Christmas in Poem

“Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beast like folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.
Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!”
     —C. S. Lewis, Into The Wardrobe

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-belov’d imprisonment,
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the world to come;
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod’s jealous general doom.
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith’s eyes, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.
     —John Donne, Nativity

On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity
This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav’n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
     –John Milton, On the Morning Of Christ’s Nativity

A New Life -- I Peter 1:3-9

Here is a 'Message' version of I Peter 1:3-9 If you can, read through it s-l-o-w-l-y... Consider the depth and undeserved richness of the gift Peter is exclaiming about. This is the gift you have been offered and have received. As you read, remember God really wants all his hand-crafted creatures to receive this gift...

A New Life I Peter 1:3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. I Peter 1:6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. I Peter 1:8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

Now, ask God to bring to mind someone(s) you and He would really love to see respond to the offer of faith.... Imagine the internal state of this person as they do so... Consider what joy it would give you (and God). Thank God that He wants this more than you.

As this person comes to mind in the future, keep before you the image you had of the person as they responded to God's offer of faith.

Father thank you for you universal call to faith. Thank you that you've placed a longing for a life built on trust deep in the heart of every human.

Help us live the reality of our new life and so witness without stressing to the joy, the laughter, the thankfulness which you've placed in us.

Thank you for new life to be lived today.

We remember as encouraged all those you call us to encourage. We look forward to all the ways you will call us to do what we see you doing in this coming week.

Thanks for being our Dad and inviting us into your family.

Mists And What Cannot Be Shaken

I am reading my way through the New Testament a bit at a time and I have been struck with how often the issue of permanence and impermanence shows up. Hebrews tells us, ‘Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…’ (Heb 12:28) and just a few pages later James reminds us, ‘For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes’ (James 4:14). In his first letter Peter speaks of our imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance and the perishable gold and silver which are unable to ransom us, so Jesus ransoms us with his imperishable blood instead. It goes on and on! Frankly this strikes me as backward. My life reality seems very solid to me. I have aches and pains, I have rock-hard financial realities I have to deal with, I want 25 year warrantees on everything I purchase, there is very concrete pressure all around. Life seems very substantive and its robust buffeting often gets in the way of my more ‘spiritual’ aspirations.

But God reveals to us through his Word that it is I who have it backwards! All these things around me and in me which seem so rugged and stable and impinge on my life so much are in fact to be shaken. They are a mist, they are passing away. The things which now appear to me so ‘spiritual’, that is vague, ephemeral, elusive, are in fact the only solid, permanent, immovable, imperishable things – the unshakeable kingdom which God has given us.

I get the image of shafts of incredibly hard glass that have been driven down into our world. We go struggling along in our solid-seeming-but-really-a-mist world and we bump up against these unseen-but-imperishable kingdom shafts. They are what is ‘really real’, not the mist which consumes our attention. We can choose to step into those shafts of kingdom life in Jesus, but we can’t yet stay in them continuously. They don’t yet fill everywhere. That is why we pray ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’. Drive more kingdom shafts into this reality. Make the kingdom more contiguous until the day you bring the whole kingdom crashing in at your return!

In the meantime the Lord through his Word tells us not to get too attached or too bent out of shape by the solid-seeming mist. He has us living here for the sake of discipleship (loving ever more Jesus and his kingdom) and mission (helping others to love Jesus and his kingdom). As the Spirit grows us we will be able to discern those invisible kingdom shafts better. They distort and shred the this-world mist around them. Bitterness turns to love, cursing to blessing, addiction to freedom, mourning to rejoicing, judgment to forgiveness, death to life! We begin to see where those kingdom shafts are and where new ones are being driven through the mist into the earth, and can begin to step into them and live there more and more—and bring others with us.

I have a long way to go. This life and its concerns still seem pretty solid to me. The more I bump into those immoveable, unshakeable, eternal shafts of the kingdom, though, the more I want to live there. The more the Spirit is opening my eyes to look for them and point them out to others so that together we can all live more and more in that kingdom which cannot be shaken.

Chaplains in the Ypsilanti Schools

Pastors in the ‘Love Ypsi’ network have been building relationships with Ypsilanti school officials over the last year. They first got involved following the suicide of a young high school girl. When they asked the Ypsilanti High School principal what they could do to help, he invited them to come and be available to students who wanted to talk with someone as they processed this tragedy. With the combining of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run school districts this Fall, school officials have anticipated a greater need for community involvement. They have asked the ‘Love Ypsi’ group to provide pastors who can just be present at the new High School and Middle School every hour school is in session! They would like them to walk the halls, talk with students, and be available if there is a need for more.

What an opportunity! Tony Weatherly, who has been largely responsible for the bridge-building, sees this as a major breakthrough and a great opportunity for the Church to serve the real needs of the broader community – and bring a Kingdom presence right into the heart of the schools.

Obviously, it will take a lot of involvement for many pastors to cover the need, so pray for the Ypsilanti pastors to catch the vision and invest the time to step into this Kairos moment – the time is now, the Kingdom of God is at hand!

God is our refuge

From Ps.344 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

When have you known God as refuge? When a boss or person in authority 'scolds' without comprehension of the truth of the situation?

