In Spirit and Truth

Shortly after my recent marriage, I lost half of my closet. Those of you who are married know how lucky I am to have more than a fourth of it. One day I walked into my closet, and realized that I could no longer find anything. It had all moved. I learned that "off-season" clothes go under the bed in a specialized zippered bag. I learned that I didn’t really need the space that I had grown accustomed to. All of my necessities could actually fit in a much smaller space. And honestly, it was quite easy for me to relinquish control of that closet (and many other areas of the house.) It was easy, because I was delighted with what was occupying the space. It was easy because the space vacated by my "winter overflow" is now occupied with dresses, skirts, and blouses. Every time I look in the closet, I am reminded that I am loved. The space that I gave away is nothing in comparison to what I gained. As we enter the sanctuary each Sunday morning, we are invited to make space

Mark 4:35-5:43 Peter grew up on the sea, an accomplished fisherman, a skill he learned from his father, and father’s father. But this day Peter was about to face waves he had never before seen, created by a storm he could not navigate. It all started with a simple enough request. Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go to the other side.” Peter had made this journey hundreds of times, but today was different. As they made their way across the sea a violent storm rose up; a storm so violent that these seasoned fishermen feared for their life (4:38). But this storm was only the beginning of their wild ride. With a word Jesus stilled the storm. Safe on land, amazed, bewildered, and thankful to be alive – the disciples stumbled out of the boat. They came out of one storm, only to walk straight into another; a man who could no longer control himself, nor be controlled. His compulsions had taken over, and he had given into his demons. This was the last place they wanted to be. The graveyard

"The zeal for Your house will consume me" John 2:17 Here in the birth state of Wal-mart, we know what it means to consume. We know that the reason Wal-mart exists is because when we buy things, we use them. When we use things, we lose them. When we lose things, we need more things! And we know that when something is consumed, it is used up, and is no longer useful. Isn't that the point of consuming? But what if something could be consumed, and yet retain its properties? What if something could be assimilated and yet retain autonomy? God's economics seem to run this way. When God consumes something, it continues to be useful after consumption! In John 4:13-14 Jesus talks about consuming living water and never thirsting again; In Exodus 3:2 Fire engulfs the bush, and yet the bush doesn't burn up; and In Acts 2 the Spirit of God envelopes the disciples and they become more useful than ever. But what does it matter? How does this effect us? Simply this, the Spirit of

In the morning, when we wake up, our routine inevitably takes us to the closet or the dresser. Sometime shortly after our shower we confess to ourselves. "I am NOT going out in public like this!" There is something about our natural selves that we realize is not appropriate for public display. And so we cover ourselves with cotton, wool, or polyester. It would be preposterous for us to say, "If I cover myself, I am being deceptive! I am not giving people an accurate picture of who I am!" No one reading this would seriously consider walking through our day without some covering. But when it comes to our personalities, how many times have we heard someone say, "This is just who I am, I can’t change that!" One of my very favorite scriptures is Colossians 3:12-4:6 Paul starts this passage by saying "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Did you s

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2 The redemption of mankind is in the Cross of Christ. The hope of mankind is in the Resurrection of Christ. But it was the cross that set us free. We get a little queasy when we think of Christ Crucified. We like to rush to the resurrection. It’s a much happier place. We see Jesus glorified by the Father, walking, talking, and eating with the disciples no worse for the wear. But we were redeemed by his suffering and death. "Jesus Christ died for my sin," is a sentence very familiar to our ears. But perhaps it’s a bit too familiar. Perhaps it has become so familiar that it has lost some of its power. We often say it as a platitude or an evangelical tool without contemplating the implications. All of humanity was under a death sentence. Our unrighteousness had separated us from the source of life; and slowly hope was suffocated by sin. But God became a man. The Uncreate

I have to confess to all of you, I am a blog junkie. For those of you who are wondering, a blog is not an illegal narcotic. Rather, it is a web based publishing format. Blog is short for "Web Log." In fact, all of the articles I have written here over the past year are available on a blog. You can visit it at "http://in-spirit-and-truth.blogspot.com." This past week I was reading the blog of a friend, and he brought up the difficulty of keeping the Lenten fast. He said, The things that I choose to give up are proving much more challenging than I anticipated. I actually considered breaking my vow, because I didn't see the point anymore. I don't think I'm abstaining out of a love or remembrance of Christ, I think I'm just keeping my word because it makes me feel noble to make a difficult vow and keep it. I thought about what he said for a while, and would like to share with you my response. We don't give things up for Lent because we love Jesus so

