How long has it been since you have watched or read a Christmas Carol? I haven't seen it in years, but I can still picture some of the encounter between Scrooge and his three Christmas visitors. The ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge back to his childhood and his abandonment by his family, to an engagement broken off because his love for money had outpaced his love for people, and to other moments of brokenness and isolation and bitterness that had developed over the years. Even as he sees joy-filled moments, in the present he can only look at those as treasures left unappreciated and eventually lost.
The ghost of Christmas yet to come (future) takes Scrooge to an equally unpleasant place where all of our fears for the future come together: disliked by others, every penny earned now in the hands of others, appreciated more as dead than if he were alive. The sobering journeys to the past, present, and future spur a realization in Scrooge; a change must be made, lessons must be learned, a new person must emerge.
Our relationship with God has something to say about both our past and our future. God's love and His grace greet you with words of forgiveness that tear down the barriers between anything in your past and Him. That doesn't mean that consequences may endure, but God's forgiveness and the love He has for you in Jesus ensures that your past does not preclude you from a relationship with God. I love the Day 33 emphasis on God's forgiveness for our past and His faithfulness for our future. All of our past failures and our future fears we can entrust to God. The past, present, and future can all be surrendered to God, placed in His hands for safe keeping and guidance... for He is full of forgiveness and forever faithful. What is God calling you to let go of and turn over to Him, either from the past, in to present, or down the road in the future?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Christmas Conversation Day 28-31
Alright, I have it in my mind to complete posts for the entire devotion booklet... counting this one I am thinking I am down to 3 (of course, with me, that means maybe 4?). At the same time we will be transitioning some of the blog use to our new series of Sunday messages bringing new perspectives from God's Word with the new year.
In an act of great audacity, I am going to tweak Ryan's (the author, a sem classmate, and sem intramural opponent) Day 28 metaphor. When I think of God's work in my life it is not necessarily as a work-in-progress and a constant attempt by God to make me a better person. I'm not thinking in terms of surface improvements like filling in pot-holes or cracks or even repaving over road that has been worn-down. I'm also not thinking in terms of lane expansion so that God is adding more road to what was already there or beautification as if He were making the ride more enjoyable by adding pleasant things to experience along the drive.
The Bible talks in terms of the old being gone so that something new can be created. God doesn't come into our lives to make improvements, He comes to remove the old and bring the new. He comes to kill that which is in opposition to Him and raise up a new person living a new life with a new heart filled with a new love that provides new impulses, new desires, new attitudes, new behaviors, new everything. Within the metaphor, God puts on the hard hat, takes a jack hammer to our life, comes in with some heavy equipment to drag out the remnants, and then He lays down a new road (the metaphor gets tricky here and probably breaks down so I will simply describe the new road as...) that connects our life to Jesus.
I love the way Ryan then uses three days to demonstrate an awesome truth about your relationship with God and the new life that He brings. God knows you and He has created you with a certain uniqueness. You and you alone are you (That is my profound statement for the day). That means that YOU have interests and talents and passions and "mad skeelz" all given by God. And YOU can use these things you like to do and these things you are good at doing to glorify God and serve others. You don't have to be someone you're not and fit into someone else's image of an ideal you. Be the YOU God has made you to be. YOUR relationship with God will carry with it some of YOUR uniqueness. God will heal you and strengthen you and challenge you and grow you and use you based on the you that He has made you and you alone to be. What do you look forward to the most in a relationship (Pause, ponder, ponder some more, proceed)... apply that answer to your relationship with God.
In an act of great audacity, I am going to tweak Ryan's (the author, a sem classmate, and sem intramural opponent) Day 28 metaphor. When I think of God's work in my life it is not necessarily as a work-in-progress and a constant attempt by God to make me a better person. I'm not thinking in terms of surface improvements like filling in pot-holes or cracks or even repaving over road that has been worn-down. I'm also not thinking in terms of lane expansion so that God is adding more road to what was already there or beautification as if He were making the ride more enjoyable by adding pleasant things to experience along the drive.
The Bible talks in terms of the old being gone so that something new can be created. God doesn't come into our lives to make improvements, He comes to remove the old and bring the new. He comes to kill that which is in opposition to Him and raise up a new person living a new life with a new heart filled with a new love that provides new impulses, new desires, new attitudes, new behaviors, new everything. Within the metaphor, God puts on the hard hat, takes a jack hammer to our life, comes in with some heavy equipment to drag out the remnants, and then He lays down a new road (the metaphor gets tricky here and probably breaks down so I will simply describe the new road as...) that connects our life to Jesus.