When you find yourself ridiculed for being 'who you are'?  or when God allows a life crisis to overtake you without warning; Being turned down for a promotion you'd been sure about Like losing a job without notice-Failing a major exam-

For me it was the sudden death of my 20 yr. old son, John.  At such times we either run towards God as refuge or away from life as meaningless.

Day by day the Lord continues to deliver us from all our fears... As we name them and specifically seek him for freedom exercising our covenanted right to renounce them one by one!

Do you realize how radiant your face looks as you walk without shame having separated yourself from all your fears??

David's formative years were in fields watching over the sheep by night... Pondering God's beauty & greatness, his unchangeable qualities like his steadfast love and mercy, his justice, his desire for intimacy with us, his people.

Father, give us the discipline to set aside sufficient time to abide in you as David did... long enough to honestly seek, intentionally take refuge, truly taste and see your goodness, doggedly discern areas of fear/ anxiety, realize our need for deliverance and then claim it with gusto!

For all this brings you pleasure and glory!

When the going gets tough -- love one another

John in his brief second letter seems to be writing to a church undergoing some duress.  Exactly what the issues are we have to deduce from the letter, but what strikes me is John’s instruction to the church.  Basically what he has to say is, “when the going gets tough, love one another”.  This is the commandment we had from the beginning, this is the one to stick with when things are unclear or when the pressure is mounting or you don’t know what to do – love one another. As I was discussing this with some brothers and sisters in our Bible study recently, I was struck with how relevant this is for us in The Word of God right now.  We are trying to clarify our vision and move into a more missional direction.  Some things are changing, some things are not, and nothing is flowing with breathtaking power.  In the midst of this do we grow impatient, lose heart, give up?  John tells us what to do – go back to the basics and love one another.

Mother Theresa said “Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.”  This is a good corrective for those of us you hunger for inspiring and clear vision.  Don’t wait until you have it.  do the small things before us each day with great love.  As we do so, we participate in the great vision of He who is Love, and I believe our own part will become clearer.

Stay calm and love on!

Do Not Be Afraid To Speak My Word -- John Whiting

Do not be afraid to speak my word.Proclaim it strongly! People need to hear it. Even if people contradict you and oppose you, proclaim my word! My word will be vindicated by events: the humble will be raised up, and the proud will be brought low, and all people will see that Jesus is Lord!

This message came at a time when I'd been reflecting on Exodus 14:13-15. Several points in that passage stood out to me:

"Do not fear!" "Stand your ground!" "You will see the victory the Lord will win for you today." "Tell the Israelites to go forward."

As the apostle Paul wrote, we haven't received a spirit of timidity. God is bold because he knows he has something we need very badly. He knows that no obstacle can stop him, and he wants us to go forward boldly with him on his mission of mercy.

From another perspective, I was struck by the magnitude of the benefits which are provided by life in Christ even in the present "age": -knowing God personally! -receiving and perceiving infinite love -receiving forgiveness -receiving a purpose in life -freedom from: --habitual sins --addictions --fear and anxiety --resentment --pride -family ties in the Body of Christ -a sure hope -peace -joy -healing -spiritual -psychological and emotional -physical -in personal relationships -empowerment to love and to bring blessings to others -and certainly others that I've left off this list.

Spreading the Gospel is a tremendous work of mercy. As the apostle Paul wrote about the Holy Spirit -- who, of course, produces all the benefits cited above -- these benefits are the first fruits of what we'll experience in heaven. People need these things desperately. I think God wants us to keep these things in mind as we consider whether and how to share the Gospel with others. We're not "selling" merely a dry, abstract, legal forgiveness. We're offering real, living personal relationships with tangible, observable benefits in the here and now. The Kingdom of God truly IS "at hand"!

There is no discontinuity between life in heaven and life on earth. We're living in eternity now. The choices we make now and the relationships we form now will endure, with eternal consequences. I think we should keep this in mind as we consider how to evangelize. I think this is the message that we need to proclaim. Christianity is not about "pie in the sky, by and by". What we do to others, we do to Jesus. God is not an "absentee landlord". "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Kingdom of God is at hand!

Your Covenant; Your Corner of the Kingdom, by Patrick O'Connell

I gave a talk at a recent prayer meeting based on a chapter from Mike Breen’s book, Covenant & Kingdom, in which he follows these themes from Genesis to Revelations. He illustrates how these two themes repeatedly draw the believer’s attention to the overarching purpose of the Father to increase our capacity to live as citizens of heaven on earth. The talk (archived on the Word of God website for Feb. 17, 2013) addressed ways that King David’s understanding of Covenant and Kingdom informed his thinking and actions from poet shepherd to protector king. We didn’t have time for some of the ‘Practical Tips’ portion of the talk, so here they are. Try listening to my talk the others in the Covenant & Kingdom series and consider how the Spirit of God may want to use these suggestions for his glory and your benefit as his disciples. Three applications for us as heirs of the Covenant and representatives of the King.

