Living life with steps of faith

“For me, the celebration of Easter puts our earthly concerns into perspective. With humility and with awe, we give thanks to the extraordinary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We reflect on the brutal pain that He suffered, the scorn that He absorbed, the sins that He bore, this extraordinary gift of salvation that He gave to us. And we try, as best we can, to comprehend the darkness that He endured so that we might receive God’s light.   “And yet, even as we grapple with the sheer enormity of Jesus’s sacrifice, on Easter we can’t lose sight of the fact that the story didn’t end on Friday. The story keeps on going. On Sunday comes the glorious Resurrection of our Savior…. Today, we celebrate the magnificent glory of our risen Savior. I pray that we will live up to His example. I pray that I will live up to His example. I fall short so often. Every day I try to do better. I pray that we will be strengthened by His eternal love. I pray that we will be worthy of His many ...

Augustine: "Evil people make evil use of all the good creations of God. Good people, on the other hand, make good use of the evil actions of the wicked. And who is as good as the one and only God?" he later writes... "For as the wicked turn the good works of God to an evil use, so inversely God turns the evil works of human beings to good.  What can be worse than what Judas did? He was chosen as the treasurer among the Twelve who would dispense gifts to the poor. But instead of being thankful for so great an honor and favor, he took the money and lost righteousness.  Being dead, he betrayed life.  The one he followed as a disciple he betrayed as an enemy.  Yet our Lord made a good use of his wickedness, allowing himself to be betrayed so that he might redeem us... If God employs the evil works of the devil himself for good, whatever the evil person does my making bad use of God's good gifts only hurts himself. It in no way contradicts the goodness ...

"There is no future, because the future has become the present, and in the present, future dreams could be made cooperatively." Not sure if this is a quote I made up myself or if I found it somewhere.

The saintly woman three generations ago was defined by from what she abstained.  Perhaps the saintly woman of today is defined by how she exhibits compassion.  Those in their 90s today define godliness and being set apart as related to a moral goodness that is internal.  Yet, when I look at the term godly or righteous, I see it in terms of external relationships, how one interacts with the stranger.  When I put these two models side-by-side, I experience a bit of friction.  I love the sinner by inviting him in, she loves the sinner by keeping him out.  She is set apart by her personal lifestyle of abstaining.  I am set apart by my personal lifestyle of engaging. We read the same passage of Scripture and hear different things.  What did it mean when Jesus said to treat the obstinate as one would a pagan or tax collector? (Matthew 18:17)  What did he mean when he invited us to live in the Spirit instead of by the flesh?  Did the flesh r...

A young man sits dreaming out his window, looking out across the sky at the beautiful sunset and the painted sky.  He dreams of another life and as his mind wanders he dreams of receiving recognition, just once, through the attention of the man his people honor with the title of "emperor."  He realizes that it is just a title, and the man is an ordinary man, but the title still makes this man special and revered.  So special, in fact, that they are willing to move walls and structures in order for people to honor this man.  The boy sits and dreams and imagines this "emperor" as weak and dying and in the midst of his great weakness the "emperor"sends a message to this Chinese boy who sits at the edge of the empire.  To the boy, he recognizes the reality that a thing like this would never happen, but in his fantasy he also realizes that a message like this would never make it to him, because he is too unimportant and too far off and there are too many peopl...

"God has no more precious gift to a church or an age than a man who lives as an embodiment of his will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do." - Andrew Murray, Leadership (Fall 1986)

Humility is of great price.

So, I don't write poetry often, but observing the pattern of the week and the weather outside, I felt compelled to write. I feel the raindrops swelling on my eyes. I see the green waves flowing over high. I see the mountain breath crisping in the air. And I feel the drowned out cloud of despair. Yet I stand here Not yet alone. God's grace billows a soft blue tone. My heart quickens beat as the light does not retreat .... and the dish runs away with the spoon.... Okay, this is where I am stuck - on the very last line. how about and angelic whispers remind me of home. So.... I feel the raindrops swelling on my eyes. I see the green waves flowing over high. I see the mountain breath crisping in the air. And I feel the drowned out cloud of despair. Yet I stand here Not yet alone. God's grace billows a soft blue tone. My heart quickens beat as the light does not retreat. And angelic whispers remind me of home.

Isaiah 55 - 56:8 (NIV) "'Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;  and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live.  I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.  See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.'  Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.  Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he wil...

I am cleaning my room and I came across a note I wrote after having a good friend visit me. I wrote, "With your best friend you can talk without thinking and when you are thinking and not talking she knows exactly what you are not saying."