I love the way Ryan then uses three days to demonstrate an awesome truth about your relationship with God and the new life that He brings. God knows you and He has created you with a certain uniqueness. You and you alone are you (That is my profound statement for the day). That means that YOU have interests and talents and passions and "mad skeelz" all given by God. And YOU can use these things you like to do and these things you are good at doing to glorify God and serve others. You don't have to be someone you're not and fit into someone else's image of an ideal you. Be the YOU God has made you to be. YOUR relationship with God will carry with it some of YOUR uniqueness. God will heal you and strengthen you and challenge you and grow you and use you based on the you that He has made you and you alone to be. What do you look forward to the most in a relationship (Pause, ponder, ponder some more, proceed)... apply that answer to your relationship with God.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Christmas Conversations Day 23-27
As I go back over these days, written with the intention of being read in the days before and after Christmas, a consistent theme jumps out at me that links each day with the others. In each reading I am hearing a call to something bigger.
Day 23: My relationship with God is not just between me and God. My connection with God is something bigger, it connects me with other Christians, pulling me into a community (what a deep and meaningful word which we easily take for granted) with other believers and equipping me to share the awesome joy God gives to me with those who need to experience it. I love the admission here that we gather not just because we get along (there will be disagreements), not just because we have the exact same interests, not just because those sitting in worship with us are our best friends forever. We are connected with one another in a unity which is much bigger- the love God has expressed for us in Jesus.
Day 24: We all have our certain preferences when it comes to the brand of milk we drink, the shoes we wear, or the fast food joint we hit when time is short. Maybe you like an aisle seat on a flight or maybe you are a window person. Maybe you like it cold (you are insane) or maybe you like the July heat. Packers-Vikings. Coke-Pepsi. Fake Christmas tree or real. When it comes to church we have preferences too, but there is something bigger. Jesus. More than the music, more than the teaching style, more than the color of the pews, or the absence of pews, or the use of hymnals or projection screens... it is Jesus that defines the church, leads the church, grows the church, and unifies the church.
Day 25: Our feelings are constantly in flux. Moods come and go. Situations change, for the better as well as for the worse. But there is one thing that stays the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is something bigger than how I feel right now or what my life looks like in this moment. God's loving faithfulness which saves people from sin and its consequences will not change and it will not waver and it will not lessen. You may doubt whether God could love you, you could wonder if God has disappeared and left you to face life on your own, you may feel like the whole world is against you and there is no hope. But God's love is bigger than you could ever imagine.
Day 26: A new-born, confused parents, a census issued by the government, simple clothes, the humble manger scene. It doesn't look like much, the whole thing comes across as pretty insignificant actually. But there is something so much bigger going on in Bethlehem as God comes to be with us. Good news of great joy!
Day 27: The joy and celebration of Christmas is limited on the calendar to one day. We bemoan the stores that begin pulling out red and green merchantise in October and who can name more than three gifts of the 12 days of Christmas (11 pipers piping, five golden rings, and a partridge in a pear tree... bonus 2 turtle doves... can you beat 4?) Christmas gets thrown out with the wrapping paper and packed back into boxes which are placed in the back of the closet. But there is something bigger. A God who wants a relationship with you. A God who desires to transform every aspect of your life and fill it with meaning. A God who would give anything and has given everything for you to know Him.
Day 23: My relationship with God is not just between me and God. My connection with God is something bigger, it connects me with other Christians, pulling me into a community (what a deep and meaningful word which we easily take for granted) with other believers and equipping me to share the awesome joy God gives to me with those who need to experience it. I love the admission here that we gather not just because we get along (there will be disagreements), not just because we have the exact same interests, not just because those sitting in worship with us are our best friends forever. We are connected with one another in a unity which is much bigger- the love God has expressed for us in Jesus.
Day 24: We all have our certain preferences when it comes to the brand of milk we drink, the shoes we wear, or the fast food joint we hit when time is short. Maybe you like an aisle seat on a flight or maybe you are a window person. Maybe you like it cold (you are insane) or maybe you like the July heat. Packers-Vikings. Coke-Pepsi. Fake Christmas tree or real. When it comes to church we have preferences too, but there is something bigger. Jesus. More than the music, more than the teaching style, more than the color of the pews, or the absence of pews, or the use of hymnals or projection screens... it is Jesus that defines the church, leads the church, grows the church, and unifies the church.
Day 25: Our feelings are constantly in flux. Moods come and go. Situations change, for the better as well as for the worse. But there is one thing that stays the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is something bigger than how I feel right now or what my life looks like in this moment. God's loving faithfulness which saves people from sin and its consequences will not change and it will not waver and it will not lessen. You may doubt whether God could love you, you could wonder if God has disappeared and left you to face life on your own, you may feel like the whole world is against you and there is no hope. But God's love is bigger than you could ever imagine.
