Lent me, Lord, with abstinence from sin. In these ashen 40 days, may I crave only the bread of your Word; may I drink of the living Water; may I look to the coming Kingdom of the Most High; may I testify to the prophetic power of your name. May I not put your grace and mercy to the test.
- From a poem by Lisa Gilbert

I came across an old lit service that I wrote a few years ago and in it was a quote from a poem written by Joy Cowley called Spring Time Jesus that is worth quoting:

You, Springtime Jesus,

just as I’d settled down for winter,

you broke into my heart

and danced your love right across it

in a mad excess of giving.

Just as I’d got comfortable

with bare branches and unfeeling,

just as my world was neatly black and white,

there you were,

kicking up flowers

all over the place.

Springtime Jesus,

I tried to find a way to tell you

that there were places

where you could or could not dance.

I wanted to guide you on my paths

and have you sign the visitors’ book;

but you laughed right through my words

and sang to me your melting song,

causing sap to fire the branches,

causing the flames of buds

to flicker into green bonfires,

causing a windquake of blossom,

causing burstings, searings, breakings,

causing growth‑pain,

causing life.

Springtime Jesus,

the fullness of life can be frightening

and I’m lacking in courage.

It isn’t easy to live with a heart

that’s wide open to invasion.

Teach me, Jesus, how to move with you,

step for step, in your love dance.

Touch my fears with your melting song.

Gift me with your laughter,

and, in the mystery of your Springtime,

show me the truth of the blossoming Cross.

Thought from church today (and I’m paraphrasing): When Christ raises us up out of our darkness is our response to serve him or is it to childishly demand more?
This is a sobering question. And of course it is not wrong to to request things from our God. In fact, He wants us to. But what heart position do we ask them from? Do we do it out of greed or selfish desire? Or do we do so out of honest need. Are we being selfless, put others in front of our desires? Christ came as a servant. And if we follow him we will be like minded. That is what having the mind of Christ is about at least in part. As I said, very sobering.

Today’s sermon at Catalyst reminded me of one of my favorite stories from C.S. Lewi’s's The Great Divorce. First a brief recap is in order: Levi spoke about how each of us have our own baggage. Our own brokeness that causes us to make all kinds of evil decisions. And that there is hope for us in Christ and in His saving power. Great message! Well, in Lewis’s book, there’s a guy with a nasty lizard on his shoulder whispering in his ear and telling him what to do. An angel who is completely aflame walks up to the guy tormented by the lizard and asks him if they likes the reptile being there. The fellow answers that he doesn’t like the lizard at all and would like it gone.  But when the angel offers to remove it for him he refuses as he fears being harmed by the angel’s fire. The angel understands and begins to walk away. Then in desperation, the man cries out and begs the angel to come back and to follow through with his offer. The angel removes the lizard and kills it. And sure enough the guy gets burnt and he howls with pain. But amazingly the dead lizard transforms into a beautiful white stallion. And the man mounts upon the stallion and rides triumphantly into the mountains of God.
I love that story. B/c it tells how there can be delivery by God out of our own brokeness and oppression and yet there will be pain in it.

It was Dec 2010 that I went up to KC to visit my friend Sean at IHOP. It was over a year ago and still I’m pondering the powerful words I heard there. I found some of them I wrote down on my blog here. How very powerful! And they are really meaning a lot to me right now. Holy crap I’m feeling a great deal of pain right now. It is almost unbearable.  Some lines from Mysty Edwards’ words that really struck were:

You’ve only just begun and I know where you are going
And all you can see in the moment is that your hurting.
And all you can see in the moment is that your aching.

Boy that is really true…all I can see right now is my hurt and pain.  All the aching and the emptiness.  But all the while God is saying that He loves me and called me.   If I don’t give up I win. So I will carry on. I will fight on. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  He has never left me or forsaken me.  Though people have failed me he never has nor ever will.  I will trust in Him.

