circularthoughts

Love is here...

There is no deeper model of love than the incarnation.  The Creator became like the created so that creation could be restored.  This love is the essence of God; it is his nature.  This love is unmerited, unconditional, unchangeable and indescribable.   This love must be experienced to be understood. 

This is where we struggle.  We have no baseline for this kind of love, so we hear the words, but we do not know what to think or how to respond.  Surely we must do something to earn God's love.  Surely we must behave properly to maintain God's love.  Surely we must attempt to regain God's love when we have failed so miserably to love him and to love others.  Surely we...

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen.  He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready.  He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.  And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway.  We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.  But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. (Romans 5:6-8, The Message)

This is the essence of the good news that God's angel announced to the shepherds in Bethlehem so long ago.  Our attempts to impress God had failed.  Our attempts will always fail.   The angel of God announced that this does not matter.  The angel said that we no longer had to worry about this because God had made a way.  The angel said that love had come to town.

Have you found this love?  Have you experienced it?  Have you embraced it?  Come on, let's go to Bethlehem and find love.  Come as you are, it doesn't matter.  Love is here...

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard   

Lainie Petersen    

Peggy Brown    

Sonja    

Adam Copeland   

John the Shepherd    

Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander    

Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson    

Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall   

Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin   

Kingdom Grace    

Matt Stone

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Joy and suffering...

Joy and suffering are inseparable realities of life in the kingdom of God.  Jesus said it would be this way:

Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me.  What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable.  You can be glad when that happens - skip like a lamb, if you like! - for even though they don't like it, I do...and all heaven applauds.  And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.  Luke 6:22-23 (The Message)

When we chase after the kingdom and the righteousness/justice of God, joy and suffering are going to be realities.  We really can't have one without the other.  If we want joy, we can't avoid the suffering.  If our goal is to avoid all suffering, as it often seems to be the case here in the West, then I would question whether we can truly experience joy or whether we are truly chasing after the kingdom and the righteousness/justice of God. 

I have some dear friends who are underground house church leaders in China.  Once, over tea, we were talking about the church in China and the church in the West.  I asked them about persecution, both the threat and reality of such.  They told me that the threat was very real and that from time to time the threat became reality and they were persecuted.  This could happen through a loss of a job or ostracization from family.  There was even the occasional arrest, which often led to prison. 

I asked them how we in the West could be praying.  I asked if they wanted us to pray for the persecution and suffering to stop.  Their response shocked me.    

The persecution and suffering is what fuels the growth of the Chinese church.  The persecution and suffering, and the church's response of joy, is what sets the Chinese church apart as a contrast society (kingdom of God); a society of hope and restoration.  No, do not pray for the persecution and suffering to stop, they said.  To do so would be to ask for the church in China to stop growing.

They then asked me about persecution and suffering in the West, both the threat and reality of such.  After hearing their answers, I was a bit embarrassed.  I told them that we had it fairly easy in the West, at least in the US.  I told them that we were fairly comfortable and that we seemed to do all we could to avoid persecution and suffering. 

They shook their heads in understanding and then one of them spoke up.  Perhaps we should be praying for the church in the West to experience a little persecution, he said.

I knew he was right.  I knew I needed to listen.  I knew I was being called to a deeper pursuit of the kingdom and the righteousness/justice of God.  I realized, for the first time, that the pursuit of safety and comfort was idolatrous and in direct opposition to the pursuit of the kingdom and the righteousness/justice of God. 

Jesus said that persecution and suffering would come to those who followed him (Luke 21:12-19).  We see this played out in the balance of the New Testament.  We see Stephen responding with joy as the stones flew (Acts 7:54-60).  We see Paul and Silas being able to sing hymns and pray, while in prison and after being beaten (Acts 16:16-25).  We see the long list of those of whom the world was not worthy in Hebrews 11.  We see that there will one day be a day when the number of martyrs is complete (Revelation 6:9-11). 

