JeeP's Adventures

JeeP (coming through the office door): "Daddy, you're my friend."

Me: "Ah, thanks JeeP. You're my friend, too, and I'm sure glad you are!"

I stretched out my hand to him, which usually gets a running jump into my arms, but this time, he took my my right hand in his right hand and shook it like a little man.

Wow... now that's livin!

The Passion

One-thousand, nine-hundred, and seventy-nine years ago today, Christ began His day knowing that He would end it with His final earthly celebration of Passover. Knowing it would be followed by painful prayer, unjust arrest, beatings, and His own crucifixion.

This morning, our family attended morning prayers at the church I am blessed to pastor. It was early and the kids were dressed and ready, but wrapped up in their favorite blankets and holding their favorite stuffed animals as we drove to church. About half-way there, I began to tell them why we were all going together this time. You see, they are used to me going every Thursday, as our church makes this a regular practice, but normally, they are fully engaged in getting ready for school, the day, and just generally being kids. But today, we all got up and drove together.

And so I began to tell the kids about what happened today those many years ago. Jordan asked how I knew it was that many years, and I told her something that was sobering to me even as I said it, "because we know the exact day when Jesus died to pay for our sins," I said, "and we know the exact day when He rose again from the dead." It came out easy enough, but struck me as it did.

Had I consciously considered lately that the events of the Christ are not fictional, not dramatized beyond reality, not conformed to myth after all these years? Have I lived in such a way as to practice the historical reality, the datable fact, that Jesus, who is the Christ, died an absolutely undeserved death so that I would not have to pay the deserved price for my own disobedience to God? How easy it is to consider the acts of love and passion of Almighty God toward we rebellious men, and somehow neglect to practice the presence of that reality.

ONE-THOUSAND, NINE-HUNDRED, and SEVENTY-NINE years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man, died on a Roman cross, at the neglect of a Roman Governor, at the demand of the people of God, so that all men, women, and children, might have the opportunity to be forgiven, and in so being, be restored to a life of service relationship with Almighty God who created us.

On this day, tonight those many years ago, He was arrested by the priests He ordained, betrayed by one of His own disciples, and tried before a kangaroo court in an abomination of the laws and precepts He established for His holy people. He did this willingly. He did this by choice. There is no myth which could be greater than the reality.

Tonight we commemorate His sweat of blood in the garden; we remember the betrayal and arrest and marvel as He healed the ear which Peter severed off the soldier there to arrest his Lord; and we enter into a night of prayer because to sleep a full and deep night's sleep on the night where-upon Jesus was so cruelly tortured is somehow just not right.

In my weakness tonight, I know that I will sleep... and it is His grace which buys me the peace upon which I rest. But for a few hours, I will keep watch with you; and in communion with the Saints who walked with the Christ, seek to keep watch if only for a time.

May my life be more worthy of His blood than it was yesterday; for today, we remember.

Peace of Christ to you all!

John

Exhaustion

Its one of my favorite feelings to love and hate... exhaustion!

Friday (day off) was spent running all over town getting things ready for the fish fry Saturday at the church, preceded by passing out just under a thousand door hangers in the community for Easter, followed by two services, a rehearsal, and a seminar Sunday morning, and finished off with redesigning the worship center and hosting a women's event for just under a hundred ladies... exhaustion. It begs the question, "WHY?!" The cool thing for me is, there is a really good answer.

The first part of that answer came around when I was just a boy. I'll never forget sitting in my fifth grade classroom as the teacher assigned a one page essay on the subject, "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up". Immediately, I began to daydream about dressing out in buckskin, and venturing off to begin my life as a mountain man! Yes, my head and my heart were filled with dreams of hunting and fishing and living off the land. But in those moments, the Holy Spirit spoke three words to me which changed my life, "Preach the Gospel". I remember it like it was yesterday, and after a weekend like this one was, it feels good to have lived out the mandate of those words.