First, the covenant promises oneness. We are one with God. He is one with us. Daily we have the privilege of accessing this reality all it takes is time…

• Time to adore,
• Time to intercede,
• Time to meditate:
  • On Creation/ Creator,
  • On Sinful leanings already forgiven,
  • On God’s character expressed in accounts of Jesus words and actions and attitudes…
  • On the whisperings of Spirit to spirit… and as we spend time hearing from God we can record this in a journal of some sort…

Second, we can use the covenant’s promise of shared authority and power to extend the King’s rule…

• In our lives - By discussing with someone things we’ve been shown about our character vs. God’s character which need to change, and some steps involved in doing so
• In the lives of others

• By including them, as led by the Spirit, in our lives
• By praying for their felt needs
• Through direct prayer ministry like praying over them for healing or offering unbound prayer.

Thirdly, we can continually seek God for wisdom to know how to join Jesus in his ongoing mission as he addresses the injustices of our day to the orphan, the disabled, the poor, the neighbor in great emotional pain, those enslaved to sin, those enslaved by the sin of others, the widow, the international.

• To get a hint of which of these (or other) injustices Jesus may be calling you to invest in correcting, just prayerfully read the list while noticing which situations which come to mind cause you the greatest sorrow, pain or anger.

Being an Enemy-lover, by Martha Balmer

I've been thinking lately about how I’m doing as an enemy-lover. I want to share with you something about my process, and I’d like to invite you to consider making a personal examination of your own. In this time of increasing polarization, I’m watching Christians argue heatedly not only with non-Christians but with each other. But my concern here is not with divisive issues. In fact, I don’t believe it is necessary or even desirable for Christians to be in perfect unison as long as they are doggedly attending to their own consciences and loving one another (check out Romans 14). So my concern is with the heart posture that produces my thoughts and influences my language while I’m fighting the good fight.

The starting point—’love your enemies’, really? My process begins with looking seriously at what Jesus said:

I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… (Luke 6:27-28)

I want to take this word seriously because the stories I’d heard and read about Christians who radically and impossibly loved and forgave their persecutors were the very stories that first drew me to Jesus. So I want to pay close attention to whether I’m living it out. I don’t want to be found a hypocrite, and I want to keep my promise to follow Jesus. He did say, after all, that I couldn’t expect to be recognizable as his follower unless I’m loving my enemies:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them… (Luke 6:32)

Humanly impossible love served as evidence for me that something greater than flesh was at work—evidence that God had broken into the world and was restoring his image and likeness in people, cultivating in them a family resemblance to himself:

Then …you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:35b-36)

Do I really have enemies? Still, when I was young I thought that “enemies” was an awfully strong word, and I now realize that I took for granted that it would never really be applicable to any of my relationships. I saw myself as always good and kind to others, and I expected to go through life without enemies. But real life turned out to be a humbling experience in that regard. Not only did some people resent and, yes, even hate me despite my best efforts, but I’ve had to admit that I’m not actually as loving as I used to believe. My own capacity for resentment and vindictiveness, once masked by denial, is now apparent to me.

I was amazed at how the everyday chatter in my head, once I actually began to pay attention to it, betrayed the wickedness lurking in the corners of my heart. “I’m so glad I’m not as clueless as that woman!” “Doesn’t that guy know how to use a turn signal?” And dozens of daily emotional responses to people—at work, in town, in the news—that never surface clearly enough to form a phrase. My heart is a fountain of judgment and contempt, clearly un-Christ like, clearly in violation of Jesus’ command to love.

It was tempting to reason that the people I’ve alluded to—with the possible exception of the one who actually hates me—weren’t really my enemies, and that my inner chatter falls somewhere on a spectrum to which “love your enemies” isn’t strictly applicable. But I had to admit that that wasn’t the approach I saw Jesus take to such questions. (Remember that the one who calls someone “fool” is violating the command against murder!) Nor was it the approach that sat right with the Spirit in my heart.

Accuser or Advocate-who is talking? I began to examine myself more critically. I figured that when I plead technicalities, chances are good I’m listening to the Accuser, not the Advocate. The truth is, the process of wrestling with my heart attitudes in prayer has fully convinced me that, for the purpose of understanding and living out this uniquely Christian command, the true definition of “enemy” is less “someone who is against me” than “someone I am against.”

When a relationship at work became so toxic that I found myself in a constant state of resentment and fear, I began to hear my thoughts in a new way. I was distressed by the vengeful thoughts that came so naturally. Months of dogged prayer gave me some relief from the more overt enmity, but then my flesh found another way to express it as I started petting myself, imagining my “goodness” convicting my enemy before the world.

At that point, I was on to myself. I actually became grateful, realizing that God was using this difficulty and that we were really working toward actual Christ-like enemy-love. Continuing to pay attention to all those inner responses in a normal day revealed that I am actually postured against an awful lot of people.

Loads of ‘enemies’ There are people I find intimidating, people whose lifestyle offends me and people whose opinions are nonsense to me. There are people who behave obnoxiously, people who have committed terrible crimes and people who have merely hurt my feelings. There are people who are against things that I am for and people who are for things I am against. There are people who have wronged my loved ones and people who are just in my way. There are people close to me who are hard to get along with and easy to walk away from. There are people distant from me that my thinking has reduced to mere symbols of their sins, hamstringing my capacity to realize that they are people.