This is what we wait for.   We are waiting for the number of martyrs to be complete.  We are waiting for the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to all people groups (Matthew 24:14).  Until this time, there will be suffering.  It is unavoidable, no matter how hard we try.  However, with this suffering comes the joy of being a thread in the weaving of the tapestry of the kingdom of God.

This is why James could say:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.  You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.  So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  James 1:2-4 (The Message)

In less than a week we celebrate the first coming of our King.  As we wait for his return, let us not be guilty of running from suffering; for it is only in such that we will be able to express the joy that will draw others to the kingdom. 

Until ALL Have Heard,

Eric

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard   

Lainie Petersen    

Peggy Brown    

Sonja    

Adam Copeland   

John the Shepherd    

Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander    

Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson    

Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall   

Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin   

Kingdom Grace    

Matt Stone

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Joy to the World...

Our theme for Advent this week is Joy.  Phillip D. Kenneson, in his book Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community, defines Joy as the activity of freely taking delight in something or someone beyond one's self (page 59).  Kenneson suggests that people deeply rooted in the dominant cultural ethos have a difficult time experiencing joy (page 65).  He goes on to explain:

We are encouraged from an early age to seek our own pleasure above all else.  Such relentless pursuit of personal pleasure is what the dominant culture means by "the pursuit of happiness."  Each of us is urged, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, to pursue our own individually-defined happiness; in almost every case, we are called to pursue that which promises to give pleasure to each of us as individuals.  The dominant culture also has enormous power to form our desires and affections.  If one doubts this, simply consider the following questions: Where did we learn to desire what we desire? Where did we learn what we should want out of life? Or what we should wear or eat? Or what we should look like? Or what car to drive or house to buy? Or what we should do with our time?  Although most of our desires have complex sources, we would be naive to doubt the significant impact that the dominant culture wields in shaping - and in many cases fabricating- those desires. (page 65)

In other words, we live in a culture that teaches from day one that it is all about us.  This ethos is what makes it so difficult for us to look beyond ourselves and actually see the kingdom.  This ethos is what causes us to read the Bible from a me perspective instead of a kingdom perspective.  This ethos is what robs us of true Joy.

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make know his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.  Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.  Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."  Isaiah 12:2-6

If we do not understand that Joy is taking delight in something or someone beyond one's self, we might just miss what is happening in these verses.  We might just focus on God being our salvation and our drinking water from his wells.  We might not read on and see what true Joy looks like; the proclamation to the peoples in all the earth of what God has done. 

I received a report from our work in India this week, in which there is a story of a man who understands what Joy is.  This poor, tribal man in Central India became a follower of Jesus last month.  His new found Joy led him to walk to all of his family, friends and acquaintances so he could share with them what Jesus has done.  In just three weeks, this man shared his testimony with more than 200 people and was instrumental in helping to start two new groups, to which seekers are coming to find out more about this Joy that can be found in following Jesus.  Wow!

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Isaac Watts

What would happen if more of us were like the man in India?  What would happen if more of us knew true Joy?  My prayer is that we will become people of Joy and that we will be compelled to walk to all we know, and even beyond, until ALL have heard.

May it begin with me,

Eric

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard   

Lainie Petersen    

Peggy Brown    

Sonja    

Adam Copeland   

John the Shepherd    

Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander    

Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson    

Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall   

Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin   

Kingdom Grace    

Matt Stone

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Blessed are the shalom makers...

The Advent theme for this week is Peace.  I have struggled with what to write as peace seems to be such an elusive thing.  Most of us have experienced seasons of personal peace, but, it doesn't seem that we ever see such on the global scale.  This is what I have been struggling with.  Why is it this way?  Why do we not see and experience more peace on earth and good will toward men?

My handy Vine's Expository defines peace as harmonious relationships between men (and women of course) and nations.  In the Old Testament, peace is the English translation of shalom, which has an even deeper, more holistic meaning centered in completeness and wholeness between the Creator and the created. 

