Come, Now is the Time to Worship

Healing Rain

Worthy Is The Lamb

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."Author/Writer: God and The Apostle PaulContext: II CORINTHIANS. Written to correct erroneous views arising out of the first epistle, and emphasizing Satanic counterfeit (2 Cor. 11).Read the Chapter >II Corinthians 11

Lord, I've got nothing! - Tom Norvell

Lord, I've got nothing!
My mind is jumbled with thoughts that range from excitement, hope, and anticipation, to confusion, discouragement, and frustration. I am amazed at the way things have happened in the past, and I wonder what sort of things will happen in the future. I dwell on the mistakes I have made, and I marvel the mistakes You have helped me avoid.
Lord, I've got nothing!
I read Your word and I understand that You direct my path and that Your Word lights the path that I walk. Yet, there are times when I am afraid to take another step. I read of how You have delivered Your servants from all types of disaster and calamity, and I realize that I have often been a recipient of that deliverance. I read of how You hear me when I have no words and answer me before I speak.
Lord, I've got nothing!
I look ahead of me to the tasks on my calendar for the week and wonder how I will ever get it all done. I don't have the energy. I don't have the desire. I don't have the motivation. Then, I look back and see all the things that You enabled me to do last week when I had just as little energy, desire and motivation.
Lord, I've got nothing!
People ask me questions for which I have no answers. People come to me for advice as I go to others for advice. People look to me for wisdom and knowledge as I come to you for wisdom and knowledge.
Lord, I've got nothing!
I am tired. I am weak. I am worn. I am a struggler. I am a sinner. I am a child. I am a human. I have questions. I have fears. I have temptations. I have pride. I am self-conscious. I am selfish. At times I am a mess.
I cry out to You, Lord, and I confess that I have nothing! As my cries grow silent I hear You say:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28-39, NIV)
"You can do all things through me for I will give you strength." (Philippians 4:13)
Lord, I have nothing! But, when I stop, listen, and hear Your voice I realize I have You, and You know me, and You have me. That's all I need.

Tom

Holy Holy Holy

At the Foot of the Cross

Shout to the Lord

I Can’t Save Myself By Living- John Alan Turner

It is such a beautiful day to be alive. I could be out taking a drive, or jogging, or getting a latte. I could be playing golf, or tennis, or having lunch with friends.
So many things I could be doing besides sitting here right now contemplating an instrument of torture. The cross wasn’t just designed to kill someone but to keep them alive as long as possible, so that they could experience as much pain as possible without passing out, and finally die an excruciating death from suffocation as their lungs collapse from the weight of their body suspended from iron spikes.
God, that’s brutal.
What brings me to this contemplation today? What draws me? I sit here thinking, concentrating on a cross. It’s worse than contemplating an electric chair or a hangman’s noose. At least those are quick forms of death. But if you were at a great party and told the host you had to go because once a year you always went and meditated in front of a guillotine or a syringe holding a lethal injection, the host probably wouldn’t invite you over again.
I could be doing something else right now that was upbeat and had more to do with living. Everything out there tells us that we can save ourselves by getting on with the business of living, right? There’s not a commercial or an advertisement campaign in the world that entices you to buy something that will hasten your death.
The whole point of advertising is that products will enhance your life. Take that vacation, get that new car, find the best food and stay looking young with all the wrinkle cream and hair dye available. That’s what we want: a beautiful life — as long as possible, as rich as possible, as pleasant as possible.
So why am I here — thinking about an instrument of torture — a crossbeam of suffering? Am I crazy? Are Christians all nuts? Why not get out there and enrich my life? It can’t be healthy to think about death. It’s certainly not popular.
The truth is there comes a time in everyone’s life, a time when we become painfully aware that we cannot save ourselves by living. We’re dying to live, but the allure of our own life — to possess it — if that’s our dream — can never be realized in the fullness that we would desire it. It slips away — life has a way of ebbing out of even the healthiest among us — and it becomes something so much less than what we had tried to grab hold of.
A relationship fails.A loved one dies.The opportunity of a lifetime falls through.Illness strikes.People betray us.
And all of a sudden, the life we tried so hard to create, the life we thought we had, is suddenly so much less than what we hoped for. The truth is that what draws me to the cross of Jesus is something deep inside of me that says: Jesus’ dying was the real currency that purchased my freedom from all this “try-to-save-yourself-by-living” frenzy.
Trying to save yourself by living is like trying to buy groceries at Safeway with Monopoly money. You’ve got the wrong currency. It may be good when you’re playing the game, but it won’t work when you want some real food. All the little properties and accumulated achievements that enable us to own the board and win the game having nothing to do with God’s economy.
Somewhere along the line, you’d think someone would realize that if we could save ourselves by living we would have been able to pull our sorry little planet up by its bootstraps a long time ago. If we are going to wait until we all save ourselves by human effort and wisdom — by using Monopoly money — we’re going to be waiting a long time. As one theologian put it, from Socrates to Dr. Phil the world has taken a 5,000 year bath in human wisdom and come out just as dirty as ever.
So, that’s why I’m here, thinking about a Jewish carpenter hanging on a Roman cross.
I can’t save myself by living. I haven’t, and I won’t. So God has come to save the whole world by dying.

Here I am to Worship

Marriage, Commitment, Relationships

I can only imagine - Mercy Me

Kerry Shook - Beyond Band-Aid Relationships - Part 3

Lakewood Church - Cover The Earth

Kerry Shook - Beyond Band-Aid Relationships - Part 2

Kirk Franklin - Imagine Me

Glastonbury Tor in Glastonbury, England

Kerry Shook - Beyond Band-Aid Relationships - Part 1

Acappella - Lift Every Voice

Olso Gospel Choir

Casting Crowns - East to West

Chris Tomlin Indescribable

God of Wonders by Third Day

Mark Harris "One True God"

So Long Self - MercyMe

Healing Rain -Michael W. Smith

Winter - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Dr. Michael Harbour

Via Positiva

Chapter Three: Winter

This chapter is a bit of a travel log. She speaks of Starlings and spiders and coots and the weather. Everywhere she is respecting both life and death. She is in awe of the work that life does. Have you ever hesitated to disturb a spider web, knowing that the spider has worked so diligently? Have you ever looked at your old insect collection and thought that maybe is was a cruel exercise in presumed sovereignty?