Even the thought, ‘some of these people are Christ’s enemies’, doesn’t work to excuse a posture of enmity. This idea hit home in a new way when I recently observed a Facebook exchange over gun laws. Now, I can admit that Christians of good conscience can come down in different Scripturally legitimate places on the exact meaning of “Thou shalt not kill.” But when someone in the discussion asked the others to imagine what Jesus would have done had he stood between a crazed gunman and 20 kindergartners, some of them said, “There’s no way to know. The situation couldn’t have happened in those days, and there is no way to draw any conclusion.”

That response seemed grounded in defense of the flesh to me. The situation did exist, and Jesus did set us an example. He interposed himself, not just between his friends and Death but also between his enemies and Death, taking the bullet so to speak, and loving everyone on every side exactly as he had enjoined his followers to love, back in Luke 6. And, of course, we know that in terms of their estrangement from God by the sin from which all alike suffer, his friends were his enemies, too. I was his enemy.

No wiggle room So I have no excuse. No wiggle room. My housecleaning must be thorough. My speech, thoughts and actions must be consistent with love, but even more my fundamental desire for my enemy must be mercy and not judgment, because that is, on the one hand, my fundamental desire for myself and, on the other, God’s active desire as well.

Even though I have been candid about my inner life, what I’ve written here has been mostly of a theoretical nature. Where the rubber meets the road, I have needed much more than personal conviction and reflection. The things I have done to help myself change on the inside as well as to behave consistently, are the stuff of another article. Stay tuned….!

Prayer Meeting 3/13 postponed, Attendance at Healing Service 3/16 Recommended

The Word of God has decided to postpone its regularly scheduled prayer meeting on Sunday 3/17 to Sunday 3/24 in order to make it more possible for community members to attend the Charism School featuring Damian Stayne the weekend of 3/15-17, and particularly to go to the Healing Service at 6:30pm on Saturday, 3/16. The School is being sponsored by Christ the King Catholic Church and more information and on line registration is available at www.rc.net/lansing/ctk . No registration is needed for the Healing Service on Saturday evening 3/16. Damian has taught all over the world and led people into a greater release of the gifts of the Spirit. The Lord has worked through him and those that he has mentored at such schools to heal many people. As we focus on expressing the Kingdom of God in all the places God has placed us, we are asking for a greater release of the work of the Spirit. Hopefully the Lord will use Damian and this weekend to answer that prayer.

Here is a short video regarding Damian Stayne.

Hosanna 2013 on March 24 -- CANCELLED

Due to a variety of factors, the Pastors Alliance for County Transformation has announced that they will not be holding the annual Palm Sunday worship celebration called Hosanna. Folks from churches across Washtenaw County have been getting together for a ‘mosaic’ of worship styles and forms to welcome the Lord Jesus in our County on Palm Sunday since 2001. Organizers are hoping to gather churches for planning and participation in time to celebrate Hosanna 2014 next year, on Palm Sunday, April 14, 2014.

Changing the slope to incline, by John Whiting

[on January 6 Phil Tiews spoke about ‘Counting the cost’ at our prayer meeting, describing the characteristics of bodies in ‘incline, recline, and decline’. Below John Whiting shares what he sensed the Lord saying through that talk.] A thought about the slide which shows us at the beginning of a new upswing: perhaps we're being called to die to an old way of life in order to take up a new one. Times are changing, and it appears that God is calling us to move from a period of "lying fallow" to a period of more active service to the people around us. That'll require changes to the lifestyles of many of us.

It's too bad there wasn't more time for the end of your talk Sunday. We need to give serious attention to your "serious questions" about what God is saying to us and what we'll do about it. The needs around us are great, and they're likely to become greater. I think God would like us to respond with Isaiah's cry of "Send me!" We certainly need to listen for God's direction, but I think we'll be more likely to hear it if we're eager to act on it. This might well be worth another talk or two in the future.

In considering how to act, I'm reminded of the story about King Saul's son Jonathan considering how to approach the Philistine army. As you remember, he took one small step at a time, looking to see whether God blessed it and presented him with an opportunity to move further. Pretty soon the whole Philistine army was routed. I think that would be a good approach for the Community right now. We're doing that already with our contacts with 3 Dimensional Ministries, the bike outreach, our Christmas celebration gathering, and the discipleship groups. I'm sure many individuals are likewise testing opportunities to see how much fruit they might yield. Still, it might be good to encourage people in the community to be more aggressive in this approach. I suspect strongly that God would like to use us more powerfully than we expect. If we were more opportunistic -- and, perhaps, less analytic -- we might be very favorably surprised at what we see.

God bless you!

John Whiting

I Long To Live My Life As An Artist by Sam Williamson

[We reprint this article with permission from Sam Williamson’s blog Beliefs of the Heart because it captures a great sense of what it means to approach our world with a positive, missional vision. ] A friend of mine challenged me to adopt—perhaps embrace—a Transcendent Pursuit for the coming year, something life changing, something I can bring to the world to make a difference.

Then I re-read the first chapter of Genesis. It felt like I was reading it for the first time, and I felt the nudge of God.

 The first thing I noticed was the creative artistry of God. The opening verses do not focus on God’s unparalleled power. Instead they reveal—and almost revel in—the beauty. After each creative act God doesn’t say, “That was powerful;” he says, “This is beautiful” (a better translation than what we are used to).

