Here and Now

retronym n. a new term created from an existing word in order to distinguish the original referent of the existing word from a later one that is the product of progress or technological development (e.g. acoustic guitar for guitar ). – ORIGIN 1980s : blend of RETRO- and -ONYM . Now go and use that three times in a sentence this week...

Wednesday is halfway through the week - I would have guessed that it would be the most productive day of the week - but extensive research *** shows that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week. Who knew? But then I thought about how much Jesus did on Tuesday (according to the Gospel of Mark - it's half of Chapter 11 , all of Chapter 12 and all of Chapter 13 ) - yeah, a very productive day. The thing is, it pales in comparison to what Jesus accomplishes on Friday,***** yet the things Jesus taught on Tuesday were significant. He stymied the chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders who wanted to trap him in the question of authority, he told the parable of the tenants (about those same people who tried to trap him). Then the Pharisees ask about taxes - which Jesus deftly avoids their trap, too. The Sadducees ask about marriage and resurrection. Jesus then teaches about love and truly keeping the law (the Greatest Commandment) and then he pushes back against t...

So, easier I said would be the parable of the fig tree (Yodaspeak? It's late, okay?) So, Jesus cursed this fig tree on Monday - went to the Temple, shook things up a bit (Mr. Understatement) and went back to Bethany. On Tuesday, on his way back in to Jerusalem - where he was going to teach - they passed the tree, and now it had whithered. And Jesus gives a saying about faith "Have faith in God...I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heave may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:22-26) So I think I would have found that answer a little frustrating (just like Jesus' statement to the Greeks in yesterday...

As I'm working through The Importance of Being Foolish, I'll keep on posting here. Anyway, Manning says, "To become a little child again (as Jesus enjoined we must) is to recapture a sense of surprise, wonder and vast delight in all of reality. Look at a child's face on Christmas morning as he enters the living room transformed by the midnight passage of Santa Claus. Or when he discovers the coin under the pillow or sees his first rainbow or sniffs his first rose. Few of us catch our breath as they once did. The walk down the corridor of time has made us bigger and everything else smaller, less impressive." This struck a chord with me - Rachel and I, especially, have been at odds a lot lately. I mean, she's nine - and she's a girl - and...I don't know. Here's what I just realized as I read Manning. I'm lamenting her growing up. She doesn't light up at the simple things, she doesn't always come running to me when I come home, she ...

So this was the day that Jesus cleansed the Temple. According the Mark 11 Jesus enters Jerusalem on the donkey and then went to the temple and looked around but it was late so "he went out to Behtany with the Twelve." (11) Then, the "next day as they were leaving Bethany..." is how verse 12 starts. Jesus leaves Bethany Monday morning and I love the simplicity of what Mark says here, "Jesus was hungry." I mean, this is the big week of...well, history, right? Yet we have this detail about Jesus. Anyway, this is when he curses the fig tree (which is subject for tomorrow's post) on his way into Jerusalem. Once he gets into the city, he goes to the temple and there he "began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts." (Mark 11:15b-16) (of course, this video is from the Gos...

From the Silmarillion: "And it came to pass that Iluvatar called together all the Ainur and declared to them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the splendour of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Iluvatar and were silent. "Then Iluvatar said to them, 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.'" So, Michael Airgood posted this on his blog : An old, old man used to play the accordion most nights while sitting on a bench in front of my apartment complex in Konakovo, Russia. I can't imagine he's still alive, but if he is I assure y...

I really don't get political on my blog - I don't follow most things closely enough - but it did occur to me today watching the news that while I don't know enough about the new health care bill to really comment on it, I'm personally concerned about it because of one simple fact: The framers of the bill put in special provisions to make certain they - elected officials - appointees - etc - will NOT fall under the provisions of the law. Um - if it's a good law, shouldn't it apply to EVERYONE? That just intrigues me. What's the justification? Yeah, maybe I just don't know enough about all this. Maybe somebody can set me straight on it...

Heh - here's a new word for you: Now, go and use it twice in a conversation. I dare you... :)

An idea - in case anyone wonders ever - I thought I'd post a couple things that, as I work on a project (in this case, last week's sermon), don't make the cut - but might be worthwhile anyway... Jesus said that whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake will save it... What if God is saying to us that as long as you hold on to (insert that which you can't give away here) as if it were more precious (Gollum) than me, it will NEVER really be yours - it will own you instead of you owning it. But if you surrender to God - completely - in all these areas: Life, marriage, singleness, stuff, job, kids, parents, income/finances, time, words, attitudes, love, trust... Could this be the "life, more abundant" that Jesus said he came to bring? So, maybe...if we give over everything to God, his blessings are "return on investment"? I mean, it's not like a magic formula, or whatever, but could this be whe...