Desiderata:

• Starlings: “According to Edwin Way Teale, ‘Their coming was the result of one man’s fancy. That man was Eugene Shieffelin, a wealthy New York drug manufacturer. His curious hobby was the introduction to America of all the birds mentioned in William Shakespeare.’” (37) (He released 100 in Central Park in NYC. Now Starlings are ubiquitous and stubbornly entrenched.)
• “Winter clear-cuts and reseeds the easy way. Everywhere paths unclog.” (40)
• “All that summer conceals, winter reveals” (40) (In winter, when the leaves are dropped, there is something different to see.)
• “I’m getting used to this planet and to this curious human culture which is cheerfully enthusiastic as it is cheerfully cruel.” (43)
• “When his father was young, he used to walk out on Great South Bay, which has frozen over, and frozen the gulls to it. Some of the gulls were already dead. He would take a hunk of driftwood and brain the living gulls; then with a steel knife he hacked them free below the body and rammed them into a burlap sack. The family ate herring gull all winter, close around a lighted table in a steamy room. And out on the Bay, the ice was studded with paired, red stumps” (43) (Something in this made me laugh, is that the cheerfully cruel in me?)
• “Things out of place are ill.” (53) (She says this when she has a cocoon of spiders in her pocket! Out of place and ill.)

Hillsong-Mighty to Save

Regensburg Cathedral in Bavaria, Germany

I Will Sing

Seeing - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Dr. Michael Harbour

Seeing

· “I have been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises.” (17)

· “What you see is what you get.” (17)

Her point is that it may seem mundane, the things you can see. It is like finding pennies. Are you delighted to find a penny, or is that beneath you? So much of our world passes us by without our thinking that it is remarkable. It is like reading Scripture. We think we know, so we are kept from hearing. How often to you gaze at the stars and think about what you see? How often do you look at an ant bed and think about what you see?

When it comes to nature, the sights are fleeting. Nature is pervasive, but it also is fleeting. Life is on the move. One has to pay attention in order to take it in. If you will take it in, there is wonder.

· “If I can’t see the minutia, I still try to keep my eyes open.” (19)

· “After thousands of years we’re still strangers to darkness, fearful aliens in an enemy camp with our arms crossed over our chests. … An uneasy pink here, an unfathomable blue there, gave great suggestion to lurking beings. Things were going on.” (22)

· “At this latitude I’m spinning 836 miles an hour round the earth’s axis; I often fancy I feel my sweeping fall as a breakneck arc like the dive of dolphins, and the hollow rushing of wind raises hair on my neck and the side of my face. I orbit around the sun I’m moving 64,800 miles an hour.” (23)

· “If we are blinded by darkness, we are also blinded by light.” (24) One example is a meteor shower in the middle of the day.

· “We have really only that one light, one source for all power, and yet we must turn away from it by universal decree. Nobody here on the planet seems aware of this strange, powerful, taboo, that we all walk about carefully averting our faces, this way and that, lest our eyes be blasted forever.” (25)

· “This looking business is risky.” (25)

When your eyes are open, you can look millions of light years into space. When your eyes are open you can see the abundance of life in a glass or bowl of pond water. It is extravagant!

Dillard tells of people who are newly sighted. They have been blind from birth. They have learned to navigate the world in a particular way. When they receive sight, they may refuse to use it. It is disorienting. It is overwhelming. One girl, aged 21, would close her eyes whenever she went out of the house.

• “She is never happier than when, by closing her eyelids, she relapses into her former state of total blindness.” (30)
  
• “Some delight in their sight and give themselves over to the visual world.” (31)
• “Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it.” (33)
• “When I see this way I analyze and pry, I hurl over logs and roll away stones; I study the bank a square foot at a time, probing and tilting my head.” (33)
• “But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the two ways of seeing is the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera, I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut.” (33)

How can you do it? How can you see? She says that the challenge of her life is to quiet the interior conversation in her head. The secret, she says, is the pearl of great price. It can be found, but probably not by pursuit. The discipline is to practice openness, to be ready to see. I think this is true all over God’s world. I need to practice being non-self-absorbed. Then I can see in the dark and in the light. I can see, so to say, with a camera, or even in the ecstasy of being the camera, taking it all in with wonder and awe.

• “I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until that moment I was lifted and struck.”

I cannot tell you how that resonates with me. Oh, for the openness to position ourselves to see, to perceive, to be in the place where the moment of realization of who you are and where you are is understood.

In The Arms of The Angel

Dr. Harbour: Heaven And Earth In Jest

It is the known, or perhaps that is an overstatement. There are some things that we can see. We try to make sense of what we see. Annie Dillard has written a book about seeing. She is walking near Tinker Creek, Virginia and she sees some things in nature. Nature has a voice. It is difficult to see clearly. It is also presumptuous to say that we understand what we see. However, we ought to look and we ought to think. What kind of world is this?

As I read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, I am another step removed from seeing. I am listening as Annie Dillard sees. She thinks and I think along with her. Then I begin to pay attention to the world, to see for myself, and to live in wonder at the sight, the sound, the voice.