 Next I noticed that God sees potential where no one else ever could. God hovers over and looks into the chaos and void; he takes the raw materials of darkness and depth, and he creates light, and it is beautiful. As are the oceans and fields and skies.

 After observation and creation, God gives. He gives this unparalleled treasure of creation to man. The opening chapter of the Bible surges with swarming fish, teaming land animals, luscious vegetation, and a sky pregnant with stars.

 And God turns to man and says, “It’s yours. Take it. Care for it. Love it.”

 The opening of the Bible reveals a completely different God than any man has ever created. The opening of the Bible reveals God as an artist, seeing beauty, creating incomparable art, and giving it away. It is a radical image of God.

 I long to live like that artist

 Seeing God as the creator—not merely powerful but a creator of beauty—moved me. It makes me want to be more like him in a selfless giving of light, life, and joy. And then I read the next few verses.

God makes man in his own image. God revels (imagine a reveling God!) in this description of human design: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … God created man in his image … in his own image he made him” (Gen. 1:26-27).

 It is almost as if God needed an editor to say, “Uh, God, you are being redundant.” But God wasn’t writing useless repetition. He was being emphatic. He wanted us to know—he needed us to know—that his image is the blueprint of our design.

 God’s first act is to make us his masterpiece—his literal artistic crown of creation—and his second act is to make us artists as well. He animates his masterpiece, breathing into us a creative force to see beauty, create incomparable art, and give it away.

 When he puts us in the Garden of Eden—asking us to dig the earth, rule creation, and name the animals—God is inviting us to join with him as creative comrades. He enters into partnership with us as we artistically cultivate and nurture this world.

 What is the church meant to be?

 When God gave his creation to mankind, he said, “Subdue it and have dominion.” But these words do not mean to invade earth like a conquering king—God spoke these words before the fall. They don’t mean subjection, they mean cultivation.

 The church—God’s people on earth—are meant to be gardeners, maybe a guild of gardeners. We are here to create the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and nurture. To create an environment of peace and life, joy and light, and hope.

 How do we cultivate each other? We begin to see the unseen. We learn to spot beauty in each other. We become gardening treasure hunters; recognizing the raw materials of gifts and passion in each other and speaking it into life: “I see this in you; it is beautiful.”

 We are called to be an Army of Artists or Guerilla Gardeners. We win the world through the cultivation of a Garden. The church on earth is that collection of artistic gardeners who are cultivating the Garden of Eden, bringing light and beauty.

 The Christian life is joy, light, and creation in comradeship with the creator of all.

 Don’t confuse the Garden shed with the Garden

 Religious groups can frustrate me. I get sick of the same weekly board (or perhaps bored) meeting, or the memo to write, or the program to manage. I say to myself (and sometimes to my wife), “This can’t be God’s plan for his people! There has to be more!”

This week I realized my problem: I’ve been confusing the garden shed with the garden.

God’s people—this guerilla band of gardeners—are here on earth to cultivate His garden. But I’ve been tripping over the spades, hoes, pickaxes, and rakes. They are just tools. They are used to create the garden, but they aren’t the garden.

If my primary experience of God’s people is frustration, it might be time to let go of a gardening tool—that spade of board membership or that pickaxe of the program I manage. All our programs, plans and meetings are simply tools to cultivate the garden.

Sometimes I feel we cannot see the garden for the shed. When the tools are creating blisters, it’s time to lay them down. It’s the garden we are creating, not a tool shed.

Creation and re-creation

When Christ came into the world, scripture says of him that “a bruised reed he will not break … [and yet] he will faithfully bring forth justice” (Is. 42:3).

Christ came to earth as the ultimate guerilla gardener; he brought justice not through violent invasion but through violent gardening, through aggressive art.

After the fall of man—after we rebelled against his creative design—God again hovered over the dark void of the earth and saw what we could be if brought back to life. By sending his son, he again proclaimed, “Let there be light,” and it was beautiful.

I long to live my life like that Artist.

         Sam

Is That A Person of Peace? -- Phil Tiews

You may well be like me – more committed to the IDEA of evangelism than to actually DOING evangelism. I want to see it happen, but feel most comfortable with others making it happen. Actually, Jesus, the master evangelist, gave his disciples – that includes us – a fairly pain-free strategy for evangelism. I think I can do this! Luke 10: 5-9 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’”

Jesus did not send the disciples to people who most ‘needed to be saved’ or who were the hardest cases they could find. To paraphrase He said, as you go out, bless folks. If you find someone, or a whole town, who responds positively, stick to them. Give them what you’ve got – the good news, healing, the whole works. He goes on to say that if they don’t want to listen to what you have to say, don’t sweat it, move on and keep on the lookout for that ‘Person of Peace’.

God, and only God, does the hard part of evangelism – opening someone’s heart to make it receptive. That really takes the pressure off of you and me to say it just right, to have all the answers, to be sufficiently persuasive. What we need to do is go through our days with our heads up on the lookout for a Person of Peace. Talking with them about the Lord is easy because by definition they are people whose heart the Lord has prepared and they want to hear what we have to say. They are favorably disposed toward us, even willing to buy us a meal!