So I just realized (last night, actually) that it is finally Spring. I'm wondering if I don't experience some sort of seasonal blahs or whatever because beginning about last Monday or so I feel like...I don't know how to describe it... So, over the winter I felt like I was thinking through sand - trying to push thoughts and concepts along but there was something...in the way. But...ooo, I just realized that it might have something to do with changing the clocks (is that even possible? Didn't we do that last weekend?). Anyway - I guess I'm just glad spring is here.

Brennan Manning, in The Importance of Being Foolish : "But there is an essential difference between submission and surrender. The former is the conscious acceptance of reality. There is a superficial yielding, but tension continues...It is halfhearted acceptance. It is described by words such as resignation , compliance , acknowledgement , concession . There remains a feeling of reservation, a tug in the direction of non-acceptance. Surrender, on the other hand, is the moment when my forces of resistance cease to function, when I cannot help but respond to the call of the Spirit. The ability to surrender is a gift of God. However eagerly we may desire it, however diligently we may strive to acquire it, surrender cannot be attained by personal endeavor." So I pulled that quote (I haven't finished that book yet) in my research for Surrender this past week for yesterday's message. I get what Manning is saying - and I agree, there is an aspect of giving in...

So I've been doing a lot of reading on Surrender, Trust, Gethsemane and, naturally, some stuff did not make the cut for the message this week, but stuff that I think is important. First, this idea of the anguish of the Son of God. I've heard people say things like "that's the humanity of Jesus overwhelming the divinity" but...really? Isn't that kind of a definition of sin? When my humanity overwhelms the Spirit in me? I know what people are trying to say...but I don't think so. Word Biblical Commentary says, "The mystery of the agony of God's unique Son cannot be fully penetrated." (WBC vol 33B, page 785) And that's the place to start, I think. We want to explain everything (actually, I think that's a little bit of the image of God in us - the search for identity and answers and the edge of everything - I believe that God instilled that in all of us, but we take it to sinful lengths...but that's a topic for another post...may...

Yeah, I'm having an uber-geek moment...heh So I've always believed that you can't get something for nothing...but then I discovered open source software... And now, thanks to Mike B., I'm downloading Ubuntu Studio - which has a TON of opensource video, audio and image applications that install with it. All free. Well, free - as in no money. But it does mean learning some new things (sometimes open source stuff can be pretty confusing how to install - heck, for an old non-computer geek like me I can't always even figure out what I'm looking at). And so, yeah, maybe you can't get something for nothing. But I think this is going to be worth the price.

No, not Peyton. Not his little brother, either. A DIFFERENT Manning (hmm, I wonder if they're related...) Pastor Steve preached on Trust this past Sunday, so I broke out my copy of Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust today (okay, I SHOULD have thought to give it to Steve for his message...but I forgot...sigh...). So, anyway, Manning starts chapter 7, "Trusting Jesus," like this: Faith arises from the personal experience of Jesus as Lord. Hope is reliance on the promise of Jesus, accompanied by the expectation of fulfillment. Trust is the winsome wedding of faith and hope. Okay, maybe it's a good thing I DIDN'T give this to Steve last week - I'm not sure those statements are all that clear. Let's try this again. Trust is faith coupled with hope. I'm going to riff on this a bit (if you want to know what Manning says about this...buy the book and see for yourself).*** Steve said that two definitions of Trust were "leaning in" and "fa...

...you can skip this post (but I simply DON'T understand how that's possible). A moment of fridge logic occurred to me while Elie was watching Star Wars (no, NOT episode IV A New Hope, dangit, it was just Star Wars when it came out and that's still what I call it...you kids, get off my lawn...) So when the R5 unit blows up after Luke's uncle buys if from the Jawas, See-Threepio says, " Excuse me, sir, but that R2 unit is in prime condition. A real bargain." So then later, when Luke is trying to get Artoo to play back the whole message, Threepio says, " Quite frankly, sir I don't know what he's talking about. Our last master was Captain Antilles, but with what we've been through, this little R2 unit has become a bit eccentric." After Artoo has run away, Threepio says, "That R2 unit has always been a problem. These astro-droids are getting quite out of hand. Even I can't understand their logic at times." And just a few lines l...