Chapter One

Heaven and Earth In Jest

• “I wake expectant, hoping to see a new thing.” (4)


• “And just as I looked at him (a frog), he slowly crumpled and began to sag. The spirit vanished from his eyes as if snuffed. ... An oval shadow hung in the water behind the drained frog; then the shadow glided away. ... ‘Giant water bug’ is really the name of the creature, which is an enormous, heavy-bodied brown bug. Through the puncture shoot the poisons that dissolve the victim’s muscles and bones and organs – all but the skin – and through it the giant water bug sucks out the victim’s body, reduced to a juice.” (8)


• “That it’s rough out there and chancy is no surprise.” (9)


• “What do we think of the created universe, spanning an unthinkable void with an unthinkable profusion of forms? ... If the giant water bug was not made in jest, was it then be made in earnest?” (9)


• Einstein: ‘God is subtle, but not malicious.” (9)


• Her question is: What does nature say? Is it violent and cruel? Yes. Is it powerful and beautiful and somehow awe inspiring to us? Undoubtedly.

“We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what is going on here.” (11)

Tim Hughes- Here I Am To Worship

How Far Is Heaven

'Bout Midnight - Jim

‘Bout Midnight

Acts 16:25
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

As we give thought to this scripture, can we place ourselves with Paul and Silas? Maybe we could imagine back to the last time we were in prison, shackled, just after a good flogging to cleanse the mind, keeping an eye on the rats, and wondering just what that aroma was, but not really wanting to know. It’s ‘bout midnight, but unlike Paul and Silas, in my weakness I don’t feel like it’s a good time for worship. In my weakness, it does not feel like it would be a good time to minister to the other prisoners.

Oh, merciful Father that I could be strong enough to worship and minister like Paul and Silas.

I wonder how long it took Paul and Silas to turn to God in this situation. Hmm, being Paul, it was probably pretty quick. I confess: I am not that good. To me, it seems I spend entirely too much time on doing everything in my considerably limited power before turning to God in my trials and tribulations. I’m afraid I would have been consumed with fear, I would have been dominated by the pain, I would have been complaining, I would have been feeling very sorry for myself, I would have been conspiring to escape, I would not have given a second thought of those around me.

Then sometime after I had gone through my complete repertoire of selfishness. After I had worn myself out, sometime after I fell quite, after I became still, and after I finally turned to look for Him, He would be there. I can sense Him shaking His head, wondering why it always takes me so long to let The One who can calm any storm, calm my storm. He is there, waiting for me yet again. Waiting for me to open my heart, and mind so he can take over. Then He lifts me, gives me strength, and reminds me to help others.

Too often distractions, interruptions, inconsequential problems, and the like derail us from our focus on Christ, and in doing so they can disrupt our time of prayer, disrupt our time of worship or ministry. Delay us in getting our mind where it should be. Delay us in getting to the choice of Christ.

Father, You chose me, You made me, and You love me. Dear God help me focus on You no matter the situation I’m in, help me choose You first, and look to You first. Lord, please give me strength that I may seek You in all things as my first action, then to serve You in helping others.

May His Grace & Peace be on you and yours

EDGE OF THE NIGHT

How Great Is Our God

The Lost Hour - Tom Norvell

The Lost Hour
We lost an hour. Before going to bed, as instructed, we pushed a few buttons or turned a knob and an hour was gone. Some forgot to make the change and arrived at church an hour late not even realizing they were an hour late. That hour is gone. Supposedly we will get the hour back
in the fall when we change the clocks back to real time. But, is that really possible?
When I woke up my body told me, "You lost an hour of sleep." When I looked outside and it was still dark I felt like I lost an hour. When we met for the Sunday night gathering it felt like we were meeting in the middle of the afternoon. It seems strange to just skip an hour. It seems like a waste.
After pondering the hour I lost (due in part to my preference for the real time which I inherited from my Granddaddy in the 60s when it started), I acknowledge that there are many other hours that I have wasted that just as frivolous. In fact, if you count the hour we lost with the time change and the time I spent thinking about not being a fan of the change, I probably lost two hours. We find many ways to waste time, don't we?
There's the hour spent daydreaming about what we would do if we had...
There's the time spent through the years sitting in useless meetings, discussing solutions to problems that most likely will never occur.
There's the time spent in conversation about the weather - how cold it is, how hot it is, how we need rain, and how we can't wait until it quits raining.
There's the time spent worrying about what we did wrong yesterday, and worrying about what we may do wrong tomorrow.
There's the time spent wondering about where we would be today if we had made a different decision ten years ago.
There's the time spent trying to change other people and being frustrated because we could not change them.
There's the time pretending to be working at the computer when actually all you're doing is browsing the Internet.
There's the time spent reading emails, getting upset, and forwarding emails about things that never really happened but sounded really true when you first read them.
Some (very uninformed people) would say I've wasted time watching golf on television, and wasted of time (and money) playing golf.
The fact is we are very creative in finding ways to waste time, aren't we? Chances are we'll never recover the hour we lost this weekend, but we can commit to use the hours we do have more wisely.
Paul gives good advice, "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." (Ephesians 5:15-17, NIV)
The lost hour is lost. The next hour is not.

Live it wisely.

Live it with joy.

Live it with hope.

Share it with someone you love.

Live it for God.
Tom
A Norvell Note

Newsboys - He Reigns

Audio Adrenaline - Big House

Barlow GIrl-Never Alone

Switchfoot - This Is Your Life

The Heart of the True Christian (Mark Kielar)

What is the Unpardonable Sin? (Dr. Alan Cairns)

Come To Jesus By Chris Rice

Audience of One - Big Daddy Weave

You're Worthy of My Praise - Jeremy Camp

BETTER LIFE NOW - JOEL OSTEEN

You are My All in All

King of Glory

Vicki Yohe

"LORD KEEP ME DAY BY DAY!"