God is no stranger to pain. Isn’t that what Lent is all about? We forget that He has been there. God has experienced pain, death, rejection, and separation from those He loves. Each year we take the opportunity to be reminded of the suffering of Christ. Why is it important that we remember Christ’s suffering anyway? Why can’t we just focus on His teachings? Why can’t we just focus on His positive example and social witness? Just this, Jesus' social witness and positive example do little for us when someone we love is uprooted, when someone in our family dies, or when we experience sickness or pain in our own bodies. We need more than grand theological concepts of God’s kindness; we need a God who can identify with our pain. How can God expect to understand what we’re going through? He is unchanging, and everything here is always changing. How can we trust God with our insecurities, fears, and hurts if He has never felt the kind of loss we feel on a regular basis? But that is the st

We have returned to this Holy season of Lent. But beyond Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras, what is it all about? In earlier times, there were only a handful of times when a new Christian could be baptized, and Easter was one of those times. Lent was a time of preparation for those Catechumens who were about to identify with Christ through baptism. It was a time of fasting, self-examination, and contrition. But what does it mean for we who have already been baptized? Lent is a time to reorder our life for Christ; a time for us to reset our priorities. As Paul instructed the Colossians, we "set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things. For [we] died, and [our] life is now hidden with Christ in God." –Col 3. Let’s all be honest, it is easy to get distracted. It is easy to forget the Kingdom of God. We have soccer practice, and band, and deadlines and taxes, carpools and flu season, and all these things need to be dealt with. It is true that all these things demand our atten

Job 13:15 "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face." Job knew something of which we are often ignorant. The most important things in our lives depend on our choices. We often degrade love, forgiveness, and worship to simple emotional responses. But if these things were merely emotional, then they would be very fickle responses indeed. We would only love those who loved us in return. We would only forgive those who groveled enough to satiate our anger, and we would only worship a God who continually brought us good things. Yes, Job was onto something. His Children had all died, his health was failing, his own wife told him to "curse God and die" just to get it over with, his friends told him that all this trouble must be God punishing him for some hidden sin, and yet Job chose to worship. He chose to put his hope and his trust in God despite the circumstances. He went so far as to say, "God could outright kill me, and

There are some who believe that when you become a Christian everything will turn out all right. I have known many who accepted Christ joy fully, but became disillusioned because life continued to be hard. But Jesus never promised us that life would be easy. God never assured us that we would avoid pain. In fact, Jesus said exactly the opposite. John 15: 20 “‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” And in John 16:33 , “I have told you these [difficult] things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” In this is our hope: Not that all our problems will disappear, but that the one who faced these problems, and overcame them, walks with us. Now, I know that no one here believed that life would right itself as soon as you accepted Christ. So why write this article? Many times in my own life I faced a difficult situation, and prayed for God to remove it. But i

We all, if we were honest with ourselves, long for our lives to be great! We long for our actions to outlive our bodies. We long for life to mean something! We are certainly at no loss, especially in our culture, for definitions of success. From media to marketing, to friends and family, to bosses and bureaucrats, everyone is pushing a definition of greatness! Books have been written to help us “reach our potential!” And we are assured, that if we follow these 20 easy steps, we too can be great! But we are Kingdom people. We are a people whose citizenship lies in God’s country. So it stands to reason that if we long for greatness, we should seek for what greatness means in our homeland. What makes someone great in God’s Kingdom? Most of us have heard the answer, but how quickly we expatriates forget. Listen to Jesus' words in Mark 10:43-45, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also ca

Yes, it’s that time of the year again! It’s time for a brand new calendar; a clean slate of endless possibilities, with all those empty boxes begging to be filled. We are a resolved people! We are resolved to do better this year than last, to love stronger, to forgive easier, to exercise more, and eat less. Every year it’s the same. We (if you’re like me) resolve to produce more positive fruit! And (if you’re like me) every year, it only takes a few weeks to get disillusioned and downhearted. But I learned something new this past week in church, and if you had the pleasure of being there, you did too! We weren’t made to produce fruit in our lives! We weren’t made to do better, and be stronger. We were made to bear fruit. The Spirit of God produces the fruit in us. So how will we make this year different? How can we enter the New Year in such a way that we meet our resolution expectations? We Abide in Christ as He abides in us. In John 15, Jesus lays out a comprehensive command to abid