In August, 1999 I spent about ten days in Durres, Albania. Durres is an ancient city, located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Albania was among the more oppressed countries of the infamous Eastern Block of nations, and has yet to recover from the decades of abuse brought about by the alternating allegiance of its rulers to either the USSR or China.
But the beaches in Durres – they were filled with potential for reflecting what God must have been thinking when, looking at His creation, declare that it was “very good.” But potential is the key word – for those potentially beautiful expressions of God’s creative power were littered with the fallen remnants of the former oppressors’ military might and garbage. Every kind of garbage you could imagine dotted the sea shore. And, perhaps even worse, every kind of waste was casually pumped into the sea as though doing that would make it disappear.
I can still remember walking down the sea shore with a believer in Albania. We were both drinking water from a plastic bottle – the only safe water to drink – and when he finished his bottle, he just dropped it on the ground. He was casually adding to the litter and the ugliness of what could have been a beautiful place on planet earth. The entire time I was thinking how much those beautiful beaches – if cleaned up and taken care of – could help the people of Albania tap in to the tourist industry and have adequate resources to live more comfortably, eat better meals, and provide an education for their children. I kept thinking “If I could become Secretary of State, in charge of a huge budget for foreign aid, I could . . .”
Earlier this week I started reading Genesis in my personal Bible reading. You can’t help but notice that God considered His creative acts to be “good,” in fact at the end of the first creation narrative He declares it to be “very good.” When the flood has accomplished its purpose, God gives a promise to Noah and his family that never again would He destroy the world with a cataclysmic event like the flood.
Apparently, despite our own abuse of creation, God appears to think it to be “very good.” In Romans 8, Paul reminds his first readers and ultimately us that creation itself groans for the day when God fully renews and restores the universe to its intended purpose.
It makes you wonder why it is that sometimes the loudest voices in our culture about care for planet earth are coming from those who have little or no sense of God as Creator. Where is the voice of those who insist that indeed He is the Creator of heaven and earth? How can we be silent when we are called to be God’s agents in the world to accomplish God’s ultimate plan?
In Colossians 1:15-20, one of the great Christological texts in all of Scripture, Paul declares that Christ is not only “the head of the body, the church,” but He is also “the firstborn of all creation” and “is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” If the phrase “body of Christ” is more than some clever metaphor Paul created and we truly are “Jesus to the world,” then surely a part of our mission from God includes care for what Christ, as firstborn of all creation, sustains – holds together.
It is more than unfortunate that we who hold the truth of the gospel to be absolute and utterly true are so prone to leave out part of the story. Through Jesus Christ God intends to renew and restore the good world He created to its intended purpose. While that obviously has great impact on the lives of individuals who, through faith, choose to become a part of the body of Christ, that isn’t all! We are called to be His agents in bearing witness not only to what we often mean when we say “salvation,” but into all that He came to do – and that includes the work of caring for the world our gracious and loving God created and called good!
When I think about the fact that this coming Sunday is the first day of a new year and most of us will think about how we want to live in the year that is before us, perhaps we could all spend a little effort thinking about how God can use us to renew and restore creation! Who knows, perhaps some believers in Albania will start picking up the litter on those beautiful beaches!
28 December 2011
15 December 2011
Adversaries
Early this morning while convincing myself to get up and head to a meeting, I grabbed the always nearby iPhone and checked email. There was an email from the chairman of the board at Mount Carmel Christian Church, asking me if I had seen a story on the news and if so, was it the church he thought it was. We had WSB morning news on, and almost as soon as I read his email, I saw the story. It was the church he was thinking it might be.
Kingdom City Church in Stone Mountain, not too far from Mount Carmel, had been vandalized – even beyond the norm for that sort of disgusting behavior. They didn’t just take copper tubing from air conditioning units. They took refrigerators, food, cooking equipment, and apparently whatever else they could get their hands on. Part of the vandalism included something that caused flooding in the building that ruined books, clothes collected for needy people, and whatever else was in the path of about six inches of water on the floor.
Kingdom City Church is not a huge congregation, but it is a church with a huge heart. Led by James and Mona Harper, they are always seeking ways to minister to others. James and Mona, by the way, are parents of Point University graduate Morgan Harper Nichols, and Point University student Jamie-Grace Harper. They are great friends to Point and great leaders of this church.
