26 Friday Aug 2016
Posted in Uncategorized
Another out the park post from Beauty Beyond Bones.
If there’s on Olympic event that is simultaneously the most mesmerizing, and yet the most head-scrating thing ever, it’s…pole vaulting. No, not rhythmic gymnastics. Although, that’s a close second. Pole vaulting. I mean, I’d like to meet the guy who invented that event! Like, Okay, I’m going to willing catapult my body through the air, over a ridiculously high […]
17 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
Tags
christ, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, marriage, Music, Songs, Spirituality, Worship
I have a distinct memory from when I was in my religious studies classes (not like it was decades ago – I was a mature student). One of my professors said, with great disdain, that many of the modern Christian songs sound like a love song couples might sing to each other. A few people gave an amen. A few chuckled. But I started pondering…
Of all the metaphors God gives for our relationship with him, the most intimate is that of husband and bride. I believe that God meets us where we are with the metaphor that best speaks to us but then moves us to greater and greater intimacy with him – to the marriage metaphor. When he returns the major imagery is a groom coming for his bride and when we are all reunited it’s called the wedding supper of the lamb.
I like songs about God – his majesty, salvation, and comfort but maybe it’s a good thing that many newer Christian songs are singing to God; like love songs that a couple might sing to each other.
Now, how about this: what if God was to sing songs to us? What would they sound like? He would have to put them into ways we will understand; an unfiltered God song would be beyond what we can imagine. Sometimes, I hear God singing to us in love songs. Today, I again heard John Legend’s “All of Me.” It occurred to me that it could easily be God singing to you and me, his beloved bride to be. Check out some of the lyrics:
How many times do I have to tell you
Even when you’re crying you’re beautiful too
The world is beating you down, I’m around through every mood
You’re my downfall, you’re my muse
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues
I can’t stop singing, it’s ringing, in my head for you
Check out Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
And to me, the chorus sounds like the cross:
‘Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I’ll give my all to you
You’re my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I’m winning
‘Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you.
What songs remind you of God’s love for you and his desire for you to be his forever bride?
09 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in Inspiration, Spirituality
Tags
christ, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, salvation, Satan, Temptation
Recently, I was with a group of young people and we were talking about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. I asked them what is the take away from this story – what do we need to learn? They responded with the common things I have heard from many others: Jesus was showing us we can overcome temptation like he did, the devil is a liar, faith in God protects us from Satan; we need to know scripture so we are not deceived, and so on.
Those thoughts are not necessarily wrong or bad but something triggered in my mind. The Bible is the revelation of God; every story whispers Jesus name. Unfortunately, we often make the story all about us and from there we tend towards moralizing and even salvation and righteousness by works.
What if the story is all about Jesus and only there to tell us about him? If so, what does this story tell us about Jesus? As I look at the text through Jesus, what I discover is, it’s not about my abilities or overcoming, or my faith.
To me, it’s about Jesus, God with us, who was willing to do whatever it takes, to endure everything that can be thrown at him, so that he can set us free and bring us home.
What do you see in this Jesus story?
02 Tuesday Jun 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
I confess I like Radio Babylon’s “Coffee with Jesus” comic strip. They have some good points and they get me thinking. This one takes on an event in the eighth chapter of John’s Good News letter about Jesus.
The leaders of the community want to set a trap for Jesus so they manage to catch a woman in the very act of adultery. The whole thing stinks of deception, manipulation, and hypocrisy. Fortunately, Jesus turns the tables on these evil people and saves the woman from certain death. Their conversation concludes:
“Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”” John 8:10-11 NLT.
This got me thinking about how we often approach this beautiful passage in John 8. Whenever it comes up in a discussion, there’s always one person who really wants to stress “Go and sin no more.”
But what a minute. Let’s put ourselves in the woman’s shoes. It’s very likely that this woman is the same one who would later take every penny she had to buy ointment that she would use to wash Jesus’ feet. That means it’s very likely she’s Mary, sister of Lazarus and niece of Simon the Pharisee. How did she find herself being accused of adultery and being threatened with death? Evidence suggests that her uncle Simon, led Mary into it and may have even led her to a life of prostitution. That would not have been a life with very many options. Today we know that most prostitutes are not choosing that life because they are licentious, sin-loving, women enjoying the profits of their sin. More often they are in that life through a series of abuses in a society that chews women up and spits them out.
So the one way to look at this is Jesus saves her from being murdered and then says, “Stop being such a screw up.” My initial thought is, that doesn’t make me want to take every penny, buy ointment, and then fall at Jesus’ feet as I weep in gratitude.
But what if we see that sin is much more than the bad things we do? Ultimately sin is being separated from God; alienated, unreconciled, broken. What if we brought this deeper, broader, understanding into this passage?
Jesus saves her from being murdered and then says to this woman who has been abused, manipulated, and then left for dead, “I will never condemn you; never let go of me.” Would that make your heart sing?
24 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 8:1-10.
We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. Sure enough, they run into a Syrophoenician woman. What does she get from Jesus? Bread!*
Now we are in Mark 8 and we are going to watch Jesus feed another group of people. Seems like a repeat of the event in Mark 6 but there are subtle but critically important difference. Please read the passage because I have some questions for you.
Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?
Everything in this passage shouts Gentile. How many loves of bread? Seven.
How many baskets of bread left over? Seven. There are no five books of the law here; no twelve tribes of Israel. Seven tells us this is Gentile territory. There were seven nations in Canaan that were sent packing by the Jews. Even their baskets are wrong – spuris baskets, not kophinos, the Jewish word for bread baskets.