Born Again

Everywhere That I Go

Holy Is The Lord God Almighty - Chris Tomlin

Mercy Me - Word of God Speak

Blessed Be Your Name

From Adam through Noah to Abraham; The Genesis Covenants

We Fall Down

The B-I-B-L-E #8 - Mike Cope

For this final post in the series, let me point out the obvious: Bible knowledge doesn’t always translate into Christlike thinking and living. I’ve known some brilliant Bible scholars whose lives were anything but godly.

We can read scripture for a lot of different reasons. Some read trying to prove their preconceived dogmas. Others read just to gain knowledge (as if “knowledge of God” in scripture referred to info on a hard drive rather than personal relationship). And still others read to serve what Eugene Peterson calls the replacement trinity: Holy Needs, Holy Wants, and Holy Feelings. (”The new Trinity doesn’t get rid of God or the Bible, it merely puts them to the service of needs, wants, and feelings.”)

So for this last piece, I want to underscore the image of Peterson’s new work, Eat This Book. He skillfully plays with the image of John — and before him Jeremiah and Ezekiel - being asked to eat the scroll.

“The voice then tells John to take the book from the angel. He takes it and the angel tells him, ‘Eat this book’: Get this book into your gut; get the words of this book moving through your bloodstream; chew on these words and swallow them so they can be turned into muscle and gristle an bone. And he did it; he ate the book.”

He’s pleading for a way with scripture that is more than just packing in the knowledge (as important as that is). We are to read scripture in a way that lets the words dissolve, digest, and distribute to our very nerve endings. These words — as they point us to the life-giving God — will offer health, vitality, holiness, and wholeness.

“The act of eating the book means that reading is not a merely objective act, looking at the words and ascertaining their meaning. Eating the book is in contrast with how most of us are trained to read books — develop a cool objectivity that attempts to preserve scientific or theological truth by eliminating as far as possible any personal participation that might contaminate the meaning. . . . The reading that John is experiencing is not of the kind that equips us to pass an examination. Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of our lives. Readers become what they eat.”

We read the words of scripture not as curiosity seekers who have an hour to zip through the Louvre (”Quick! Where’s the Mona Lisa . . . Venus de Milo . . . The Winged Victory?”) Rather, we come as disciples of Jesus who live in a story. We absorb the words, reading them carefully and slowly.

Because this story comes sentence by sentence, we enter carefully into our reading as a community. “The more ’spiritual’ we become, the more care we must give to exegesis. The more mature we become in the Christian faith, the more exegetically rigorous we must become. This is not a task from which we graduate. These words given to us in our Scriptures are constantly getting overlaid with personal preferences, cultural assumptions, sin distortions, and ignorant guesses that pollute the text. The pollutants are always in the air, gathering dust on our Bibles, corroding our use of the language, especially the language of faith. Exegesis is a dust cloth, a scrub brush, or even a Q-tip for keeping the words clean.”

Our goal is not to master the text, but to be mastered by it as we are drawn by God the Father, Son, and Spirit into the world of the kingdom. We read humbly and obedient. We pause prayerfully over words and phrases. We memorize sentences. We reflect on paragraphs. We marvel at the overarching story.

I often hear today that our people don’t know scripture like we used to. Why is that?

Maybe it’s our distaste for the kind of arrogance that knowledge often produced. Perhaps it’s also business, laziness, and a general cultural shift from reading to watching.

But I want to close this series by urging us all to enter again eagerly into the world of scripture. Eat the book. Taste the words of the Torah, remembering that they come from a rescuing, life-giving God. Chew on the words of Isaiah 56-66 as you seek to imagine what life after the exile lived before God might look like. Digest the gospeled words of Matthew as he walks you through the story from Abraham to David to Jesus. Be nourished by the encouragement of the writer of Hebrews as you’re called to keep your eyes on Jesus, our high priest who sat down at the right hand of God.

A meal awaits. Feast on it!

The B-I-B-L-E #7 - Mike Cope

One of my prize possessions in my library is Adolf Deissmann’s Light From the Ancient East, first published in 1908. When I bought it during my grad school days, it felt like I was being privileged to enter into a wide world of sacred discovery.

But, of course, “sacred” is not what it was about as much as “secular.”

New Testament scholars used to believe that the Greek of the NT was a special type of holy language: a Holy Ghost Greek. Since about 500 of the approximately 5000 Greek words in the pages of the NT were unknown from any other source, many assumed that the Spirit had supplied a special vocabulary that fit the special nature of the documents.

But in 1897, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt pulled a bunch of paper scraps (papyri, actually) from a garbage dump in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. These were full of the kinds of notes sent by common people: shopping lists, notes from parents to children, bills, receipts, etc.

Before this, most of what we had access to was the stuff from historians, politicians, poets, and philosophers. They had continued to write in the “better” (classical) Greek, rather than the “common” (we use the word “koine”) Greek of the people.

But all of a sudden there was a treasure trove of information. And guess what? Nearly all of those special “Holy Ghost words” started showing up. Deissmann, a German professor, started sifting through the tons of information and soon published Light From the Ancient East, helping others understand that the Greek language in the New Testament was, for the most part, the language of the streets. Common life, common business, common communication.

In Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book , which was so helpful for writing this little post and about which I’ll say more tomorrow, he celebrates the impact of this:

“The difference that this has made to Bible translation and Bible reading is hard to exaggerate. In retrospect it shouldn’t have been such a surprise that this was the kind of language used in the Bible, for this is exactly the kind of society that we know that Jesus embraced and loved, the world of children and marginal men and women, the rough-talking working class, the world of the poor and dispossessed and exploited. Still, it was a surprise: our Bibles written not in the educated and polished language of scholars, historians, philosophers, and theologians but in the common language of fishermen and prostitutes, homemakers and carpenters. . . . We often thoughtlessly supposed that language dealing with a holy God and holy things should be stately, elevated, and ceremonial. But it is a supposition that won’t survive the scrutiny of one good look at Jesus — his preference for homely stories and his easy association with common people, his birth in a stable and his death on a cross. For Jesus is the descent of God to our lives just as we are and in the neighborhoods in which we live, not the ascent of our lives to God whom we hope will approve when he sees how hard we try and how politely we pray.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve actually read through Deissmann’s tome. But when I was a young, eager student of the Greek New Testament, I soaked it in. These words written by people and somehow inspired by God (so I believed — and believe) came in a language that fit the nature of Jesus’ incarnation.

