september 1

We have all heard this holy Whisper at times. At times, we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of life, amazing effectiveness of living set in. But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times. Only at times have we submitted to His holy guidance. We have not counted this Holy Thing within us to be the most precious thing in the world.

thomas kelly

august 31

Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If only we could slip over into that Center...!

thomas kelly

august 30

We Western peoples are apt to think our great problems are external, environmental. We are not skilled in the inner life, where the real roots of our problem lie. For I would suggest that the true explanation of the complexity of our program is an inner one, not an outer one. the outer distractions of our interests reflect an inner lack of integration of our own lives. We are trying to be several selves at one, without all our selves being organized by a single mastering Life within us...

thomas kelly

august 29

This week we are going to look at excerpts from Thomas Kelly's book A Testament of Devotion.

The problem we face today needs very little time for its statement. Our lives in a modern city frow too complex and overcrowded. Even the necessary obligations that we feel we must meet frow overnight, like Jack's beanstalk, and before we know it we are bowed down with burdens, crushed under committees, strained, breathless, and hurried, panting through a never-ending program of appointments. We are too busy to be good wives to our husbands, good homemakers, good companions of our children, good friends to our friends, and with no time at all to be freinds to the friendless...And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silence of the heart seem so few...

august 25 and 26

Good Googa Mooga, Is it Thursday?

I am so sorry.

I'll leave you two thoughts for two days and the weekend.

What would you do if you had unlimited resources and an infinite amount of time?

Then think about what God offers you in Christ.

Then think about the question again.

Then think about how you might apply what you're thinking.

august 23

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.

Romans 8:32

What exactly are these "things" Paul is talking about?

I think we are going to have to camp out here for a bit, and see what we can dig up.

For today, consider this: Paul uses the words "all things" four verses earlier.

And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Let's marinate on these two ALL THINGS verses today. Verse 32 talks about gifts God wants to give us. Verse 28 talks about (at least we usually use this verse to talk about) suffering. Gifts and suffering. God wants to use ALL of Both.

More tomorrow.

aug 22

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

1 John 5:4

This is the kind of verse that is hard for me to believe. Perhaps that is why John writes this next:

Who is that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

That's my job. Not to overcome. But to believe.

August 19

It's my anniversary. I did not forget! A friend of mine got married last weekend. In my note to him, I challenged he and his new bride with this word: Remember.

My memory is so bad I need to remember to remember. I wrote that in my note as well. We are a forgetful lot aren't we. Today, I will remember.

I remember Jesus saying something to that effect as well...

August 18

He who has the Son has life.

1 John 5:12a

My friend Paul used to say "What you have, has you." It was a quote. It would appear that he or she who first said it understood what John was writing about.

august 17

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

I remember hearing that there is a difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs.’ And God promises us that he will take care of our needs, whereas wants were things he was more interested in curing us from.

As it says in Psalm 23 – the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.

In other words if you are a Christian it is a sin to want anything.

Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet...

Thou shalt not want. It's the 11th Commandment.

I’ve used this line of reasoning on my daughter who has no problem wanting things. I say, Anna Rose, there is a difference between wants and needs. I promise to take care of your needs. Wants on the other hand are discretionary.

What’s discretionary, she asks. It means they are more likely to happen if you stop asking me for them, I say.

There is a problem with all this logic of course.

Because whether I want to or not, I often get Anna Rose what she wants. However the biggest problem with the wants v. needs logic is that it’s not true.

First of all, God doesn’t give us what we need. Most of the time, he gives us way more than we need.

For instance, the amount of calories a person needs to survive ranges between 600 – 1000 calories per day. The USDA recommends adult males should eat between 2000 and 2500 calories and women 1800 and 2300 calories per day. Look in your refrigerator and cupboard when you get home, count the calories and see if God has provided enough food for just your needs. He not only has covered your needs of course, he has provided enough to cover the USDA recommendations twice over. In fact, he has probably provided enough sustenance for you to eat too much.

Here is another need. Water. You go anywhere to practically any faucet in this country and there is an unlimited supply. All doctors recommend is 2 quarts. And even that amount is debatable.

How about shelter? A shack would suffice. How many of us live in a shack?

The point is that God doesn’t give us just what we need. And if you find yourself beginning to think you ‘need’ that four bedroom house with air conditioning and a pool, you need to go on a mission trip and wake up and see how the rest of the world lives.

That’s the other thing. There are people. People who believe in God. People that God loves. That Jesus died for. Who will die today because they don’t have what they need. There are children who will die today because God did not provide for them what they needed.

We can debate this if you like. There is enough food and water in this world for everybody. But how does that affect the little Haitian child who is dying today because her mother doesn’t have any milk for her and so she has to give her contaminated water, which will give her dysentery, which will kill her.