This time around, the people need to eat but it’s not the disciples who point this out, it’s Jesus. Back in Jewish territory, the disciples told Jesus their people needed to eat. Now they are silent. Why wouldn’t they want to give them something to eat? These are not God’s people! They don’t know Moses, they don’t keep the commandments! No bread for them!
And yet, did anyone go hungry? No, they all ate and were satisfied.
Are you understanding yet?
*Symbolically speaking
17 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 8:1-10.
We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. Sure enough, they run into a Syrophoenician woman. What does she get from Jesus? Bread!*
Now we are in Mark 8 and we are going to watch Jesus feed another group of people. Seems like a repeat of the event in Mark 6 but there are subtle but critically important difference. Please read the passage because I have some questions for you.
Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?
Everything in this passage shouts Gentile. How many loves of bread? Seven.
How many baskets of bread left over? Seven. There are no five books of the law here; no twelve tribes of Israel. Seven tells us this is Gentile territory. There were seven nations in Canaan that were sent packing by the Jews. Even their baskets are wrong – spuris baskets, not kophinos, the Jewish word for bread baskets.
This time around, the people need to eat but it’s not the disciples who point this out, it’s Jesus. Back in Jewish territory, the disciples told Jesus their people needed to eat. Now they are silent. Why wouldn’t they want to give them something to eat? These are not God’s people! They don’t know Moses, they don’t keep the commandments! No bread for them!
And yet, did anyone go hungry? No, they all ate and were satisfied.
Are you understanding yet?
*Symbolically speaking
10 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 7:24-30.
We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. There’s no way God is on the other side. And Yet, Mark tells us the disciples didn’t understand. Now, in Mark 7:24-30, we watch Jesus as he encounters a woman who wants his help.
I’ve heard this woman described as a crescendo of demerit! She’s a woman, an unclean gentile, and she’s of the Syrophoenician race, from Tyre and Sidon. Do you know what means? She comes from the land of Jezebel who almost took all of Israel away from God! A crescendo of demerit.
Can you imagine what the disciples were thinking when Jesus responded to this woman? Jesus says, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
I suspect they were thinking, “Yes Jesus, you got it! The bread is for your children; for God’s children, and not this Jezebel woman!”
There’s some wordplay in this passage that we can’t get into now but Jesus is giving this woman a riddle, he’s engaging her. Even though the disciples don’t understand and maybe we don’t understand, the woman understands. Check out verse 28 – she calls Jesus Lord. This is the only time someone addresses Jesus directly as Lord in Mark.
This underserving, morally suspect, pagan woman wants to know if there’s enough bread for her.
Is there?
03 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 6:45-52.
Last time, we watched Jesus feed thousands of people. The event takes place in Jewish territory and has all sorts of clues for the Jewish people that shout: God has come! We are his people and he is feeding us and we are satisfied!
Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side.
The other side is a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people are. There’s no way God is on the other side. To go there is dangerous; life threatening.
Do you have an other side? Do you have a people or place that you have determined God is not present and the places and people are demonic and unclean?
Fortunately, the disciples trust Jesus enough to begin the journey across the lake but what happens when they are on the water? A storm comes up and the disciples are terrified but Jesus shows up. Look at verse 51-52:
“Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
THEY didn’t understand.
Do YOU understand?
27 Tuesday Jan 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what he wants to tell us through bread. If you missed the intro to this series, click here. We begin our journey in Mark 6:30-44.
Please read the passage because I have some questions for you:
Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?
Usually, we simply focus on the miracle of Jesus feeding thousands of people. However, this passage is telling us we are in Jewish territory and this is a special moment for the Jews.
The disciples tell Jesus that these people – their people – are hungry and need to be fed. Jesus takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread and then gives the bread.
Five loaves of bread = five books of Moses.
They sit down in groups of 50 and 100 = Moses groupings.
Twelve baskets = twelve tribes of Israel.
Even the baskets are the kind that Jews used for bread, they are called kophinos.
Was anybody left hungry? No – everyone was satisfied.
Try to put yourself in their shoes – they are seeing, hearing and tasting things that are shouting to them: Celebrate! God has come! We are his people and he is feeding us and we are satisfied! There is bread in Israel and the true shepherd is feeding us!
Then Jesus does something unsettling: he tells his disciples that they are going to the other side…
20 Tuesday Jan 2015
Posted in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality
Tags
Bread, God, Good News, gospel, hope, Inspirational, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Mark, salvation
Over the next few weeks, I want to share something that I got turned on to late last year. It has caused me to re-evaluate my thinking and perhaps it will challenge and inspire you, too. I am thankful to my friends Elizabeth T. and Warren K. who helped me see more clearly.
Have you ever noticed that when we read the Bible we often compartmentalize the stories? When we do that, we miss important connections; connections that can inspire us, challenge us, and call us to be closer than ever before to God and others. I hope to share one of those connections with you.
In Mark’s Good News of Jesus Christ there is a symbol that Mark returns to over and over again. It’s a symbol that would have spoke to everyone in Mark’s time.
That symbol is bread.
Mark mentions bread 22 times and 19 of those times are in Mark 6, 7 and 8. I want to take you on a journey through these chapters and I hope we are able to see the breakthrough Jesus was trying to teach his friends because it’s a breakthrough we still need today.
Want to try some bread?
cultural atheist 