Again, from Peterson (as he leads up to explaining what he was seeking to do in his transation, The Message): “Virtually anyone can read this Bible with understanding if it is translated into the kind of language in which it was written. We don’t have to be smart or well educated in order to understand it any more than its first readers did. It is written in the same language we use when we go shopping, play games, or ask for a second helping of potatoes at the supper table — and it requires translation into that same language.”

How Could I Ask For More

The B-I-B-L-E #6 - Mike Cope

Here are ten things that amaze me about the Bible.

1. Even though there is much “variety” in scripture (ever gotten whiplash reading Ecclesiastes after the this-world-makes-sense wisdom of Proverbs?) and even though the books in scripture came over hundreds of years, it contains an overarching theme, a narrative unity. It speaks with profound insight about creation, the fall, Israel, Jesus, the church, and the final consummation.

2. It speaks both simply and deeply, to child and to scholar.

3. While it keeps being claimed by groups who laughingly think they’ve figured it all out, it keeps resisting, plunging us to deeper insights and mysteries.

4. It doesn’t seek to prove much. It is a book of confession and proclamation more than it is a book of apologetics. It doesn’t try to prove that God created; it confesses that God created. It explores the implications for this world since God created (and since he delivered from bondage . . . and since he restored after the exile . . . and since Jesus was raised from the dead . . . ). It’s an inside job from those who are already on a journey of faith.

5. It isn’t embarrassed by faithful exploration of difficult questions. Words of doubt and lament don’t get edited out (unlike in many contemporary churches).

6. It permits the writers to explore faith through their own expressions (see #2 in this series). It doesn’t share our need to work out all the jars and clashes.

7. It points consistently to God, insisting that he–in all his glory, power, and mystery–has ways that are not our ways.

8. It seems to know me. It speaks to my life with profound insight.

9. It refuses to be the object of our desire. Some people saw the signs of Jesus (especially in John’s gospel) but never looked much beyond the signs to the one who performed them. (”My, my, really good wine,” said the wedding planner, smacking his lips.) Likewise, too many Christians develop a passionate devotion to the Bible as if it were part of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Bible. Like the index finger of John the Baptist, it points beyond itself.

10. It insists that I decide. It’s not JUST history; it’s not JUST prose and poetry; it’s not JUST insightful and true. It demands that I listen, decide, commit, and act.

Come, Now is the Time to Worship

Lifesong - Casting Crowns

The B-I-B-L-E #5 - Mike Cope

Today, I want to quote a couple women whose writings have inspired me.

First, Barbara Brown Taylor:

For all the human handiwork it displays, the Bible remains a peculiarly holy book. I cannot think of any other text that has such authority over me, interpreting me faster than I can interpret it. It speaks to me not with the stuffy voice of some mummified sage but with the fresh, lively tones of someone who knows what happened to me an hour ago. Familiar passages accumulate meaning as I return to them again and again. They seem to grow during my absences from them; I am always finding something new in them I never found before, something designed to meet me where I am at this particular moment in time.

This is, I believe, why we call the Bible God’s “living” word. When I think about consulting a medical book thousands of years old for some insight into my health, or an equally ancient physics book for some help with my cosmology, I understand what a strange and unparalleled claim the Bible has on me. Age does not diminish its power but increases it. . . .

The word of God turned out to be plenty strong enough to withstand my curiosity. Every time I poked it, it poked me back. Every time I wrenched it around so I could see inside, it sprang back into shape the moment I was through. In short, the Bible turned out not to be a fossil under glass but a thousand different things — a mirror, a scythe, a hammock, a lantern, a pair of binoculars, a high diving board, a bridge, a goad — all of them offering themselves to me to be touched and handled and used.

And then this wonderful story from Kathleen Norris’s Amazing Grace. She tells of a Saturday evening when she and her husband were eating at a local steakhouse and struck up a conversation with “an old-timer, a tough, self-made man in the classic American sense.” They had known him casually (”he knew us as oddball writers, misfits in the region”), but this evening, probably because he was about to enter chemotherapy, he was more talkative.

Out of the blue, Arlo began talking about his grandfather, who had been a deeply religious man, or as Arlo put it, “a damn good Presbyterian.” His wedding present to Arlo and his bride had been a Bible, which he admitted he had admired mostly because it was an expensive gift, bound in white leather with their names and the date of their wedding set in gold lettering on the cover. “I left it in its box and it ended up in our bedroom closet,” Arlo told us. “But,” he said, “for months afterward, every time we saw grandpa he would ask me how I liked that Bible. The wife had written a thank-you note, and we’d thanked him in person, but somehow he couldn’t let it lie, he’d always ask about it.” Finally, Arlo grew curious as to why the old man kept after him. “Well,” he said, “the joke was on me. I finally took that Bible out of the closet and I found that granddad had placed a twenty-dollar bill at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, and at the beginning of every book . . . over thirteen hundred dollars in all. And he knew I’d never find it.”

We laughed over this with Arlo, and he began talking about the interest he could have made had he found that money sooner. “Thirteen hundred bucks was a lot of money in them days,” he said, shaking his head.

A Norvell Note: This Message Has No Content

This Message Has No Content

I received a strange email on my iPhone. There was no name. There was no subject. There was a date and a time. But there was no message. In fact, the mail system on my phone informed me, "This message has no content." A bit puzzled I went to my computer to see if perhaps the message was too long to show up on my phone. Again: "This message has no content." Then, I wondered, "Is there a message in this message that has no content?"