We so desperately want to see revival in our area. It’s so dry and dead. What can we do to see revival? I’ll tell you exactly how it will come about. You go home. Lock yourself in your bedroom. Take a piece of chalk. Put a circle on the floor of your bedroom. Kneel in that circle and pray fervently and brokenly that God will start revival in that circle. – Gipsy Smith

We don’t need to invite people to a service, we need to invite them to a revolution. But first we have to live it ourselves. Far from being a sad little world, it becomes a wonderful, joy filled, and also tragic world, bigger than can be imagined, as it is not bound by the physical.

come and join the revolution – John Jensen

John Jensen’s recent blog post really struck me! Great insight there. Much to ponder. This is something that has been stewing in my soul again for some time. The Christian faith and discipleship is by no means tame! It is not a religion or an institution. It is a wild adventure where many twists and turns are probable. And all the while we follow our Amazing God into His great mission. His great purpose.
For me this is MUCH more than a discussion of evangelism or some other stale theological topic. It’s more whole than that. More full, and vibrant, and visceral, and life essential. It’s like opening a portal and discovering a whole new vast world that you never new existed deeply intertwined with our own. And somehow, ingeniously, you also discover that everyone and everything was always a part of some immense sweeping/deep plan. And further, the planner/Creator is not only knowable, He became part of the Creation to save it all!! He became one of us and we can now be know Him as much as we dare to. Wait! What? That’s startling!! That’s astonishing!! God Himself…almighty creator and sustainer of all that exists wants to do life with us. WOW! And even deeper than that….He invites us to be part of His plan. Part of this great adventure. And we awaken to realize that worship is what we were made for. It fulfills our greatest hopes and dreams. That’s approaching what we should be inviting people into. A whole new life. Not a club. Not a dead institution. It’s all about God! It’s all about his great adventure!!
AND, as John said we need to live it ourselves. That’s our own faith life. Our own discipleship. It’s child to Parent obedience. It’s the journeying and living and growing and loving and forgiving…seeking to be like our Teacher Jesus.

I’m reading Isaiah right now. And there is a passage from that book that says (Is 26:3, NIV):

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

It got me to thinking how relevant this is during this frenzied time of year. All of the emphasis on shopping, and presents, more rushing, more stress etc. It isn’t a time that naturally conducive to inner peace. The message advent really is watching and waiting. Advent and Christmas commercialism always seem antithetical to me. And I have really tried to stem the tide against this tyranny of hurry. But I have to say I was not always successful.

But I remembered today that the peace that Isaiah talking about is not the absence of strife (or in this case hurry). It is the God’s SHALOM, the very presence of God.  And the point here really is diligent seeking of God.  It reminds me of the famous passage from the Gospel of Matthew which says “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things will be added to you”.   Seeking God first in all things is key.  Christmas is all about seeking!  We would do well follow in the footsteps of those ancient shepherds and wisemen.  Perhaps in the seeking comes the steadfastness that brings this peace.  The shalom, the God life comes.  It comes and we are lifted above all the lifeless hustle and bustle.  Released from the frenetic oblivion that can be the result of Christmas aquisition.  But it need not be this way.  We can be in the world and not of it.  We can give gifts, and light our houses and trees, sing our carols, and do our shopping and not lose sight of the real reason for Christmas.  For it is a wondrous time of year.  For it is nothing less than the celebration of coming of the Savior King.  And that is a glorious reason to have a party.  Joy to the World indeed!

From today’s advent devotional at following the star.

Lord, shake me from my apathy and steer me away from the trivial. Wake me up to your presence. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Let us begin Advent, waiting.
Not the “going back to sleep” kind of waiting.
Not the impatient pacing, or the wasted anxiety of waiting.
Not even the passive-aggressive waiting that says, “Really? We’ll see.”

Let us begin Advent, waiting.
Getting up and joining the adventure,
Even when we don’t know where it will take us.
Shifting the impatient waiting to expectant living.
Boldly claiming the Good News that we know will come.
Waiting with joy as we reach out with the grace of God that is so much more than amazing.

Let us begin Advent.

This comes as very welcome news. Very insightful. Not only are we living in a ADD, over-stimulated, instant gratification society, but there is the challenges of day to day life. My own shortcomings. Today was a great day. And yet a small turn of events challenged my temper this afternoon. But that’s ok, joy is a choice. We are not perfect. But it is the discipline of constantly turning our eyes to Jesus in expectant waiting on Him. Again, this joy and peace is not defined by a absence of strife. No, our ability to focus on God is strengthened by hardship. The discipline of ceasing striving. Ceasing trying to control my situation. It is resting God. Being still and confident in His power to protect and provide. This is a very, very good message.

I was just reading the Beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5), and was struck by v. 5:8 which says “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”. And this reminded me of the insight that I received on purity of heart 2 years ago and I wrote about it here.

Without purity of heart we will be unable to harmonize with others and in dealing with conflict. And going deeper, the Matthew passage is really relating (in a positive way..as a benefit) the pure of heart will see God. And God is the source of this harmony. The one who does the directing and the handling…and the push/pulling that needs to be done in life. We move in His channeling. We flow with Him and through Him. And it is this purity that gives us the ability to harmonize with God and eventually with others.