The second part of the answer sleeps next to me at night. Penny & I fell in love working to proclaim the Gospel of Christ together. Each time we come to a weekend like this, its like the clock rolls back and we fall in love all over again. Over the weekend, as we ran at break-neck speed, we looked at each other with quirky little smiles as the wrinkles and the grey (all on me, of course) fell away. We told our kids the stories of our love and life and how we met and fell in love; and in those moments, exhaustion was cured by simple happiness.

The Gospel proclaimed, sung about, prayed over, and deep fried with the catfish, now I can be exhausted. I hate hitting the wall, but the race to exhaustion is on the pathway to success, to the fulfillment of an old command, and the privilege of a timeless love.

By tomorrow I'll be rarin' to go again, and its a good thing, because in just a few days we celebrate Easter... from Thursday to Sunday its almost non-stop action; and why would you want it any other way!

As I look in the mirror I notice that most of my wrinkles are smile lines, and that almost every grey hair in my beard has the story of a good battle behind it... and I think, "What more could I ask for?"

Pax Christi!

John

Thoughts on Passion Week

The amazing element of Passion Week is not just passion, but the passion of God. It is the Essence of Love Itself moving toward It's desired goal from which It would not be deterred... and that movement bought us everything!

Question of the Day - 16 March 2010

March 16, 2010

Question: Is Simeon Giving a Blessing or a Prophecy in Luke 2?

Great Question! Often times, the idea of a Biblical blessing is actually couched within the form of a prophecy. This is to say that the blessing of realizing God's plan for the anointed life is recognized, embraced, and celebrated.

Notice within the celebration of Simeon, that we find both great and daunting prophecy. First, we find that Jesus is appointed both for the rise and the fall of many. Second, that He is to be a sign which will be opposed. Thirdly, that a sword will pierce the soul of Mary His Mother; and finally, that through Jesus the thoughts of many hearts, evidently referring to secret thoughts, will be revealed. Now I don't know about you, but that sounds like a mixed bag of positives and negatives.

The blessing of following God is to be embraced and celebrated notwithstanding the struggles of that life. In our modern culture, we often yearn for the easy life, but this is rarely the path of God. A life of obedient service, the honor to serve, is the blessing.

What an amazing God we serve Who modeled this for us personally!

Pastor John

Question of the Day - 11 March 2010

March 11, 2010

What's up with the ground swallowing people?

In today's reading in Numbers 16, we find a group of prominent men from the tribe of Levi leading a coup against Moses and Aaron. The Levites were the tribe to which the non-priestly duties of worship had been ascribed, and evidently they didn't think that they should be excluded from the "cool", or more important stuff.

Moses invites them to come the next morning and give it a shot... to bring censors with burning incense to the entrance of the tent of meeting and just let God decide. It is worth noting that God does not depart from His design or settled determination.

In verse 32, then, we find the ground opening up and swallowing the entire households of the three ring-leaders of this coup. OUCH!

Here's the deal... God expects us to follow His design, to be massively flattered by the compliment of whatever service He allows us to perform, and to not be "ladder climbers" in the Kingdom.

In Texas there's a saying, "Don't mess with Texas!"... well, you might well walk away from this story with a very similar and simple message, "Don't mess with God!"

Pastor John

In the Fire-Light

In the fire-light is clarity. There is the quiet crackle of burning wood as the escaping gasses cast orange to purple flames across the canvas of my defragmenting mind. Add the presence of my children sharing cheese crackers with their Daddy, and my bride joining the fun, and all is right in the world if even for an hour.

There are so many things to remember from that hour, and I chase the details within my mind because I know that I am destined to forget the most of them. But the smell, the sense of peace and fulfillment, the look of my children as they bring competing gifts of crackers to me, the quiet of not worrying about anything and being at rest... these I am determined to remember.

My little girl asked me why God gave us fire tonight... I think, for me, those are a few of the reasons.

And those are my thoughts tonight after the fire-light.

Pax Christi,

John