The fact is that God doesn’t give us what we need. He gives some people more and some people less. This would be a good time to recall the moment Jesus fed the more than 5,000. These people were in need. They hadn’t eaten for three days, and remember what Jesus says: “You give them something to eat.”

But although it is very important, I’m not here today to tell you how God wants you to fix the imbalance…in fact, I’m not sure if that is the main point from Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Because, from the disciples perspective, the big take home for them was the fact they had so many leftovers! Jesus, once again, provides to the point of waste – where I’m sure there were people somewhere on the other shoreline of Galillee starving to death.

All this to say, God certainly cares about our needs. But as Jesus points out, even bad parents do that. However, and this is radical when you think about the implications, what God goes out of his way to show us is that he also cares about what we want.

August 16

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

John 14:27a

It's always important to keep reading:

I do not give to you as the world gives.

John 14:27continued

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27end

Remember, all of this is in the context of a man who will be murdered in less than twenty-four hours!

Jesus' peace is not the world's peace. If we even knew what that peace looked like...His peace is based on surrender to a loving Father. That is the point of this entire chapter.

The peace of Christ happens at the moment of surrender. Come what may, put your trust in your loving Father. Peace will come. I promise.

August 15

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

CS Lewis

August 12

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

Three adjectives that make sense but don't make sense but actually when you experience them make sense.

GREAT mercy - mercy is not usually described as something Mighty. We usually talk about tender mercy. But if you know it, isn't mercy great?

NEW birth - there is nothing newer than birth. But when you are born again in Christ...yes, there is no other way to describe it. Everything's brand new.

LIVING hope - hope has no feet, no lungs, no mind of its own. How does it live? And yet, when you have it - it drives you.

august 11

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

Jesus wants a lot for you. One thing he definitely wants for you is joy. Not just a smidge of joy, but joy to the full. What do you want for yourself? Do you want joy? What's keeping you from it? Is it necessary? What would happen if that thing didn't matter to you as much?

Joy, I think, is a lot like one's mojo. It's there. You just got to dig around until you find it.

august 10

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

I just read this little thought: a hammer isn't quite a hammer unless it is hammering. We are not really ourselves unless we are doing what we were intended to do. That's something to consider.

Here's something else to consider. Sometimes I hammer things with a rock. In other words, sometimes I do things and think that I am something not based on who I am but what I am doing. I think I'm a hammer because I hammer. But hammer all I want, I'm still a rock.

It is always best to do what God, your Father, created you to do. But be careful to not base your identity on what you do. Base it on who made you.

August 9

Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

The NOW immediately pops out at me. We are God's children NOW. You are God's child NOW. All rights, privileges and responsibilities have been entrusted to you. So go ahead. Be a chip off the old block.

aug 8

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24

It's the great role reversal. Think about what Jesus did to the cross. He took the most horrific execution method devised by humankind and made it the greatest symbol of love the world has ever known!

That what he did TO the cross. Think what Jesus can do to you!

august 5

There was a man crippled from birth who was carried everyday to one of the entrances to the Temple. We know which entrance in fact, it was a gate called Beautiful. And underneath the Beautiful gate was this less than beautiful broken person.

Now, I do not have a physical disability like this man, but I do know something about being broken. Because whether I look like I am or not, I am a broken man. A crippled man. And if I had to put a name on my disability I would call it fear. Fear is my greatest handicap. It is what paralyzes me. I have a fear of failure. And I’ve learned that I even have a fear of success.

A few years ago, my first book came out. And as the release date approached, the predominant emotion I had was fear. It overwhelmed me. It felt like I was trying to swim with leather boots and an army jacket. Needless to say, I didn’t handle it well.

Fear keeps me at the gate. It keeps me from going inside and experience the joy of Christ, the fellowship of his Spirit. It crushes my faith and leaves me begging at the door.

another little blurb from my sermon notes...

august 4

God didn’t give us hearts for them to beat. Sure, he wants them to beat. But God wants way more for them than that. God wants our hearts to feel, to experience passion, to love. That’s what our hearts are made for.

blurb from the sermon i'm preaching this weekend.

august30

We Western peoples are apt to think our great problems are external, environmental. We are not skilled in the inner life, where the real roots of our problem lie. For I would suggest that the true explanation of the complexity of our program is an inner one, not an outer one. The outer distractions of our interests reflect an inner lack of integration of our own lives. We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single mastering Life within us...

thomas kelly

August 3

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

Isaiah 30:21

One of the coolest things about the early church is that they called themselves The Way. (Acts 9:2). This is the great answer to the question: who is this voice? The voice is Jesus. He is the Way. That is why his favorite thing to say was follow me.

august 2

Jesus was the Rule Breaker because He is the Rule Maker. He alone decides what rules are true and what rules are nonsense. That is why we follow Christ with abandon wherever He takes us. He lets us know which rules are for following and which rules are for breaking.

Genuine faith is hazardous to your health.

Dangerous Wonder - Mike Yaconelli p 59