It is with this understanding that I began to pray through Isaiah 9:2-7 and Isaiah 11:1-9.  The following verses overwhelmed me:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:6-9

Yes, I have read them before.  This time it was different.  I began to ask God why.  Why is it that children are not playing with poisonous snakes and leading the calf and the lion and the leopard around?  Why is it that the earth is not filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea?  Why is it that it seems that there is less and less completeness and wholeness between the Creator and the created?  Why?

Then my thoughts went to the U2 song Peace on Earth, written by Bono.  I have not been able to get this song out of my head.  Bono wrote this song about the August 15, 1998 Omagh Bombing in Northland Ireland, in which twenty-nine people were killed.  The final verse of the song goes like this:

Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth?
This peace on Earth

And then my thoughts went here:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  Matthew 5:9

I finally saw a direction in my thoughts.  Isaiah 11:6-9 gives a clear picture of the kingdom coming and God's will being done on earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).   The song by U2 is my cry as well.  Why, God, do hope and history not rhyme?  Why is there no peace on earth?  God's answer to my cry is  for me to go and be a peacemaker.  I am to be a shalom maker, one who pursues the kingdom in all its fullness.  This is why hope and history do not rhyme; because there are not enough shalom makers.

We who live between the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and the final establishment of the kingdom he came to bring, the kingdom in which justice and peace shall be knit together at last and for ever – we are entrusted with a mission. Not simply to save a few souls from the wreck of this world, since God so loved the world and has promised to redeem it. Nor simply to tinker with the world’s own systems, merely to do things a bit differently here or there. No: rather, by prayer and courage, and holiness and hard work – and it will be hard work – we are called to discover the practical ways in today’s and tomorrow’s world of seeking justice without violence, of making and maintaining peace without tyranny.  N.T. Wright

Yes, Jesus came.  He is the Prince of Peace.  He is the King.  The King has come and with him, the kingdom.  However, the kingdom must be pursued.  We must chase after it.  We must run hard and fast.  We must be peace makers.  We must give our lives.  We must follow Jesus, who sent us just as the Father had sent him.  Then, individual by individual and people group by people group the kingdom will come in all its fullness and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  We must do this until the King comes again...

Here am I, send me...

Eric

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard   

Lainie Petersen    

Peggy Brown    

Sonja    

Adam Copeland   

John the Shepherd    

Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander    

Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson    

Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall   

Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin   

Kingdom Grace    

Matt Stone

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Hope can come in unexpected ways...

Hope has truly been the theme at our house this week, but not in the way we had anticipated.  You see, Wednesday we learned that my mother-in-law has cancer in her liver.  We had thought that there was no cancer because a previous biopsy had indicated such.  However, the MRI and CT-Scan had too many shadows for her doctors to be convinced, so they decided to try again.  This time, well...

Now all this talk about hope is really being put to the test.  Are we going to continue to hope in God even when the outcome may not be what we want?  Are we going to continue to hope for healing even when everything suggests otherwise?  Are we going to continue to hope...

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.  For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.  Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.  Psalm 33:20-22

Yes, we will continue to hope, because God is God and we are not.  God was not surprised by the biopsy report, even though we were.  We will hope in God because...

I hope this next part doesn't stretch your theology too much...

We believe in dreams and visions at our house.  My wife and her mother have been asking God to send them a dream or a vision of hope.  God answered their prayers last night...

My wife had a dream in which she kept crawling up into God's lap and letting him hug her and hold her like she was a little child.  He would sit down and let her do this anytime she wanted.   We see this as a promise from God that he will always be there and that we should continue to hope in him and his plan...

What did God look like?  Well, Morgan Freeman, from the Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty movies, who else?

Hope can come in unexpected ways...

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard   

Lainie Petersen    

Peggy Brown    

Sonja    

Adam Copeland   

John the Shepherd    

Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander    

Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson    

Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall   

Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin   

Kingdom Grace    

Matt Stone

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Waiting for our blessed hope...