There is a critical point though. We won’t spot a Person of Peace if we aren’t looking and they won’t receive anything from us if we don’t engage with them. This is way of walking through life as disciples that most of us need to grow in, I know I do. That is why this summer we are opening up the community schedule a bit to allow for time to mix with folks ‘outside the box’ of our normal round of activities. Hopefully we will discover some People of Peace and start on some new Kingdom relationships.

If you have a story to share about how you encountered a Person of Peace, please drop me a line at phil@thewordofGodcommunity.org so that we can encourage one another.

Phil Tiews

Missional Community

Here's the link to the password protected Missional Community webpage: Missional Community -- PASSWORD PROTECTED

He is shaking what can be shaken by Phil Tiews

This past February Barb and I got a chance to go to New Zealand, and I have to say it is just as spectacularly beautiful as we has expected. While there we visited the city of Napier. In 1931 it experienced a catastrophic earthquake. The buildings were leveled, the bluff overlooking the town collapsed, the lagoon was lifted out of the sea and a new set of hills emerged. As you can imagine, life in Napier was totally disrupted. Not only were institutions destroyed, but the landmarks and established lines of communication were lost. People sometimes describe what we have been going through for the last several decades as a cultural earthquake, with good reason. Key aspects of life have been shaken, and many are collapsing or damaged. Institutions people relied on and landmarks they used for guidance such as marriage and family are gone. They now seem dangerous to return to. It is small wonder that we see so much disruption in lives and in society.

As it turned out, there was a navy ship in Napier harbor that day. There was no tsunami, so it rode out the earthquake in relative calm. As the choking dust cloud rose and the fires began to sweep through the town, the crew had a choice. They could remain in safety on their orderly ship, shaking their heads over the tragedy, commenting on the faulty building practices which led to so much destruction, and criticizing the rescue efforts … or they could act. Fortunately for the citizens of Napier they came ashore and joined in the saving many folks from the fires and the rubble. The ship’s radios also provided the vital link to help from outside as the means of communication from Napier had been lost.

As we look at the seismic upheaval all around us from the blessed safety of our life in Christ and His Body, what is our response? Let’s be like those sailors and go ashore to do what we can to recue. And let’s communicate with the One who is able to save, even though those in such trouble do not themselves have the means of such communication.

Our God saves — and He uses us!

Hosanna 2012 on April 1 at Pease Auditorium, Eastern Michigan University

Hosanna 2012 on April 1 at Pease Auditorium, Eastern Michigan University. Hundreds of saints from churches across Washtenaw joining together to bless Jesus and welcome Him as He comes into our County, hosted by the student ministries of EMU. What a day! Join us for Hosanna 2013 on Palm Sunday, March 24th!

Don't settle for 'SAFE'

True confession.I spent several years as a disciple of Jesus oblivious that I reeked of arrogance born of a wrong-headed understanding of Salvation. I was grateful for being saved, of course, and I gave Him the praise for this mighty life transforming work. I knew I needed to love him with heart, soul, mind and strength and I thought that was what I was doing. But I wasn’t. Why? Because I had come to believe the highest, or more accurately the only required, form of love was service. This has little to do with affection; it has only to do with obedience and duty. This meant, though it never occurred to me at the time, that in my head I was paraphrasing John 3:16 to read something like this: “For God, who had decided it was time for humans to learn how to get into right standing with Himself, sent his obedient, dutiful Son to serve this purpose and provide a way out of sin by dying on a cross. Jesus showed his love for his Father by gritting his teeth, setting his face like flint and agreeing to serve him in this way.”

My walk with God was not enjoyable, but it was, I thought, commendable-- the honest way I conducted myself; the degree of control I exerted over my emotions and impulses; my faithful attendance at expected meetings and worship times; the amount of service I provided to the group of believers I’d chosen to commit my life to; the dutiful way I took care of my wife and children; all the things I didn’t do that the sinful world around me did. Since I was convinced that by serving God in this way I was fulfilling the 1^st commandment, I felt I was in a very secure place. I was SAFE. The wrath of God could come [at times I even wished it would] but I knew he’d protect me and deliver me into his coming Kingdom without a scratch! Come Lord Jesus!

My attitude towards all other humans was a combination of fear, judgment and confusion. I feared the power of the flesh and the devil with sort of magical thinking. I erroneously believed that the unclean automatically causes the clean to become defiled and so avoided at every turn contact with people who were sin-controlled. This of course left them with an accurate feeling that I thought I was better, more holy than them. At the same time I was honestly confused about how to share the good news since my ‘righteous’ life style precluded intersecting with those who needed to hear the message!

At one point I joined a friend who was going into the County jail and offering a time of worship and scripture study to inmates. After several months, he asked if I wanted to speak to the group. What I discovered coming out of my mouth was not a message of mercy and grace. It was the Pharisaic filth I’d been living under; a mixture of ‘This is how Jesus loved and saved me’, along with ‘and he will love you too but only if you live in such and such a manner.’ Even as I stumbled through what I was trying to say, I felt the Spirit’s heavy presence convicting my heart! ‘Pat your message has no power, because it is not true! I love each of these men in this room, regardless of what they have done. I want them to know me now, today! To experience my mercy and love now is my heart for them. Don’t ever try to tell someone I won’t love them unless…’. So began a journey for me from being the loveless but dutiful ‘older brother’, to a grateful, forgiven, undeserving, rescued prodigal sinner, saved by a loving God who above all longs for my heart to beat with affection and reciprocal love for Him.