Day 26: A new-born, confused parents, a census issued by the government, simple clothes, the humble manger scene. It doesn't look like much, the whole thing comes across as pretty insignificant actually. But there is something so much bigger going on in Bethlehem as God comes to be with us. Good news of great joy!
Day 27: The joy and celebration of Christmas is limited on the calendar to one day. We bemoan the stores that begin pulling out red and green merchantise in October and who can name more than three gifts of the 12 days of Christmas (11 pipers piping, five golden rings, and a partridge in a pear tree... bonus 2 turtle doves... can you beat 4?) Christmas gets thrown out with the wrapping paper and packed back into boxes which are placed in the back of the closet. But there is something bigger. A God who wants a relationship with you. A God who desires to transform every aspect of your life and fill it with meaning. A God who would give anything and has given everything for you to know Him.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Christmas Conversations Day 19-22
Christmas is over. Not just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... but all 12 days! The stores are now filled with pink hearts pointing us toward the next holiday on the calnedar. So has the time passed for Christmas conversations to be part of our dialogue? Not a chance! The conversations that flow out of Christmas and the truth of Jesus' birth and its consequences cannot be collapsed or condensed into a day or week or month-long celebration. It's our life!
I am sitting in the mall food-court as I write this. By far this is my favorite part of the mall, and it's not because of the food. It's because of the people. As I write this there are the same mall employees that I see every week wiping off tables and sweeping up crumbs. There are kids being kids on the indoor playground while parents sit and watch- some on their cell-phones, some on their hands and knees joining in the fun. There are people standing in line waiting for food. There are people on the other side of the counter preparing and serving the food. There are three old men sitting at a table drinking coffee, there arethree younger men wearing clothes that mark them as a road crew, there's two kids seat-belted into their stroller and bundled in their winter gear. How do you think these people view time? Right now in this food court in Fargo on a Tuesday afternoon, how do they view time? Each a little differently, maybe? The kids in the stroller different then the employee on a break. The Taco John taco-makers different than the three guys who are headed back outside to work (today's wind-chill is about 35 below).
Day 19 gets us thinking about time. Time is precious in the busy days leading up to Christmas but in our world of multi-tasking and filled calendars, time is always important and on our minds. The author (Ryan) praises us for using a portion of our time to grow in our faith through the Conversation. He also asks us to consider how God considers time and gives us some hints about the answer. God acts at the right time. Right now we can see the gifts that God has given to us and we can enjoy them and we can celebrate. Our relationship with God is not just something to use when we die, it gives us a new way to live each day. A verse that I am keeping close this week in preparation for this week's message is John 5:24; Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life... at that point you have passed from death to life. Think about time in a new way, your days are already eternally linked to God. In Christ your life has an eternal quality already now at this moment. Our Christmas conversation says life will never be the same.
I am sitting in the mall food-court as I write this. By far this is my favorite part of the mall, and it's not because of the food. It's because of the people. As I write this there are the same mall employees that I see every week wiping off tables and sweeping up crumbs. There are kids being kids on the indoor playground while parents sit and watch- some on their cell-phones, some on their hands and knees joining in the fun. There are people standing in line waiting for food. There are people on the other side of the counter preparing and serving the food. There are three old men sitting at a table drinking coffee, there arethree younger men wearing clothes that mark them as a road crew, there's two kids seat-belted into their stroller and bundled in their winter gear. How do you think these people view time? Right now in this food court in Fargo on a Tuesday afternoon, how do they view time? Each a little differently, maybe? The kids in the stroller different then the employee on a break. The Taco John taco-makers different than the three guys who are headed back outside to work (today's wind-chill is about 35 below).
Day 19 gets us thinking about time. Time is precious in the busy days leading up to Christmas but in our world of multi-tasking and filled calendars, time is always important and on our minds. The author (Ryan) praises us for using a portion of our time to grow in our faith through the Conversation. He also asks us to consider how God considers time and gives us some hints about the answer. God acts at the right time. Right now we can see the gifts that God has given to us and we can enjoy them and we can celebrate. Our relationship with God is not just something to use when we die, it gives us a new way to live each day. A verse that I am keeping close this week in preparation for this week's message is John 5:24; Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life... at that point you have passed from death to life. Think about time in a new way, your days are already eternally linked to God. In Christ your life has an eternal quality already now at this moment. Our Christmas conversation says life will never be the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)