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Growing agony, growing peace.

Posted on August 25, 2008
7 Comments

I’ve spent the last three days in Juneau, Alaska. The new home of my daughter, now a Freshman in college.

It’s been an interesting three days. You can get within a few feet of bears. You can see Bald Eagles around town. There are wolves in the woods, and the woods are everywhere. It has rained virtually non-stop since we got here. There are multiple glaciers and there is snow on all the local mountains. The Summers in Juneau are like the Winters in Southern California. Yet there is a refreshing since of hospitality. And the beauty of the place is everything and more of what people say about Alaska.

But the really interesting thing about Juneau is leaving my eighteen year daughter here.

The idea of being a protective father is no longer achievable. She will simply be toooooo far away.

I am not at peace with any of it.

Yet, in the midst of my growing agony, I have a good number of deep thoughts about God and his character and the role of my faith in Him.

They’ve been good thoughts. Not easy, but good. I have no choice but to trust God. I have no choice but to let go.

The next several months and years will be a growing experience for my daughter. There will also be some growing pains for her parents.

It’s a good thing I am a Christian. Otherwise, my agony would be compounded, and I wouldn’t have someone greater to lean upon. As I have no choice but to let go and trust God, I also have a great God with whom I can trust.

There is a growing peace in that thought. I hope it grows as thick and as immense as the woods all around Juneau.

Some pictures of Juneau.  More pictures of Juneau.

Strong and Mighty

Posted on August 21, 2008
2 Comments

This is one of my favorite places.

Under the Southern footing of the Golden Gate Bridge is Fort Point.

At the end of it’s construction (1861), it was a massively fortified military instillation to protect the Golden Gate during the height of the Gold Rush. Nothing rivaled it West of the Mississippi.

Today you can walk all through it. The guns are gone, but the massive walls and arches give an unmistakable impression of strength and power. Link, Link, Link, Link, Link

To me, there has always been a distinct spiritual impression in the old fort. God is a bulwark. Martin Luther wrote that a mighty fortress is our God. King David wrote that God is a strong fortress.

Sometimes we are tempted to decease the size and strength of our God. And at other times, we simply forget the strength and power of who we serve.

May we consciously guard against such overt or subtle thinking. And may we intentionally make much of our God. The greater our God is, the greater our faith and joy, and the greater our desire to obey and serve him.

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Our pursuit of pleasure

Posted on August 3, 2008
9 Comments

While this photograph may not exactly depict how you seek pleasure, one way or another we all seek it. Perhaps for you it in a good book, or a delicious piece of pie, or a riveting TV drama or a some of those sentimental or rambunctious songs on your iPod.

Regardless of how we go about it, we all truly go about it. We all seek pleasure; emotional pleasure, physical pleasure, taste and audio and visual pleasure.

And we Christians also seek Spiritual pleasure. It might be praise songs, or a favorite preacher or author. It might be fellowship or service or giving. But again, we all seek pleasure. It is the way God made us.

But, we gotta be careful. We are not made to seek pleasure as a child does, wanting to spend their days at Disneyland and at a candy store. Christians seek pleasure, as adults, who understand that healthy pleasure is pursued in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Children want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. They want to be independent. The are subtly or overtly selfish. They don’t want someone telling them what to do or when to do it. In a way, they want to a god of sorts, with the freedom and power to do as they wish.

Adults too often want to be god in their own way. But such a thing is pleasure stealer, not a pleasure giver. The better we know Jesus. The better we’ll know pleasure. And the better we pursue pleasure in a relational way with Jesus, the better we’ll know true and lasting and rich pleasure.

Such a pursuit wont disappoint.

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Coyote

Posted on August 1, 2008
2 Comments

I saw one of these the other day.

It trotted across the street and into a park. Several people were around and it seemed unconcerned about all of them.

I saw it as gift from God to be able to see such an animal. Of late, I am often too busy and distracted to notice such gifts our Lord has for us.