I responded to the email and sent a text message to Mona. Soon there was a flurry of emails between the elders at Mount Carmel and others with me, the board chair, and the Mount Carmel staff. Mona called me and we had a long conversation where she told me more details of the vandalism and what all had been ruined. I asked her how we could help and we prayed together on the phone.
I couldn’t be prouder (in a healthy, Christian sense of what being proud is all about) of the leadership at Mount Carmel. They are fully engaged in finding out what our congregation can do to help Kingdom City Church. It makes me think of Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians 12 when he says “when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.” Seeing the comments made by various elders and members of Mount Carmel in response to Rick Moore’s first email is nothing short of gratifying to me.
All day long I’ve been thinking and praying for James, Mona, their congregation, and Mount Carmel. I can’t quit thinking about how depraved a person must be to not only rob a church, but to viciously vandalize it. I go from wishing I could catch them to thinking about how sad their lives must be.
The Scripture that has made its way into my thinking today is one that I memorized as a freshman in college in Denver Sizemore’s class. It is from 1 Peter 5:8 and says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We really shouldn’t be surprised when the presence of evil seeks to prevent good from being done. But Peter goes on and reminds us that we must “resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” (5:9)
Ours is a difficult world. Just today I read of real challenges a couple who are Point alumni and serving in a very difficult country are facing. His message to his friends was something like “don’t pray for our safety, pray that the gospel is shared.” Another Point alumus frequently emails me about some of the challenges his mission faces in another part of the world. A team from Mount Carmel has had an unbelievably difficult time just getting Christmas gifts for children into another country.
The adversary is prowling. It’s time for us to “resist him and stand firm.”
Please join me in praying for James and Mona and Kingdom City Church. Pray for servants of the child of Bethlehem named “Mighty God” all over the world who face danger in this very moment.
Kingdom City Church in Stone Mountain, not too far from Mount Carmel, had been vandalized – even beyond the norm for that sort of disgusting behavior. They didn’t just take copper tubing from air conditioning units. They took refrigerators, food, cooking equipment, and apparently whatever else they could get their hands on. Part of the vandalism included something that caused flooding in the building that ruined books, clothes collected for needy people, and whatever else was in the path of about six inches of water on the floor.
Kingdom City Church is not a huge congregation, but it is a church with a huge heart. Led by James and Mona Harper, they are always seeking ways to minister to others. James and Mona, by the way, are parents of Point University graduate Morgan Harper Nichols, and Point University student Jamie-Grace Harper. They are great friends to Point and great leaders of this church.
I responded to the email and sent a text message to Mona. Soon there was a flurry of emails between the elders at Mount Carmel and others with me, the board chair, and the Mount Carmel staff. Mona called me and we had a long conversation where she told me more details of the vandalism and what all had been ruined. I asked her how we could help and we prayed together on the phone.
I couldn’t be prouder (in a healthy, Christian sense of what being proud is all about) of the leadership at Mount Carmel. They are fully engaged in finding out what our congregation can do to help Kingdom City Church. It makes me think of Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians 12 when he says “when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.” Seeing the comments made by various elders and members of Mount Carmel in response to Rick Moore’s first email is nothing short of gratifying to me.
All day long I’ve been thinking and praying for James, Mona, their congregation, and Mount Carmel. I can’t quit thinking about how depraved a person must be to not only rob a church, but to viciously vandalize it. I go from wishing I could catch them to thinking about how sad their lives must be.
The Scripture that has made its way into my thinking today is one that I memorized as a freshman in college in Denver Sizemore’s class. It is from 1 Peter 5:8 and says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We really shouldn’t be surprised when the presence of evil seeks to prevent good from being done. But Peter goes on and reminds us that we must “resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” (5:9)
Ours is a difficult world. Just today I read of real challenges a couple who are Point alumni and serving in a very difficult country are facing. His message to his friends was something like “don’t pray for our safety, pray that the gospel is shared.” Another Point alumus frequently emails me about some of the challenges his mission faces in another part of the world. A team from Mount Carmel has had an unbelievably difficult time just getting Christmas gifts for children into another country.
The adversary is prowling. It’s time for us to “resist him and stand firm.”