I thought about all the messages I send in a single day, a week, a month, in a year. Of all those messages how many of them could have, or should carried a label: "This message has no content." I send dozens of emails every day, numerous text messages, and who knows how many verbal conversations. Are there people on the receiving end of these messages saying, "I have a message from Tom, but there is no content?"

At the conclusion of this article when I click the "send" button on my computer I will have sent 575 "A Norvell Notes." I wonder how many of those could have carried the same title as today: "This message has no content." (If you have been keeping count you don't have to tell me. I really don't want to know.)

I have taught hundreds of Bible classes, preached hundreds of sermons, and delivered of messages to thousands of people on a variety of Bible-related topics. I shutter to think how many people left those gatherings thinking "The message had no content." (Again, no response
is needed.)

Some are possibly on the verge of asking, "Tom, is this one of those messages that has no content?" Hang on. I'm not finished.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke these words in Washington D. C., "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Now there was a message that had content.

When the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, spoke of the coming Messiah with these words he delivered a message with content:

"For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:6-7)

When Jesus stood in synagogue and spoke these words He delivered a message with content:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, ?

because he has anointed me ?

to preach good news to the poor. ?

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners ?

and recovery of sight for the blind, ?

to release the oppressed, ?

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19)

When Peter stood before the people on the Day of Penetcost and uttered these words he delivered a message with content: "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:36)

When Paul stood before the people in Athens and proclaimed is faith in the only true God, he delivered a message with content:

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" (Acts 17:24-28)

In another place Paul said, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." (Ephesians 4:29) Paul is reminding us that the messages we deliver should be messages that have content.

If we share words of life, if we speak words of hope, if we speak words that build up, if we speak words that express our love, if we speak words that enlighten and encourage, we will share a message that has content.

"We can!"

Mercy me- I can only imagine

Shout to the Lord

The B-I-B-L-E #4 - Mike Cope

A fourth shocking discovery was this: the Bible didn’t come rolling off the presses as a single volume.

When we walk into Barnes and Noble, there are scores of Bibles. You just have to figure out which one to buy. It’s easy to assume that it’s always been that way.

So it’s a bit of a jolt when you first realize the obvious: that the Bible is a collection of “books,” and someone had to organize that collection. When you begin digging, you realize that there isn’t a formal recognition of the 27 books of the NT (these 27 and no others) until the fourth century. It was the church that was deciding which gospels and letters should be included in the canon and which ones shouldn’t.

Some of the books we cherish — Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, Revelation, for instance — had a hard time finding their place. As an example of why this happened, the early church struggled with not knowing who even wrote Hebrews. Also, a few other books were accepted by some but rejected by others and did not finally make it into the Christian canon.

(For an account of the forming of our biblical canon, you can begin at Wikipedia. To go indepth, a book like Bruce Metzger’s The Canon of the New Testament. I’d also recommend that you get ahold of the wonderful book God’s Holy Fire, written by Ken Cukrowski, Mark Hamilton, and James Thompson, all biblical scholars teaching at ACU.)

For many years, the gospel message was passed on orally. People told the story of Jesus and of the early church as they had witnessed it or as they had heard it from witnesses. There were likely three decades between the death/resurrection of Jesus and the appearance of the first gospel.

As the gospels and letters were written, they were eventually shared between churches. (Keep in mind there were no printing presses, and you couldn’t just cut, paste, and forward!)

Then, our brothers and sisters had to decide which gospels and letters had the ring of authority about them. Which actually came from the apostles? Which ones had spoken with an authoritative voice?

Some people would prefer not to think about this. It’s so much easier to just imagine that all 39 books of the OT came together, followed centuries later by the 27 books of the NT. Then you’d feel more justified with all of the cross-referencing and proof-texting.

So what do we do with this?

Here’s, again, where my statement of faith comes. I obviously can’t force anyone to believe this. But I have trust in the working of the Spirit of God through the people of God. I have confidence that God was working among the churches as they debated, prayed, and sought to discern which gospels/letters were “in” and which were “out.”

To build on that, I like these words from N. T. Wright (in the brilliant new book The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture): “But canonization was never simply a matter of a choice of particular books on a ‘who’s in, who’s out’ basis. It was a matter of setting out the larger story, the narrative framework, which makes sense of and brings order to God’s world and God’s people. . . . It was the canonical scriptures that sustained the early church in its energetic mission and its commitment, startling to the watching pagan world, to a radical holiness.”

More in this little series later, but I want to end today with this prayer that Wright says has been prayed in his church for centuries:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here I am to Worship

Lakewood Church - Cover The Earth

The B-I-B-L-E #3 - Mike Cope

A third shocking discovery of my early life was this: the Bible wasn’t written to me.

It did not come as an 1141-page book (if you have the right copy) addressed to me.

It was written, instead, to the Israelites, to the Corinthians, to the Christians in Matthew’s community, to Titus, to Timothy, to Christ-followers in the seven churches of Asia Minor. And those “books” or “letters” were later handed on to others who handed them on to others and so forth. And eventually they were handed on to me.

So in one sense, I’m reading someone else’s mail.

In the first piece in this series, I wrote about the shock of learning that the Bible has to be interpreted. I was focusing on what the Bible meant. But today I’m talking about what the Bible means.

To me, even more disconcerting than learning that the Bible requires translation and interpretation to try to figure out what it meant was the discovery that once you do that you have to attempt to figure out how it still speaks today.

For example . . .

Here are a few passages from Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Tell me which of these only applied to Timothy and his church and which ones also apply to us.

Stay in Ephesus.

I urge you . . . that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority . . . .”

I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands . . . .”

I want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elagorate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds . . . .”

I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be quiet.

An overseer is to be . . . apt to teach . . . .”

Women who are deacons are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty . . . .

Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.

Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Isn’t it obvious that women should not take any leadership roles in an assembly? Well, isn’t it also obvious that they shouldn’t wear clothes from Neiman Marcus (or Dillards . . . or K-Mart — depending on what your personal definition of “expensive clothes” is)? And isn’t it quite clear that we should never give financial assistance to a widow who’s only 59?

The church not only has to seek–in community through the leading of the Spirit–to discern what the text MEANT; it also has to try to figure out what it MEANS today. Why don’t we wash feet? Why don’t we greet one another with a holy kiss? Why do we think it’s all right to help a widow in need, even if she’s just 35?

Because we have struggled to discern what in scripture was “cultural” (in the sense that it applied only to that situation — because in another sense it’s all cultural) and what was intended as permanent.

Scripture wasn’t written for me.

And yet . . . in another sense, it IS written for me. It speaks afresh.

In one of his brief homilies based on OT texts, the writer of Hebrews begins by quoting Psalm 95 (Hebrews 3:7-11). It’s an old hymn of Israel that speaks about something that had happened hundreds of years before–the testing at Meribah and Massah in the desert. When the psalmist referred to those old events recorded in the history of Israel, he thought they spoke a new word to his people: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as YOU did in the rebellion.”

To be technical, THEY hadn’t rebelled. Their ancestors had. But he was thinking of the people as a community that cuts across the decades.

When the writer of Hebrews quotes it, he thinks it’s as current as the morning news. “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘today.’”

The actual event happened about 1300 years before Christ (give or take, depending on how you date the exodus). Psalm 95 was written hundreds of years later. The Hebrews writer applied the word in the first century. And his words and the words he quoted are still relevant and insightful in 2006.

No wonder he ended this homily by reflecting on scripture: “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the toughts and attitudes of the heart.”

So is the Bible written for me?

No. It came initially to others in real live situations. So anything I apply must come by application as discerned by the community of faith.

But yes. It comes as a guiding document for the church, seeking to lead me to Jesus.

Scripture is old/new, ancient/current, used/fresh.

Kirk Franklin - Imagine Me

The B-I-B-L-E #2 - Mike Cope

Another shocking discovery of my early life was this: people wrote the Bible.

Real, live people. People who did not have perfect lives or perfect insight into the mind of God. People who wrote in their language, using their own vocabulary and style. Luke’s writing is polished; John’s is more like someone who was trying to connect with the middle schoolers (simpler syntax and vocab).

Now, again, doesn’t this fall into the category of no-brainer? In one sense, yes.

But somehow I’d always thought (based on a misinterpretation of a couple passages and perhaps also on my wild imagination) that the Bible was dropped from heaven. Maybe delivered by the Holy Spirit dressed like a dove.

Several OT writers quoted bits of information they had looked up. Luke said he did his homework before sitting down at the computer. And, almost certainly, Matthew and Luke peeked at Mark’s gospel while writing their own. Jude peeked at 2 Peter. Or vice versa. Or maybe they shared a common source.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had baptized only Crispus and Gaius. Then he remembered that he’d also baptized the household of Stephanas, so he added that as kind of a footnote. He also told them that on one matter he had no instruction from the Lord, but he gave his own judgment (7:25).

Frankly, not everything in the Bible is quite as smooth as I used to imagine. There are jars and clashes. Was Jesus’ Nazareth sermon early in his ministry (Luke) or much later (Matthew, Mark)? Was Jairus’s daughter dead (Matthew) or nearly dead (Mark — maybe this falls into the Princess Bride’s category of “mostly dead”) when Jairus found Jesus? Did the cursing of the fig tree happen before (Mark) or after (Matthew) Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem? Was it one demon-possessed man (Mark, Luke) or two (Matthew)? And was it at Gerasenes, Gergesenes, or Gadarenes — or are those the same place? For a while I tried forcing explanations so that there were no problems, but I eventually had to admit (with some encouragement from my professors) that this was disingenuous.

And this is just the beginning. Clashes and jars. When we labor under our Western assumptions of HOW THE BIBLE OUGHT TO BE, that’s extremely problematic.

But what if scripture isn’t bound by our assumptions of what it ought to be?

So, were the writers of the Bible guided by God? That’s what I believe by faith. Instructed in some sense by the Holy Spirit? That’s my conviction. Producing authoritative documents that are able to guide the church in teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16)? Yup.

Do I still have confidence in scripture? I’ll let my years of preaching, teaching, and writing stand as an answer to that question. I have more appreciation for scripture than I used to. More desire to live under its guidance rather than to attempt to conquer it with perfect comprehension. More eagerness to catch what it intends to do: point us to Jesus.

The ultimate goal isn’t to defend the Bible, memorize the Bible, or understand the Bible. The goal is to let scripture point us to Jesus, committing ourselves to him and jumping into the journey of discipleship.

Acappella - Lift Every Voice

The B-I-B-L-E #1- By Mike Cope

Here is one of the most shocking discoveries of my early life: the Bible has to be interpreted.

I know that’s a no-brainer. But I grew up thinking that what set us apart from all other religious groups is that we just believed the Bible. God said it. We believed it. That settled it.

Other people had creeds. Others twisted it because they liked musical instruments or didn’t like baptism. They put their trust in commentaries–the words of mere humans. But we just read the Bible.

It helps to live an insular life if you want to hold onto that belief. Because when you begin engaging Christ-followers from other groups, you quickly realize that many of them think about the same thing.

But the Bible has to be interpreted. In a sense, that happens even in the earliest stages of translation. Those translating the Bible from Hebrew (and a bit of Aramaic) in the OT and Greek in the NT have to make choices. How do they translate a passage when it’s ambiguous? How do they express in English a word that seems to have a wide range of meanings?

Several times I’ve heard people jealous because I can read the Greek New Testament. Hey, seven years of Greek and you’d be there, too! They wish they could just read what the text says.

