prayer request update

My boss, Daniel, with the finger that doesn't work because all the tendons ruptured playing basketball got some awesome news today. The surgeon not only thinks it will heal but he thinks it will heal without surgery! That's a major shift from when it happened and there were fears he would be stuck with a limp ring finger from here on out. Pretty cool answer to prayer. He gets to wear a splint thing for a while and it should heal just fine.

If God is so burning bush how can he be dancing like that?

I think I think a lot.

I lead worship all the time; seems like I'm always using music as a tool to help people connect with Jesus. So I'm thinking about worship in light of several conversations I've had lately about Calvinism and Arminianism, centered around how it seems like the Free Will crowd (Arminians) don't really pay much attention to how upset the Predestiantion crowd (Calvin) seem to be over the Free Will crowd's seeming lack of interest in the Sovereignty of God (They are very interested by the way) and how that seems to make the Calvin crowd even more upset. Complicated? Like I said, I think a lot. And it's not my point so I don't want you to hang out there very long. Here's my deal. I think it's "both and", meaning I think people who insist on God only predestining people to know him or folks who go the other way and say it's all free will both miss the point. It's both. Try looking at both sides of a quarter at the same time. Pretty much can't and see each side clearly, right?

But I digress. I was talking about worship. I think. Or quantum mechanics.

Anyway, God describes Himself in different places in the Bible as Sovereign Lord and King of kings. He is Ruler and Judge and Creator. Mighty and Powerful. From everlasting to everlasting. The first and the last. The one at whose throne every knee will bow. And that's just a few of them off the top of my head. But you get the idea. He is wholly different from us, which is what Holiness means. Righteous. Just. Jealous. Victorious. Warrior. A strong tower.

That sounds pretty harsh. Like a King should be. Immense and powerful. Kings are standoffish. Common people don't get to meet the King. At least not normally. Those who do must enter with reverence and awe and often had a specific way to show respect as they came into the Throne room. Maybe kneeling or bowing or something. You were definitely reverent and on your best behavior in your best clothes. If you didn't the King might just kill you for it.

I think a lot of people see God like this. Unapproachable. So not like us. So burning bush and fire and brimstone.

But then God describes Himself as a Father. Intimate and kind. Compassionate. Slow to anger and abounding in love. Rich in mercy. Prince of Peace. Loving. Full of Grace. Forgiving. Gentle. He sings and dances for joy over you and I. His thoughts about just one person outnumber the grains of sand on the beach. He is all about reconciliation - He is in the business of fixing relationships. Jesus got right down into the dirt of life with his friends. So not like a King. Yet so like a Father. Where it's safe to be yourself, faults and all. To be honest about how you feel and what you think - like you can with family.

I think a lot of people see God like this. Wholly approachable. Like us because Jesus lived on earth like us. So perfect yet so accepting and approachable for the rest of us who are completely not.

So which is it?

Both and.

Which raises my question for worship. How do you lead people to meet and spend time with Jesus and do it in a way that includes all of who God describes Himself to be? The Incredibly Holy and Perfect King of kings and Lord of lords who is truly beyond our comprehension but who is also a loving, intimate Savior who tells us to come as we are boldly before the Throne of Grace.

I think your perspective on the first confusing bit influences how you answer this confusing bit. Calvinists seem to love the Old Testament flair for Holiness and Judgment while Arminians seem to be all about Grace and Love. And both seem to think the other side is missing out because they lack what they have. And they're both right. Both are missing out and it comes out in how we do worship. We end up lopsided in how we represent Jesus and that impedes our understanding of God and that messes with how we connect with Jesus.

So what is worship about? I think it's not just an experience of something. If all we have is an experience that feels spiritual we don't have much. I felt spiritual once just from being up for too many hours in a row. I love a quote by James Torrence and just cannot get away from it - "More important than your experience of Christ is the Christ of your experience." So what happens if we include both sides, as it were, of God; both sides of the quarter? Few bridge the dichotomy. But if we don't we risk misrepresenting Jesus by not revealing in worship as many facets of Him as we possibly can.

Both and.

That's why I'm curious what you think because maybe I just think too much.

But I doubt it.

Strange gift for injury

So a good friend of mine, who happens to also be my boss, walked in to my living room last night with a splint on his ring finger. He has a rare gift for strange injury. Apparently he was playing basketball and kept asking the other players to check the ball because something was wrong with it - the leather had ripped or it was deformed or something. After asking a couple different times, Daniel looked at his hand and realized his finger was dangling limp and he couldn't move it. The ball was fine. His hand wasn't.

Trade you a cheap plastic splint for your wedding ring?

Daniel goes in soon to have his finger looked at but talking with his MD Dad it sounds bad. Potentially the kind of injury there is no treatment for. The live with it kind. There may be new treatments out there but from what his Dad knows, if it is what he thinks it is, there's not much hope for surgery or therapy to fix it.

Being in full time ministry, Daniel uses his fingers a lot writing and typing and all. Having a bum finger is more than just an annoyance for him. It's a career impediment. I believe Jesus is in the business of healing people. Would you pray with me that Jesus would heal Daniel's finger? Thanks.

Poppycock, blathering and heartless ranting!