Please join me in praying for James and Mona and Kingdom City Church. Pray for servants of the child of Bethlehem named “Mighty God” all over the world who face danger in this very moment.
14 December 2011
Just When
“Just when . . .” If the story of the coming of Christ is looked at with the sense of wonderment it deserves, one has to admit that among the lessons learned is that God apparently is free to interrupt our lives. We like it when the interruption suits our own sense of timing, and when it doesn’t, then that’s another story all together.
Right in the middle of Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus the Messiah, we find that intriguing reminder – “just when.” In this particular case, it has to do with Joseph, already described by Matthew as about to have Mary quietly put away, is dealing with a difficult moment in his life. Obviously unhappy with the things have worked out and no doubt not all that sure Mary’s story is true, he never-the-less wants to be a gentleman about it all. “Just when . . .”
In his case, an angel of the Lord appeared and told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20,21, NRSV)
Joseph has it all figured out. He has evaluated life and all of the circumstances that have come crashing down upon him and has a plan. He will be able to sleep at night knowing that he at least treated Mary decently – even though she had not treated him quite so well. Life will be a little different than he had planned, but at least he had a plan and he can now see how things would work out. “Just when . . .”
It would be pretty difficult to think of a more challenging “just when . . .” than the one Joseph is facing. The interruption brought to his life by the birth of the Son of God certainly qualifies as major change in life. Neither Mary nor Joseph could possibly realize just how big the interruption will eventually become.
But the real story in Matthew 1:18-25 is not simply “just when . . .” Joseph, you see, still has a choice. Among the more courageous words of the Matthew story are those words that tell us that Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” He models a kind of responsive faith that God desires always follows the huge “just when . . .” moments we all face.
Our interruptions in life aren’t likely to be quite as dramatic as were Joseph’s, but we all know that there have been times when, “just when we had life planned out perfectly” God somehow interrupted life with opportunities we never dreamed about, much less included in our plans.
The issue really isn’t the “just whens” of life – but the response to those moments when we determine, as did Joseph, “to do as the Lord commands us.”
Right in the middle of Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus the Messiah, we find that intriguing reminder – “just when.” In this particular case, it has to do with Joseph, already described by Matthew as about to have Mary quietly put away, is dealing with a difficult moment in his life. Obviously unhappy with the things have worked out and no doubt not all that sure Mary’s story is true, he never-the-less wants to be a gentleman about it all. “Just when . . .”
In his case, an angel of the Lord appeared and told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20,21, NRSV)
Joseph has it all figured out. He has evaluated life and all of the circumstances that have come crashing down upon him and has a plan. He will be able to sleep at night knowing that he at least treated Mary decently – even though she had not treated him quite so well. Life will be a little different than he had planned, but at least he had a plan and he can now see how things would work out. “Just when . . .”
It would be pretty difficult to think of a more challenging “just when . . .” than the one Joseph is facing. The interruption brought to his life by the birth of the Son of God certainly qualifies as major change in life. Neither Mary nor Joseph could possibly realize just how big the interruption will eventually become.
But the real story in Matthew 1:18-25 is not simply “just when . . .” Joseph, you see, still has a choice. Among the more courageous words of the Matthew story are those words that tell us that Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” He models a kind of responsive faith that God desires always follows the huge “just when . . .” moments we all face.
Our interruptions in life aren’t likely to be quite as dramatic as were Joseph’s, but we all know that there have been times when, “just when we had life planned out perfectly” God somehow interrupted life with opportunities we never dreamed about, much less included in our plans.
The issue really isn’t the “just whens” of life – but the response to those moments when we determine, as did Joseph, “to do as the Lord commands us.”
01 December 2011
Getting Ready
One can hardly think about the season of Advent, which of course began this past Sunday, without thinking about John, the one who came baptizing in the Jordon River as people responded to his message of repentance.
It seems John’s primary mission from God was to stir things up among the religious people of the day as a way of preparing for the coming of Messiah. That idea alone is enough to occupy a considerable spot in our minds. Why was it that “religious people” needed to be stirred up?
We all know that rather impressive birth narrative associated with John’s coming into the world – another of those Hebrew stories of old, childless couples suddenly confronted with the reality of parenthood. That story, as impressive as it is, doesn’t quite match up to the even more impressive birth narrative of the One for whom John’s mission was “prepare the way of the Lord.”