As a pastor, one of my responsibilities, or should I say roles, is to help bring people back into communion or connection with God. Richard J. Foster in "Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth" writes, "The truth of the matter is that the great God of the universe, the Creator of all things desires our fellowship. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve talked with God and God talked with them--they were in communion. Then came the Fall, and in an important sense there was a rupture of the sense of perpetual communion, for Adam and Eve hid from God. But God continued to reach to his rebellious children, and in stories of such persons as Cain, Abel, Noah, and Abraham we see God speaking and acting, teaching and guiding."

Even though I was very much opposed to Sarah Palin being the Republican choice for President... er, I mean Vice President, I would be a huge supporter of her starting her very own talk show. The release of Palin's new book, "Going Rogue" and her much (too-long) awaited appearance on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" seem to have appropriately gained U.S. Americans attention as well as my own. I agree with both Jeff Simon, from "the Buffalo News" and Oprah, Sarah Palin would be a great talk show host. (See Simon's article: http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/864456.html ) Palin would be a draw for conservatives and Christians and perhaps she could still end up being the "magic" the disillusioned Republican party needs. She may not be President, but we all know how influential talk show hosts and media personalities can be -- just look at "O." Perhaps McCain wasn't too far off course - Palin perhaps is the key to his party's futur...

Wow! I came across this great statement today in a book I am reading about pastoral vocational clarity. I thought I would share it here - I think it is quite prophetic! "A pastor who is calling laity from their busy lives to committee meetings, workshops, house cleanings, and work sessions more often than to prayer and worship is serving the present confusion about the true nature and identity of God's ecclesia in the world. More times of prayer, study, and meditation; expanded opportunities of worship; and calling the faithful into sacred space for sacred time in sacred togetherness will help lead the church into its true vocation." - Victor L. Hunter in "Desert Hearts and Healing Fountains: Gaining Pastoral Vocational Clarity." p. 41

"Anytime we have any encounter with God we are reminded of two simple realities: People are meant to be loved and things are made to be used, but too often we love things and use people. And every time we encounter God we are challenged to put things back into perspective, to put things back in their proper order." -- Matthew Kelly in a September 30, 2009 speech at the Orange County Catholic Prayer Breakfast

"Would he [God] be nailed to the cross for your sins and then disregard your prayers?" - Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace I read this quote yesterday morning and it really struck me as something to think about.

"It follows from this that the universe is good, that the reason for its present lamentable state is not to be sought in the Creator but in the fact that the highest created state is that of a free, rational being, so that to create a universe capable of containing the highest form of goodness was to create a universe that depended on the free obedience of rational beings, the fall being the failure of rational beings to remain faithful to the good." - taken from xlviii of the Introduction to Genesis I-II in the "Ancient Christian Commentary On Scriptures: Old Testament I: Genesis I-II" edited by Andrew Louth, Marco Conti, Thomas C. Oden, and a list of others.

"The fiestas of the poor are truly celebrations: the poor have a reason to celebrate. Hence their celebrations are joyful, free, and spontaneous, whereas the celebrations of the rich tend to be more of a tedious chore than a spontaneous joy. They appear to be having a good time while inwardly they are worrying about wearing the right outfit, saying the right things, doing the right things, mixing with the right persons, and impressing everyone aroudn withthe multiple masks that everyone puts on to impress the others. In effect, the celebrations of the 'dignitaries' of this world are anything but joyful. How could they be joyful when they are segregated and segregating, and potentially destructive of all who take part in them? Thus it is out of the celebrations of the poor, which will always be a scandal to the rich who are not capable of truly liberative celebrations, that God's universal and barrier-destroying love will erupt for all to experience and enjoy. Part...

"God chooses an oppressed people, not to bring them comfort in their oppression, but to enable them to confront, transcend, and transform whatever in the oppressor society diminishes and destroys the fundamental dignity of human nature." - Virgilio Elizondo in "Galilean Journey: The Mexican-American Promise" (page 103) any thoughts?

"God ordered all things to be produced so that there would be common food for all, and so that the earth would be the common inheritance of all. Thus, nature has produced a common right, but greed has made it the right of a few." - Ambrose of Milan

2 Quotes from class for me to meditate on: “If you board the wrong train you can walk down the aisle in the opposite direction and still arrive at the wrong destination.” – Deitrich Bonhoeffner. “You can not use the master’s tools to destroy the master’s house.” – Audre Lorde The Bonhoeffner quote is in the context of a minister who planned to join the "Christian Nazi" party in order to infiltrate and bring change from the "inside."