God has big spiritual gifts for us. And he also has small, simple gifts for us. He’s a good God. He likes to both move our hearts and lift our spirits.

I am grateful God slowed me down enough to see the coyote. Even when I am busy and distracted God seeks to get my attention. And if he does it with something as simple as a coyote, I am convinced he also does it with the deeper things.

He’s a good God!

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The Joy of the Forgiven

Posted on July 30, 2008
8 Comments

Six truths…

1) We have all sinned. 2) And we are all responsible for each of our sins.

3) Thus, in the court of our own minds and in the court of God’s justice we are guilty of our sins.

4) And thus, we deserve the consequences for our sins. If we are responsible for our sins, then as adults, we should be willing to be held accountable for our sins. Children want to avoid accountability. Adults, on the other hand, take responsibility for their actions.

5) If we have sinned against God, then we are accountable to him for each sin.

6) God hates sin, he declares us responsible for it, and he has declared that we are guilty of it, and he will punish each of our sins.

We know how this line of thought ends. Jesus was punished for each of our sins.

We must not, though, rush too quickly to the end and not squarely face the beginning and the middle.

As John Stott writes, “There is no joy comparable to the joy of the forgiven.”

The greater our soberness over what we have been (and can be!) forgiven for, the greater our joy will be. The joy of the forgiven is joy indeed!

(The thoughts for this post come from the fourth chapter of the book “The Cross of Christ” by John Stott.)

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Surprised by God

Posted on July 28, 2008
2 Comments

It is good for me to be surprised by God.

I tend to settle into a mental framework of who God is and what God does. And for the most part I think that framework is pretty solid.

But from time to time, I see or read or hear something that reminds me that God is bigger and wiser and greater than I had thought.

I came across this photograph today. And my first reaction was to look closely at his eyes. I counted six, but I wasn’t sure. So I looked it up. It has EIGHT eyes.

Either way, six or eight, I find my God, once again, amazing and awesome. I never knew such an animal existed. I never knew my God created such an animal. It all points to God’s glory.

It is good for my soul to be surprised by God. It reminds me of his greatness and of my need to humble myself before his greatness.

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Carnivorous

Posted on July 26, 2008
2 Comments

If I understand sin correctly, it is carnivorous.

Not only is the devil on the prowl, but our sinful, fallen nature is both pervasive and aggressive.

The Good Book is replete with assurances that he who is in us is greater than he who is in this world. And it contains an abundance of promises for the weak as well as for the strong.

For me, at least, it is good to reminded of the converse of the good things the Bible says about sin. That is, it is good for me to be reminded that the devil and our sinful nature are so formidable, that we need, desperately need, a great savior with great promises.

How formidable is sin? On our own, we do not posses the strength to defeat it, or even avoid it. And worse, we do not posses, on our own, the ability to even grasp just how carnivorous or pervasive or aggressive it is.

We are sitting ducks. We have no natural immune system to it. It will destroy us.

Let us not flirt with anything sinful. Rather let us resist sin, in the power of our Lord, and it will flee from us. If we don’t resist, we’ll surely lose. Sin is carnivorous.

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Six hundred and seventy!!!

Posted on July 24, 2008
2 Comments

This picture is a weakness of mine. For about a year now, I have had one of these to drink at Starbucks once or twice a week.

And now I have a problem. For the last month or so I have been trying to lose weight. It started with a little exercise and some minor caution in what I ate.

And as the weeks have progressed I have exercised more and taken a greater notice of what I have been eating. I started counting calories and in the process I have gained a painful education. Not all foods are created equal.

Some foods, some very special foods, are seriously cursed with calories. My favorite drink has SIX HUNDRED and SEVENTY calories. That is a truck load. And now an emotionally painful truck load.

By the grace of God, at about the same time, I began to ask God to make me more sensitive to sin. I asked him to give me thinner skin and a higher awareness and much less tolerance of the things he hated.