In similar, but not identical, ways to what we know about Jesus, we know about John’s birth and the next thing we know he is this wild man preaching in the wilderness of Judea with a message that can be summarized with one word: repent. He was, to say the least, a bit of an odd character, but then so was Elijah who seems to be his model.
John simply isn’t very impressed with religious people. He calls the most religious of the religious people a “brood of vipers” and is utterly unimpressed with any sense of entitlement based on one’s gene pool. “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children of Abraham” was how he indelicately put it to a group of Pharisees and Sadducees.
What Mark so quickly has Jesus saying (Mark 1:15) Matthew tells us of John’s preaching the same message to prepare for the preaching of Jesus. For John, it was all very simple: one greater than He was about the burst on to the scene of human history and there was but one word to say about that: repent!
If we take the season of Advent seriously in our own lives – a time of longing, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation – for the coming of the glorious Lord, then I wonder what our one word should be? How, for example, should we think about our own spiritual disciplines as sometimes very “religious people” in this season of anticipation?
Would that word perhaps be the same word John used? Repent? Seriously – is that the right word for us? Would we, in our desire to do all that we can to get all of us and all of those around us ready for His coming, would we find a way to focus on repentance?
I don’t know if we would, but I’m pretty convinced we should. I keep thinking about how odd it is that on the one hand we are told that Christ came to the world “in the fullness of time,” (Galatians 4:4) yet the very people who should have been most welcoming of God’s Messiah seem to be the most resistant. The biblical scholars who should have been most perceptive about who Messiah would be and what Messiah would be like, pretty much missed the boat on both counts.
Could that possibly be me? Or you? Or the churches with which we worship and serve? Is it possible in all of our efforts to be “religious people” that the one thing we easily miss is the one thing John was so focused on: repent!
I don’t know the answers to those questions – but I think I ought to be thinking about them.
It seems John’s primary mission from God was to stir things up among the religious people of the day as a way of preparing for the coming of Messiah. That idea alone is enough to occupy a considerable spot in our minds. Why was it that “religious people” needed to be stirred up?
We all know that rather impressive birth narrative associated with John’s coming into the world – another of those Hebrew stories of old, childless couples suddenly confronted with the reality of parenthood. That story, as impressive as it is, doesn’t quite match up to the even more impressive birth narrative of the One for whom John’s mission was “prepare the way of the Lord.”
In similar, but not identical, ways to what we know about Jesus, we know about John’s birth and the next thing we know he is this wild man preaching in the wilderness of Judea with a message that can be summarized with one word: repent. He was, to say the least, a bit of an odd character, but then so was Elijah who seems to be his model.
John simply isn’t very impressed with religious people. He calls the most religious of the religious people a “brood of vipers” and is utterly unimpressed with any sense of entitlement based on one’s gene pool. “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children of Abraham” was how he indelicately put it to a group of Pharisees and Sadducees.
What Mark so quickly has Jesus saying (Mark 1:15) Matthew tells us of John’s preaching the same message to prepare for the preaching of Jesus. For John, it was all very simple: one greater than He was about the burst on to the scene of human history and there was but one word to say about that: repent!
If we take the season of Advent seriously in our own lives – a time of longing, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation – for the coming of the glorious Lord, then I wonder what our one word should be? How, for example, should we think about our own spiritual disciplines as sometimes very “religious people” in this season of anticipation?
Would that word perhaps be the same word John used? Repent? Seriously – is that the right word for us? Would we, in our desire to do all that we can to get all of us and all of those around us ready for His coming, would we find a way to focus on repentance?
I don’t know if we would, but I’m pretty convinced we should. I keep thinking about how odd it is that on the one hand we are told that Christ came to the world “in the fullness of time,” (Galatians 4:4) yet the very people who should have been most welcoming of God’s Messiah seem to be the most resistant. The biblical scholars who should have been most perceptive about who Messiah would be and what Messiah would be like, pretty much missed the boat on both counts.
Could that possibly be me? Or you? Or the churches with which we worship and serve? Is it possible in all of our efforts to be “religious people” that the one thing we easily miss is the one thing John was so focused on: repent!
I don’t know the answers to those questions – but I think I ought to be thinking about them.
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