Over the next several years the Lord slowly shaped in me a growing compassion for any who don’t yet know the beauty, the joy, the privilege of being part of the Bride of Christ. My constant prayer is that He overshadow my weaknesses (my fear of other’s negative opinion of me if, by following the leading of the Spirit and say or do something that offends) and cause me to partner with Him to extend the presence of his Kingdom (His felt mercy and love along with opportunities to dialogue about his nature).

As I examine scripture, I find there is one people group that often is on God’s heart. In fact, scripture is adamant that we focus our attention on this group with dire consequences if we do not. I believe that we, who know we have an accepting, forgiving Father, a diverse warm family, a love-motivated Bridegroom and powerful gifts from the Spirit of love are called today to look and find Him in these for whom He died. The Spirit is asking us to listen with an ear to discern which area of need mentioned in the following passages He wants us to address, and then to do the part we can.

What is the Spirit saying to you as you read?

Psalm 82:3 3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

Proverbs 14:31 Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Proverbs 22:16 One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Ezekiel 22:28-30 28 Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says’—when the LORD has not spoken. 29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice. 30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.

Amos 5:4-6, 11-13 4 This is what the LORD says to Israel: Seek me and live; 5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. 6 Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. 11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.

Zechariah 7 Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting 7 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” 4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’” 8 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ 11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. 13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. 14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate. ’”

Luke 4:17-19 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Matthew 25: 31-45 The Sheep and the Goats 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Did you take time to listen? Will you talk with a trusted friend to consider where the Lord is calling you to start (or continue) to partner with Him? I believe glory awaits you as you do; the glory of seeing God at work in the lives of those around you; the glory your life brings to God as you abandon yourself to flow in gifts he’s given.

Kingdom Come – Now and Not Yet by Phil Tiews

Looking for the KingdomFor a while now we have been focusing on the prayer Jesus taught us, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’. We have talked about longing for the kingdom, about being agents to bring the kingdom in the spheres where Jesus has placed us. We have prayed for the kingdom to come, joining with brothers and sisters across the County in the special time of the 40 Days of Prayer.

At recent prayer meetings we have prayed with folks for healing, one of the most prominent signs of the kingdom in Jesus’ ministry and part of his instruction to the disciples, ‘he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.’ Luke 9:2. And we have seen some healing – improvements, partial healings, small healings – but not much total, major, clearly miraculous healing. I know this is an uncomfortable area for some of us, it is for me.

We believe God can heal, and we even know of folks He has healed. But praying with folks to be healed raises a ton of issues. Should we pray and then claim? How much faith do we need to have, does the sick person need? How long do we keep at it if nothing happens immediately? What if nothing happens at all?

Issues with Healing We are concerned for the person receiving prayer, will they be disappointed or embittered. We are concerned for God’s reputation, will He be seen as impotent or uncaring. Frankly, we are concerned for ourselves, will we look like fools. Most of us have seen situations where these sorts of concerns have distorted the whole process and it has gone terribly wrong. It is no wonder that the churches often feel more comfortable staying away from healing (and other miracles). It is safer to simply ask God to take care of things, pray ‘thy will be done’ and leave it at that.

Healing, Miracles & Message of the Kingdom But Jesus didn’t leave it at that. He told his disciples to go heal, deliver, even raise the dead along with proclaiming the kingdom. They are inextricably tied up with one another. Healing and miracles are not just to grab attention so can get on to the message. They are part of the message of the kingdom – what it means when the King to reign and put thing right. Word and reality welded together.

This is not the time or place to expound at length about healing and miracles. I hope that we will have a lot more reflection of this as the Lord calls us into a deeper kingdom focus. In the meantime there are a few things that I think we can say which will encourage us as we struggle forward:

 As we pray and work for the kingdom to come, looking for healing and miracles should be part of what we do.

 Not everyone we pray for will be healed or every miracle we ask for come about

 More healing and miracles will come about if we are asking for them than if we do not

 If we approach praying with people for healing and miracles with humility and love, pointing them to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, people can experienced being loved by God and us whether the prayer is answered as asked or not.

 God will use the tension between healing and miracles we ask for and the level we experience. It will drive us to long more earnestly for the full revelation of His kingdom. It will drive us to remove obstacles and learn how to cooperate with the Spirit more fully. It will drive us to deeper compassion for the suffering of people as we groan with them and all creation for the full coming of the kingdom. Actually, these things are all manifestations of the kingdom, as well!

 As we look for the kingdom to break in, we can do it with thanksgiving and rejoicing. Any taste we get here and now is an appetizer to the full banquet which we can be assured awaits us. Living in thanksgiving and joy is another sign of the kingdom in the midst of a world of complaining and despair.

Interplay of Kingdoms

Time is strange. We tend to think of it as a steady, measurable thing. It ticks by at sixty seconds to the minute, sixty minutes to the hour, and so on. But physicists will tell us that it is more complex and elastic than that. We have experienced this elastic nature of time ourselves. ‘It seems like only yesterday’. ‘This afternoon is taking forever.’ Time drags and whizzes, stretches and contracts.