I’ve been unexpectedly reminded of something over the last months. In more than a few ways it makes me wish I wasn’t an overly intellectual person, that instead I was one of the Simple - those who are blessed to know and experience the love of Jesus with no strings attached. Content with ongoing experience of the love of God the Simple have little need for intellectual understanding or deep theology. Parsing Greek and Hebrew verbs or being able to “Defend The Faith” with cogent quotes from Augustine or Kierkegaard isn't the point. Knowing Jesus is God and experiencing His love for them is enough.

God is Love. If He IS Love then wouldn’t it make sense that we, His adopted kids, would regularly experience His Love since that is who He is? If love is only something God does, then I could understand it being an ebb and flow experience because perhaps He just isn’t expressing love today. But Love is who He is. It’s why the Trinity is essential. If the Father, Son and Spirit didn’t have one another to love, then God would not be capable of loving us. But because He has all three of himself to love, His very nature is love. God the Father, Son and Spirit can’t help Himself. He’s a compulsive lover!

So where is the disconnect? Wouldn’t it make sense that as we kids go to church and do ministry and everything else, we would feel loved by Him? But so often as I do these things I feel completely cut off from Him and all the things I do becomes such poppycock, blathering and heartless ranting.

Then it occurs to me. Jesus isn’t interested in what we do for Him nearly so much as He is interested in being with us. I think this is why the Simple understand so much more of God than I do. They are content to enjoy being with Jesus where so often I get caught up in trying to understand and do for Jesus.

A few weeks ago it was my turn in our rotation to speak at Chi Alpha. It just happened to be in the middle of a series about the Grace of God. So all of a sudden I find myself researching Grace. Since I can't hardly have a thought without following all the dominoes as far as they'll go, I ended up starting in Genesis 1:1 and ending with Revelation 22:21. We talked our way through creation and the fall of Adam and Eve and on to Jesus and why he came to earth. In the middle I realized something I've known for a long time but haven't always experienced.

God is in a good mood. Like a good friend in a brawl, he has our back. He's watching out for us. The image of Him as a loving father is so broken in our society because there are so few loving fathers but it still fits. If a father who truly loves his kid is rejected by his kid, that doesn't nullify the love the father has for his kid, and the father will probably do what he can to restore their relationship. The kid isn't interested but the father is, so the father does the work the kid wont do so that there is a way for the kid to come home if he wants to.

That is Jesus. And that is grace.

So it occurs to me that this God who has loved Himself for all eternity compulsively shares that love with you and I because He can't help Himself. And he does it all the time even when we don't know it. But if we choose to allow Him to love us, to accept His grace, then everything changes. All that we do for God no longer is an effort to earn His approval or His love. Instead because we are loved and accepted, we begin to do things for God as a natural outflow of being loved and accepted.

Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

And this is Grace. That God has accepted you and I exactly where we are, with our cheese determined to fall off our cracker and all He wants is you and I exactly as we are; that we would let Him love us.

And that, it turns out, is everything.

who are you and what are you doing here?

He lay sleepless in his bed, lost in prayer as he sought to understand some of the Torah he had read earlier in the day. Finally frustrated sleep would not come, the Rabbi got up and wandered out to take a walk hoping the fresh air would help clear his mind. Meandering outside the quiet walls of Jerusalem at night the Rabbi lost himself in prayer. Soon he was startled and more than a little confused to hear someone shout out “who you, and what are you doing?” Stopping to collect his scattered wits the Rabbi didn’t respond.

Again, the voice cried out “who are you and what are you doing?”

At this the Rabbi responded, “First tell me who you are and I will tell you who I am.”

So lost in thought, the Rabbi had walked up to a Roman garrison.

“I am a Roman Centurion, the guard of this Garrison. It’s my duty to keep track of who passes here.”

“Tell me”, said the Rabbi “How much do they pay you to do this?”

“Five Denari a day.” He responded.

“Then I will pay you ten Denari a day to stand outside my door and ask me this question each morning as I leave my home!” said the Rabbi.
****
Who are you, and what are you doing here?
Or
What’s your vision for your life?

One of those great life questions I’ve been pondering lately. Perhaps one day I’ll actually have an answer that matches both what I say AND what I do.

Greening the Desert

From J's Journey

From J's Journey

There are about five minutes a year in southeast Idaho that are actually almost marginally green. Growing up in Seattle, a high desert plateau isn't green even when it is. So this spring has been miraculous to say the least. We've had buckets of rain, there's still bits of snow on some of the hills and most outlandish of all - it's still green in mid-June! I shot these with my cellphone while mountain biking the West Fork of Mink Creek south of town. Gorgeous evening. Great ride.

One of the things I love is including students in my world and getting involved in theirs as much as I can. Loving to ride, I try to find students to go with. It's a chance to connect and have a blast at the same time. This time 'round I was able to go up with a regular riding buddy, Jeff (one of our graduates who works in town and leads worship for our church), and Vanessa, one of our new students and a new member of my worship team. Good times.

Outta the gate

Howdy!

I must say I never thought I would be one to start a blog. I wonder how many new blogs have begun this way? Probably more than I care to think about. At any rate, since my newsletters keeping you updated on my work with ISU Chi Alpha have been so spotty (thanks in large part to our office printers continually breaking) I decided to open this blog as another way to keep updates coming with a little more regularity. I hope to add posts any time we have something interesting or exciting going on. For now though, Mezzo (my golden/chow) wants dinner. How's that for news?!

Blessings

Jeremy