T

his is my first "official" post in the Johannine Advent synchroblog.  The theme for week one is Hope. The Vines Expository Dictionary defines  Hope as favorable and confident expectation and the happy expectation of good.  We see that expectation is significant to the meaning of Hope.  I like what  Sonja had to say in her post today about the "difference between having expectations and living expectantly."  Basically, it comes down to the focus of our expectations.  Are we expecting things for our good or for the good of all.  My Hope this Advent season is to have fewer expectations while living more expectantly. 

I have chosen to meditate on Titus 2:11-13 this week.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

What an incredible Scripture.   I see two appearances in this passage; grace and glory.  The grace of God came when the Messiah was born.  The glory of God will come in its fullness when the Messiah returns the second time. 

The appearance of grace was preceded by a period of Hope.  I think of Eve and the Hope she had in naming her third son Seth, Hoping that Seth was the one appointed to bruise the head of the serpent. (Genesis 4:25 and 3:15)  I think of Abraham and the Hope he had when Isaac asked him where the lamb for a burnt offering was, Hoping that God would provide the lamb. (Genesis 22:7-8)  I think of Rahab and the Hope she had when she hid the spies and hung the scarlet cord from her window. (Joshua 2:1, 18)  I think of the unborn baby John and the Hope expressed in his leaping in his mother's womb when the expectant Mary entered the house. (Luke 1:41)  I think of Simeon and the Hope expressed in his life of waiting for the consolation of Israel. (Luke 2:25)  I think of Anna and the Hope finally fulfilled after an eighty-four year wait. (Luke 2:36-38)  The grace of God has come and the first period of Hope is over, well at least for those of us who have heard that grace has come.

The glory of God and all its fullness has not yet come, however, and we are still in a period of Hope.  We are Hoping for the time when God's will is done on earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew  6:10)  We are Hoping for the time when an uncountable multitude from "every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" (Revelation 7:9) is able to stand in the glory of God and worship him forever and ever.  We are waiting for our blessed Hope.  We are living expectantly, saying, "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20)  And, we are living expectantly, doing all we can to tell those who have never heard that the grace of God has appeared, knowing that there is a connection between their hearing and his coming.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.  Matthew 24:14

Waiting for our blessed Hope by going expectantly to those who have never heard,

Eric

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Please check the following blogs regularly during this advent season as we will all be making "random" Advent posts in some kind of synchronized fashion:

Brother Maynard     Lainie Petersen     Peggy Brown     Sonja    

Adam Copeland   John the Shepherd     Rob Robinson   

Christine Sine   Lori Bjerkander     Glenn Jordan   

Julie Clawson     Cindy Bryan   Robin Dugall   Lyn Hallewell   

J. Michael Matkin    Kingdom Grace     Matt Stone

Johannine Advent Synchroblog

I have to admit that I do not know much about Advent.  The context of my spiritual upbringing provided very little exposure.  In fact, my understanding of Advent has pretty much been limited to candles and liturgical readings.  So, when I saw Brother Maynard's open invitation to join him in an Advent synchroblog I decided I needed to dive in and find out first hand what this season is all about.

The synchroblog starts December 2.  I hope to post a couple of times per week, but will follow what is happening on the other blogs and seek to follow the Spirit’s leadership.

My co-bloggers are listed below:

Brother Maynard     Lainie Petersen     Peggy Brown     Sonja    

Adam Copeland   John the Shepherd     Rob Robinson    Christine Sine   

Lori Bjerkander     Glenn Jordan   Julie Clawson     Cindy Bryan   

Robin Dugall     Lyn Hallewell     J. Michael Matkin    

Kingdom Grace     Matt Stone

I hope you will join with us as we collectively contemplate the longing the Hebrew people must have experienced as they waited for the Messiah.  After all, are we not currently experiencing the same longings as we wait for Jesus to return?

Until ALL Have Heard,

jeg