Jesus declared at the start of his ministry, ’the kingdom of God is at hand’, and later, ‘now is the prince of this world cast out’, and then ‘it is finished’. But we all know that there is still a lot of kingdom of this world and prince of this world and unfinishedness all about us. This has been described as the ‘now and not yet’ of the kingdom. You can probably remember laying an overhead sheet on top of the page from which it is made. Shift it just a bit and you get two images overlapping, both there, very confusing to sort out. What Jesus has declared is true. The old is passing away and the new has come. It is here and now, just not completely here and now. I imagine that Jesus’ voice is still ringing ‘it is fini………..’ and we haven’t quite gotten to the final ‘…ished!’ yet.

You may have been swimming in a lake rather than a swimming pool. If so, you have no doubt had the experience of paddling about and all of the sudden coming on a current of cool water, often clearer and feeling different than the rest of the lake. On a hot day this can not only be surprising but very refreshing! I think of our current kingdom situation as something along those lines. We are swimming in the murky, turbid lake waters. But there is stream of fresh spring water flowing into this lake and as we move around we encounter it and are refreshed. What we want to do it to stay in that current as much as possible. Track its direction and flow. Invite others to swim over and join us in it. Learn to live in the clear, clean, life-giving waters in the midst of the lake which is passing away.

How does love contrain us? By Mike Gladieux

II Cor. 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ constrains us, for we judge that if One has died for all then are all dead. And that He died for all that they who live should not henceforth live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” It is interesting that Paul says that the love of Christ constrains us. How does His love constrain us? Not by overbearing force, for sure, but by calling us out of ourselves, by wooing us to respond in kind. The purpose of His death was not just that we might be forgiven of our sins, or that we might get into heaven, or be free from the wrath to come, but so that we might walk a saintly walk. The substance of our salvation is sinless holiness. Being forgiven is the first step in that, the entrance into sanctity. The title to heaven and freedom from the wrath to come is what follows such a walk. But being saints is the essence of what He saved us for. When we stand in the light of the cross, in the realization of what a pure and selfless act of love that was, we are called on to respond in a like manner. In the light of the cross our sins are shown up for what they are. Not just our glaring faults, our gross sins, but the secret sympathy with sin that we may hold onto in our hearts. We can no longer indulge ourselves. We cannot fondle our secret resentments, hold grudges, and cling to our own petty selfishnesses. It seems so small to claim the forgiveness of our sins that He has won for us at such a price, but still cherish and prolong the life of the sins in our heart. The love of Christ constrains us to let go of them. In the light of such love we see our failure to love more clearly, and are impelled to respond accordingly.

The result of this meditation on His loving selfless sacrifice is that we must consider ourselves dead to the whole body of our sin. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives within me. And the life that I live in this body I live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” He loved me enough to do this for me. He had the faith to do it for me. So nothing in my sinful nature has the right to continue. I am surely dead to sin. I was crucified with Him. So now I do not live for myself, but for Him who died for me. And the wonderful and glorious truth of God that follows: He rose for me as well! The mysterious and wonderful law of selfless love that God revealed to us in Jesus’ cross: When we die for Him we will live forever! Just as He is risen, so we will rise to new life and live with Him forever. “If any man would save his life he will lose it. But he who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it unto eternal life.”

So the love of Christ constrains us … to holiness that is unfeigned and without hypocrisy, which proceeds from our heart of hearts and is without spot or blemish. The love of Christ constrains us to be holy, to be saints. It calls us on to fully give ourselves. It holds out also within itself the sure promise or a new and better, eternal reward. We see that this reward is contained intrinsically within a life of selfless love, and proceeds out of it according to the wonderful and mysterious law of our loving Father, revealed to us in the death and resurrection of His son.

Out of the light of the cross we can forget how seriously wrong sin is. We forget that we are actually distorting our humanity when we sin. We forget that we are living a sub-human life when we allow it to have dominion over us. “Any man who sins is a slave to sin.” And in forgetting this truth we lose sight of the glorious hope that He holds out to us. We forget how far we have fallen, and so cannot hope for a redemption that is so high and holy. But in the light of the cross we see the true nature of our sins. It cost Him so much to pay for them. They are not small, or insignificant. We cannot look at the price that He had to pay for our sins and ever think that they are not “that bad”. The awful reality of what sin is forces itself upon us inexorably. We cannot excuse our sins; we cannot coddle or indulge ourselves. We cannot deceive ourselves. Not in the light of that love, of the terrible price that He was so willing to pay. “Father if it be possible let this cup pass for me. Yet, not as I will, but as Thou will … Father if I must drink this cup, then Thy will be done.” I recall a brief flashing vision that He granted to me when I was first entering the community. I did not want to give up my old life. It had a hold on me. I saw Him lying on the cross and they were driving the nails in. There were gaping wounds in His hands. He said to me “Mike you’re making it hard on me”. Strangely, there was no guilt or shame that I felt, but a certain realization. I actually dismissed it quite easily … for a while. But I have never forgotten that. It is in fact, a simple but undeniable truth. The love of Christ constrains us to renounce our sins. It impels us to sanctity. It calls us, woos us to sanctity. We are to be holy as He is holy. We are to strive for that holiness without which no man can see God.