As I react in pain to my new caloric education. I want to equally react in pain to my increased sensitivity to God’s holy standard.

I need fewer calories. And I need fewer sins. The loss will do me much good. The pain will be worth it.

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The most powerful incentive

Posted on July 22, 2008
4 Comments

In the shadow of all of Jerusalem commemorating the Passover lamb, Jesus broke bread and said it represented his body on the cross. In the memory of the blood of the Passover lamb being put over doors to save the first born in Egypt, Jesus poured out the wine and said it represented his own blood which would be poured out on the cross to save sinners.

In the darkness of night, Jesus prayed that the cup of God’s wrath might be taken away from him. It wasn’t the cup of the scourging or the mockery or the betrayal, but the cup of all the wrath that God had for all of man’s sins. Our Lord’s anguish was so great that he sweated from the thought of what he would have to bear. No man can grasp our Lord’s burden in those prayers.

On the cross, in the middle of the day, a day that grown literally dark, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was quoting the twenty-second Psalm. He knew the answer to the “Why”, and his quote was stating the anguish of reality.

At that moment, Jesus was bearing the cup of God’s wrath. He was paying the price to bring people to God. He became a curse, so we that we wouldn’t be a curse. He became our very sins, so we wouldn’t have to face God’s holy and resolute anger. He died our death, so that we wouldn’t duly earn our well-deserved wages of sin.

He not only had to drink the cup of God’s wrath, he had to drain it. All of it. And then it was over. Jesus’ words were, “It is finished!” Then he gave up his spirit.

If this is the cost of sin, it must be extremely horrible. John Stott writes, “It is impossible to face Christ’s cross with integrity and not to feel ashamed of ourselves.” How can someone die in such a way and for such a reason, and the guilty party not feel ashamed?

The cross of Christ is the most powerful incentive to live a holy life. Romans 12:1

(The thoughts in this post come from the third chapter in the book, “The Cross of Christ” by John Stott.)

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Who killed Jesus?

Posted on July 20, 2008
6 Comments

The soldiers did. They nailed him to the cross. They hoisted the him. They stood guard while he suffered. They watched his agony and heard his cries. The heard him breath his last.

But it was Pilate who handed Jesus over to the soldiers. Three times Pilate claimed Jesus was innocent. Four times Pilate tried wiggle out of condemning him. Yet in the end, while his hands were still wet from trying washing his hands of responsibility, he handed him over to be killed.

But it was Caiaphas who handed Jesus over to Pilate. Jesus intruded into the religion of the day and their tolerance of him had come to an end. The problem was that Jesus had what they didn’t: Authentic, refreshing, transparent, and contagious spiritual authority. They were envious of him. Even Pilate saw it, Matthew records the moment, “he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.”

But it was Judas who handed Jesus over to Caiaphas. He went to the Sanhedrin and asked them, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” For money, for greed the process was set in motion.

Pilate was a coward. Caiaphas acted out envy. Judas was greedy. Yet these three men are only half the information. First, Jesus gave his life. He might have been killed, but he also gave his life as gift. Second, the sins of all mankind killed Jesus. Third, each of our individual sins killed him. Our cowardice killed him. And so did our envy and our greed.

We too choose not be responsible when we should. That is cowardice. We too choose to be envious of Jesus Christ. We dislike his interference in the way we want to live and conduct our life. He will not go away and he will not leave us alone. We envy his ability to have his way whenever he wants. And we are greedy. We love our pleasures. We cherish our lifestyles. We are quite intentional about eating what we like, watching what we like, and listening to what we like. We are greedy to have our way.

The cross means the most when we take responsibility for it. If the cross is some other persons fault, then they need it. But it if it our fault, then we need it. And we can thus be changed by such an unspeakable act of mercy brought on by our personal sins.

I want to be changed. I want to take responsibility.

(This post is largely taken from the second chapter of the book, “The Cross of Christ” by John Stott.)

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