you desperate for Jesus?

- Have you been desperate in the past?

- Take an inventory today of every time you seek your way and not God’s.

- When you realize your sin, think about the reality that God sees you as perfect and holy because of what Jesus did.

- Consider taking some time each night this week to walk prayerfully inventory your connection with God each day. Here is a tool to help you do that called the prayer of Examen which I think you will find useful. 

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and experiences. Talk to others about them as well. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

The Amazing Love and Justice of God

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. - Romans 5:8–9

This past Sunday I preached on the wrath of God, a topic that generally does not get people out of bed to arrive early to church. And yet, it is a very important topic, a very important reality, one that is so often misunderstood and miscommunicated.  During my sermon I shared the words of another pastor that bothered me, they still do. The pastor told his congregation, “Gods wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the bible. If you have a bucket of verses that say love, I have a bucket of verses that say wrath, and the wrath one is a bigger bucket, deal with it.” Those words bothered me so much because like so many wrong things that get said about God they are on the unexamined surface true yet at the root of who God is, so devastatingly wrong. 

God does have wrath, many verses make that clear. But God is love. God gets angry, but God is merciful. God is not defined by his wrath, but is defined by (and his wrath is set within the context of) who he is. The Bible tells us that God is:

God. Merciful. Mighty. Great. Holy. True. Righteous. Faithful. An everlasting Rock. King of all the earth. 

For us. Our refuge. Our strength. Our helper. Our salvation. God is light, and God is love. 

The Bible also tells us that God has wrath, that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18) The wrath of God is real a real thing, that is not a defect in God’s personality, but an outflowing of the perfection of his personality, the outflowing of perfection at the evil that corrupts the world -- the evidences of that corruption so visible around us every day (poverty, war, hatred, divorce, murder, robbery, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction, the list goes on and on). And so could I, far more than the space allotted. 

If you were not at Creekside on Sunday, listen to the sermon You Will Surely Die (it should be available shortly). Ponder the seemingly antithetical and actually beautiful coexistence of God’s love and wrath. Ponder the wonderful words of Paul, -- God’s active and intentional love and sacrifice saving us from God’s righteous wrath. It is an amazing and complex reality. 

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8–9)

Peace, hope and love

Doug