Guess what? It’s a blessing to be able to do that and it’s helpful to know what the original text said (as best we could piece it together from manuscripts–since we don’t have any original copies of the NT books), BUT . . . you still have to interpret. Reading Greek rarely makes things more obvious. Otherwise, all the Greek-readers would be unified.

We are not unique because be follow the Bible. Or because we’re nervous of creeds. Or because we like the “plain meaning of the text.”

As I’ve led discussions about the ministry of women, I’ve often heard people say, “We shouldn’t make the Bible say what we want it to say.” I agree. Absolutely. But let’s also be honest about this: none of us comes to scripture completely objective and unbiased. All of us are having to use tools of interpretation.

I don’t want to twist scripture. I want to live under its authority. But I also have to humbly admit that this is harder than I might have imagined.

This recognition demands two things from us:

First, it demands community. We need to read scripture together–with other Christians we know and with believers from other times, places, and denominations. As people seeking to follow Jesus, we need to rely on the insights of the larger community of faith.

Second, it demands humility. Before I write off other people who disagree with me, I’d better realize how very challenging this whole task of biblical interpretation has been. And it wouldn’t hurt me to remember that so many wars in the world have come because everyone has their own holy book that they believe they have the inside track on how to interpret.

A Life Given

1 Corinthians 1:26-29
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thingsand the things that are notto nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.

I want each of us to spend a few moments in personal reflection. Think of where you were before you were called to Christ, by that I mean where were you mentally, in the natural vs. the spiritual.
How are you now? Are you where you want to be? Are you growing in your spiritual journey?
How did you previously deal with persistent sins...the daily sins, the every day sin... anger, negativity, desire, deceit?
How are you dealing with persistent or daily sins now?

Today, I want to challenge you to take up your calling.
Today, I want to challenge you to step out and make a difference to those who are lost. I want you to go out and make a difference that others may see He is the way, He is the way to our peace, and He is the way to our happiness.
With some practice, we can make a difference. We can make a difference with just a smile.
We can make a difference with a word of encouragement.
We can make a difference with prayer.

Today, I challenge you to accept this cost of Christ, Give of yourself, that others may see Him in you.
Give of yourself that you may see Him in you
Do something extra at home or work, before your asked.
Try to give a little bit more than you expect to receive.
Do something for an elderly neighbor.
Give of yourself, that others may see Him in you.
Today, I challenge you to find the value of Christ.
Give of yourself that you may see the value of following Christ.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect ... -- 1 Peter 3:15

My prayer today is that you take another step closer to God.
My prayer today is that you take another moment in your day to Glorify God, to worship our gracious Lord.
My prayer today is that you spend another moment in prayer, giving thanks to your Heavenly Father for all that you have.

Where are you at in your spiritual growth? Do we realize the blessings that we have?
That you woke up... how many thousands of people did not?
That you have a roof over your head... as opposed to how many millions that do not?
That you will eat today... when millions will not.
That you have a place to worship God... when millions do not.
That is what we are talking about today, accepting this cost of Christ, give of yourself...then find and understand the value of Christ. You, yes you, can make a difference in the lives of those around you. Make yourself a blessing to others, and thus grow spiritually.

Where are you at in your spiritual growth? Do you think an hour or two of church a week, with little else attention paid to God is going to get it? I am here to tell you the more time you spend with God, the more time he spends with you. The more you serve, or help others, the closer you become to God. The more you give of yourself, the more you will grow spiritually.

If you truly want inner peace, inner strength, true joy, you have to work for it. It is just like anything else, musicianship does not just happen, athleticism does not just happen, good grades, or promotions at work do not just happen; you have to work for them. The same goes for your relationship with Christ. Will you be sinless? Of course not. Will you be perfect? Of course not. Nevertheless, are you working towards that end? Are you in fact striving to sin less, to pray more, to devout yourself more, to serve more, to help more? Are you trying to move closer to God? Come on now, can I get an Amen?

It is not about a life without any problems, it is not about a life without challenges. It is about humbling yourself before our God. It is about a life of giving, it is about a life of service, it is about a life of humility; it is about a life given for a life received. It is about this old life given for a new life received in Christ.

Do we realize what it means to be on this mission? That this mission, our mission, is important to God. We are a part of His plan. We are important to God, because He uses us to reach others. Grinding out what was a tough day for you, may have been great encouragement to someone else to keep on keeping on.
In fact, if we are having problems and struggles right now, that means we are needed even more. Because how we handle those problems and struggles gives hope to others. How we persevere, how we overcome shows others they too can make it.
Our perseverance will give others hope.

Somewhere along the way we have gotten the wrong idea that the best, most powerful Christians are the ones who seemingly have no problems. But in reality, everybody has problems...all the problems they can handle. I have problems, and you have problems. I don't want yours and you darn sure don't want mine. So those people with their seemingly "perfect" lives only perpetuate a myth that, in the long run, isn't as helpful as the "survivor," the folks who just won't quit no matter what happens to them.

You see we are all on this mission, His mission and everybody gets to play. Deeper struggle makes deeper reward. Deeper struggle only makes surviving that much more crucial and rewarding. This is not about you, it's about His mission. We are not only talking about you making it. We are talking about the mission that you will have, making that journey, showing others the path. Showing others the pathway to peace goes through the valley of struggle.

Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort others. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. (2 Corinthians 1:6)

Do you remember where you were at when you were called? Where are you right now? Jesus Christ is the rock, He is the foundation from which to take your stand, He is the base from which you fight and overcome your struggles. Others see you fighting the good fight, and your perseverance blesses them, as it blesses you. Hang in there, don't quit, with Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have already won the war, and the reward for following Christ is the reward, and it just doesn't get any better than that. Where are you at in your spiritual growth? My prayer is that on your spiritual journey you are growing everyday!

irvine