Steve and I were sitting in a seminar a while back and the presenter was talking about leadership and vision (that's the kind of seminars we go to) and he made a point something like: "What's your end game? Where is this vision going? How will you know when you get there?" And I asked Steve, "What's our end game?" And he kind of put his head in his hands and said something about driving him crazy with questions (hey, it's what I do...). But later we talked about it. What's the endgame for this vision of ministry in the Brokenstraw Valley? Where is this going? How will we know when we get there? And I've been thinking - I don't think there IS an end game. I don't think we will ever arrive. Steve and I are already feeling the pull from the Holy Spirit to go off and "dream it up all over again." *** Not that we're not heading in a direction, and not that we don't have some very tangible and specific goals - but w...

The remake's on it's way (an obscure reference to an obscure song - you figure it out)***... Can you tell from the picture what this place is? It actually is a re-purposed building. Looks pretty majestic I found this site kind of randomly. It's an old movie theater in Buenos Aires that was going to be destroyed and it is now probably the most ornate bookstore on the planet. So I was thinking about one of my favorite scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! What does that look like? I mean, I still look pretty much the same - so how is God making me a new creation? Is it only a spiritual thing? How is it to be new? Can I be innocent again? Unbroken? Or is it deeper? Is it God making me whole again - but still with the cracks and the chips of experience? Do I even want to be unbroken again? I am, for better or worse, the sum of all that has happened to me. All the tragedy, al...

How does a word mean the exact opposite of itself? Oh, yeah, if enough people don't know the meaning and they mis-use it enough, it takes on that other meaning... Don't even ask me about irregardless...

So a guy on a blog complains: Which is worse? Having writer's block or having so many ideas come all at once that you'll never be able to do justice to all of them? To which I say: yes. They both suck, big time. The truth is, in areas of creativity, the more you do, the more ideas you have. If you're a writer, ideas generate ideas. The blank page is ominous (maybe why it takes me so long to get back to blogging?) but once you start, things pile up. Or at least they do for me. One of the few disciplines I have in life is ordering my thoughts. Not perfectly - heh, my head still gets me in lots of situations of falling on my face before God and asking for forgiveness - but disciplining myself to move through ideas - to evaluate new ones as they come and file away the good ones for another time. See, I CAN do this time management thing. Sort of. Anyway, it sort of reminds me of Jesus saying that the one who is trustworthy in a little will be trustworthy with a lot (that...

Just a note of further explanation from yesterday's post. It was specifically the bridge of the song that hit me where I needed ministered to yesterday: I missed the mark, I can't deny it I can't condone or justify it But I've done nothing that His blood can't wash away When I take it to the cross and start to pray... Yeah, the last line is a bit forced and, really, it's a pretty standard kind of late 80s throwaway song - that's the point. Five guys trying honor God 20+ years ago still conveyed God's grace to me yesterday...

Two quick observations: First - though I've been a Christian for almost 30 years now, a pastor for a dozen years, in active public ministry for almost 20 years...though I KNOW all the stuff I'm supposed to know and BELIEVE all the stuff I'm supposed to believe... I'm still capable of saying the most unbelievably stupid things... No wonder James said that if we could just tame the tongue we'd be in a whole lot less trouble (WRBPV***). At least forgiveness is also in most peoples' vocabulary... Second - God breaks through in unexpected yet very welcome moments. I hadn't really thought about the band Petra for a loooooooong time - but today I decided to cruise through some of their albums (especially the "trilogy" of Never Say Die, More Power To Ya & Not of this World ) but at some point I pulled up Beat the System - not a great album by any means. Yet, I had it floating along in the background and I hear: You may see me stumble, you may see...

... I gave as an offering my all to Him Who had won me and saved me, my property, my fame, my health, my very words... In considering all these things, I preferred Christ. And the words of God were made sweet as honeycombs to me, and I cried after knowledge and lifted up my voice for wisdom. There was moreover the moderation of anger, the curbing of the tongue, the restraint of the eyes, the discipline of the belly, and the trampling under foot of the glory which clings to the earth. --Gregory of Nazianzus So easily the words, "I surrender all" can come to my lips - but so slowly does the true surrender come. I willingly give up my property, fame, health, words (usually) to Christ - this is actually an easy sacrifice to make. But the harder is the second part of Gregory's assertion above: me... Anger, tongue, eyes, belly, self-glorification... So, I've been a Christ Follower for almost thirty years, and I'm still figuring out what Jesus meant by "If anyone...