Grace in the beginning and the end

Victor Wooten blew my mind when I heard this years back. I just came across it today on a friends Facebook page and it hit me even harder.

I don't want to kill the beauty of the experience so watch it and see the Holy Spirit fall as it did on Pentecost...

This, to me, is  Spiritual life; Amazing Grace in the beginning and the end with a few insane licks and phrases in the middle.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End...and during we are singing along with the Master.

Sanctification via sushi! Can I get an amen!

My neighbor and I both work out of our houses.  To keep from going nuts we walk into town every Tuesday for sushi. We've got an Umi less than a mile away and every plate on the conveyor belt is two bucks. This breaks down to fifty cents per piece so we can justify our weekly gluttony by praising ourselves for only spending eight bucks for sixteen pieces of sushi.

We've both become huge fans of the Rainbow Roll and this has caused a few issues;

Issue #1 We have found that we are not the only people to have found this hidden treasure of cheap raw fish delights.

Issue #2  We are not the only people who crave the Rainbow Roll.

Issue #3  Not every dinner abides by the unwritten rules of Umi Sushi;
    Rule 3a) Do not reach over the outer belt to get to the inner belt
    Rule 3b) Do not take more than one plate of a particular type of sushi
    Rule 3c) Do not, EVER use one hand to take a new plate off the belt
                    while the other is putting a piece of sushi in your mouth

Issue #4 There are two guys in particular who commit 3a-3c weekly
(we made up the rules to justify our haughty disdain.)

Issue # 5 Sometimes people take our seats which we have found is the optimal
position for capturing Rainbow Rolls 

Yesterday I found myself getting worked up over all this cr*p and the Rainbow Roll began to take on a sour taste in my mouth. It was no longer about enjoying my friend and our talks about being dads, wives and neighbors I was caught up in the game. I was about the rules and missing the joy.

God's process of sanctification worked itself out through my sushi wars;

"Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the 

next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 

Saving is all his idea, and all his work.

 All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! 

We don't play the major role. 

If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! 

No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. 

He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."

So I walked into Umi looking forward to trying something new I must have missed because I got so hung up on. God had shown me I do this to him so I said sorry and he forgave me. 

He's good like that.

I do this to God often. I want what I think is best and miss the grace and beauty in front of me. The process of being formed into a beautiful pearl. He sends grains of sand in me to do the work. He uses my frustrations to point out how I frustrate him, and others. He exposes my lack of grace and self-righteousness by sending me Rainbow Roll Poachers. He does this gently at times over sushi. He has done this with a strong hand during the Exodus. Both times God who's character is faithfulness and mercy took the dopes back. 

At times I am so much like Sheldon I freak myself out. But even he yells out "thank you Jesus"

ivisible fires, hidden rage

I spent the summer before Lisa and I were married working for as a mountaineer for a Christian college's experiential education program.  Our base camp was in the high peaks region of the Adirondacks, a magical collection of 46 peaks each over 4,000. It was my job to teach kids how to trust community and be ok with expressing fear while experiencing the  joy of climbing in a region that would take your breath away.


We led 10-14 day expeditions. These trips were long enough to necessitate having the base camp leave cache's of food as it was impossible for us to carry all that we needed for that distance. We were "out there" and away from it all.  Being hours away from any advanced life support (fire/police) all of the leaders were trained as Wilderness Advanced First Aid Responders (W.A.F.A.) so that we could deal with the inevitable medical emergencies that arose.We operated in minimal impact/leave no trace and were hyper sensitive to preserving the wilderness experience for others.

The Adirondack National Park consists of over 1 million acres of glory, most of it pine forest. This region is very susceptible  to fores fires for two reasons. First, pine burns fast and hot. Second, the ground beneath pine forests are filled with hollow tunnels.

Hidden fires spread underground through these. A person may have thought they had extinguished  their camp fire but even warm embers can cause roots in these hollows to smolder long after the flames seem to be gone, only to erupt later and run under ground some distance from the source.

Many hearts burn with this slow fire. People claim to be "over it"  or "past it". They have hiked up their boots and moved on. Kept a stiff upper lip...and the smoldering fire lies underneath the surface only to rise somewhere else, burning them and others.

God calls us to put the fires out completely;

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, 

hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.   

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, 

so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,   

now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

1 pet 2:1-3

This is a bold act. It requires the ability to admit you have been hurt. This exposes or frailty, our humanness, our vulnerability. It is risky. It is hard work. 

But if we don't, the slightest thing will cause a blaze to erupt killing us and others around us in hateful, violent speech and action. 

Be bold. Look at the hurt, resentment and pain. Give this over to God.

Praying the cirlce prayer

A man once went to hear a preacher who was full of love and the power of God. After the meeting he ran up to the preacher and begged him "how can we get the nation to love God and neighbor like you do! We need revival! We gotta change this nation! I wanna see it!"

"It's easy. Take this stick" he said "and draw a circle in the dirt. Stand in the middle of it and pray "Lord please send revival to everyone standing inside this circle"

That is what I did in seminary.

My wife and I bought a small step stool at the hardware store to reach the top shelf in the kitchen. I would sit on this stool each day in the kitchen, drinking a french press, reading my bible and praying that the Lord would send revival to everyone who sat on that stool. I even took a sharpie and wrote out the prayer so I would never forget it.

And the most amazing thing happened. God heard my prayer and changed me. And he is still doing  today.

May we all pray the circle prayer today on this National Day of Prayer

Let us not pray for "those" people, for "that" official, but for ourselves.

"If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. 

From now on I'm alert day and night to the prayers offered at this place. 

Believe me, I've chosen and sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I've set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments, then I'll back....you"

for the biblical litteralist in your life

I was sitting having coffee after church with three folks who are pressing after God and trying to find how it fits into life. One is in high school, another in college and the third is serving on staff with Intervarsity Ministries on the UCONN campus in Storrs. We had been discussing the the violence, incest, rape, murder, and other things in found in the Old Testament and how we can reconcile an apparent merciful God with these actions.

It boils down to "how can we take the Holy Scriptures so seriously that we don't take them literally". When people forget to realize that the Bible follows literary convention at times it can become a mess.

Case in point; Angels, those cute looking things. Ask many Christians who will call themselves biblically literate will scoff and tell you that angels were terrifying! Most often the first worlds they used were "be not afraid"!"

If took all of Scripture to be word-for-word literally without any figures of speech then artists should be depicting angles as looking as if they were one-eyed, one-handed, one-footed mutilated monsters.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell"

So, what should we do with this stuff?  I can't give you a text book here but a few simple suggestions to keep you grounded. 
1. The Bible speaks of miracles. Because you cannot explain it does not mean it can't happen. 
2. Read with an underlying trust, not suspicion.
3. Understand that the Bible consists of poetry, history, biography, narrative etc.
4. The Bible was written by many folks over many years and great care was used by God and them to get it down.
5. Let it say what it wants to say, not what you want it to say. If you read the Bible with integrity you will be challenged time and time again.

Now comes a danger but it is easily avoided;
...don't go off the deep end thinking it's just allegorical figures of speech. On the flip side don't be so paranoid that you think you can never understand it! God want's to be understood. If you have a problem ask your pastor or priest, read a commentary. Oh, and how can you be sure they understand?
Ask them what God is doing in their lives and where they are being challenged most. that's a pretty good indicator that they are actively living out a transformative faith