In Spirit and Truth

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. —Malachi 3:1 Thursday morning, after eight months of patiently waiting (and one month of not so patiently waiting), Kristin called to me from the other room to tell me that labor had begun. Five hours later, I was holding my baby girl. Thankfully, everything had been prepared, and we were ready. After all the longing, praying and waiting, suddenly she was here. It seems so much easier to wait on a baby than to wait for God. We long for God to come and right the wrongs, to heal the wounds, release the captives, and bind up the broken hearted. We long for the tangible proof and expression of our faith. At communion we all declare "the mystery of the gospel" that "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again," but it is hard to live o

"So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." —Matthew 5:23-24 Talking about forgiveness is uncomfortable when we are addressing those who have wounded us. How much more so when we look to those occasions in which it is we who were the offenders. It is the plank in our own eye, keeping us from accurately dealing with the speck in our offender’s. (Matthew 7:3) When looking at ourselves and our own shortfalls, it is important to make sure our mirror is accurate. There are so many fun-house mirrors that will keep us from dealing accurately with our own sins. Some mirrors inflate our own righteousness, and some inflate our guilt. In either circumstance, forgiveness and freedom will be kept at bay. In some mirrors we cannot see our faults. We have justified our every action and d

"For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." —Psalm 18:1-3 Our God is a God of many names: The Rose of Sharon, Lily of the Valley, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Comforter, Our Provider, Our Healer, Lord of Hosts, and the list goes on. Some names describe God’s majesty, others his beauty, others address the character of God, and still others describe the way God acts on our behalf. Of all the names I have heard for God, there is one that resonates deeply in my soul each time I hear it — "Refuge." The Lord is my refuge! I know all about refuge from growing up in the panhandle of Texas. When the sky turned green we would all head for the shelter to wait out the stor

" Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.' " —Matthew 18:21-22 We've spent the last two weeks talking about Forgiveness. We established that forgiveness is a choice, for we know that God is not a tyrant commanding the impossible; and we defined Forgiveness as "releasing my right to be angry and/or bitter toward a person for the wrong they committed and releasing the outcome to God." We have addressed what forgiveness looks like in response to an offence, but what happens when the wound in question is not as a result of an event, but rather of a behavior. What happens when you can’t even count the number of times you have been wronged? The Rabbinical teaching of the day stated that forgiving someone three times was sufficient. Peter knew of Jesus tendency to require more than the other Ra