Shocked me, is more like it.
The group, which now calls itself the "Blame Us Committee" got my car, cleaned it, and detailed it as a birthday gift.
It looks brand new!
Thanks so much to all of this group...I really appreciate it.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
It looks brand new!
Today, the one-time call committee--Lutheran churches elect call committees to interview and recommend candidates for pastorates when they have openings--at Living Water Lutheran Church surprised me.
Shocked me, is more like it.
The group, which now calls itself the "Blame Us Committee" got my car, cleaned it, and detailed it as a birthday gift.
It looks brand new!
Thanks so much to all of this group...I really appreciate it.
Shocked me, is more like it.
The group, which now calls itself the "Blame Us Committee" got my car, cleaned it, and detailed it as a birthday gift.
It looks brand new!
Thanks so much to all of this group...I really appreciate it.
God told me to go to McDonald's...Well, sorta
God didn't exactly tell me to go to McDonald's.
But He did tell me to view every person in need as Jesus.
That means that, out of gratitude for God's undeserved gifts of forgiveness and new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus, I'm called to love others as God has loved me.
And I'm to do it with practical gestures, not just hollow words.
A few weeks ago, I was in Columbus' Short North district for a concert. Before the show began, we decided to walk along North High Street, in a stretch once blighted, but now filled with new bustle and vibrance. But, while there, I encountered several people who asked for money to eat.
At the time, contrary to my usual practice, all I had was a twenty. I usually only care a few ones.
To my embarrassment, I was loathe to part with the twenty.
And, of course--or, at least it's an "of course" to me, every time I was approached by one of these folks, I kicked into rationalizations for why I shouldn't give them any money.
"How do I know that they won't use the money on drugs or booze?" I asked myself.
"How do I know if this these people aren't lazy and this is just their way of generating income?" I wondered.
Well, of course--there's that phrase again, I don't know if the people I encounter on city streets or at the lights of freeway off ramps aren't druggies, boozers, or users.
And even if they are any of those things, there's a good chance that they still get hungry.
Besides, those words of Jesus were haunting me: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one the least these, you did not do for Me" (Matthew 25:45).
So, I prayed. "God," I asked. "How can I be responsive to these people, without judging them, leaving that to You alone?"
Then, it occurred to me that I could honor such folks' professed request by giving them a gift card to a fast food place that doesn't sell alcohol. Voila: McDonald's.
Yes, people can sell the cards I give to them and use the cash to buy drugs or drink. They can ditch them, too.
But I'm not responsible for what people do with the gifts from God that we share with them. I'm only responsible for what I do with God's gifts to me.
Everything else is up to God.
So, I bought some gift cards from McDonald's as a way to be obedient to the God of love Who, through Christ, has changed from His enemy to His friend. I plan to keep a few of the cards with me all the time.
You never can tell where life with God may lead you. Maybe even to McDonald's.
But He did tell me to view every person in need as Jesus.
That means that, out of gratitude for God's undeserved gifts of forgiveness and new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus, I'm called to love others as God has loved me.
And I'm to do it with practical gestures, not just hollow words.
A few weeks ago, I was in Columbus' Short North district for a concert. Before the show began, we decided to walk along North High Street, in a stretch once blighted, but now filled with new bustle and vibrance. But, while there, I encountered several people who asked for money to eat.
At the time, contrary to my usual practice, all I had was a twenty. I usually only care a few ones.
To my embarrassment, I was loathe to part with the twenty.
And, of course--or, at least it's an "of course" to me, every time I was approached by one of these folks, I kicked into rationalizations for why I shouldn't give them any money.
"How do I know that they won't use the money on drugs or booze?" I asked myself.
"How do I know if this these people aren't lazy and this is just their way of generating income?" I wondered.
Well, of course--there's that phrase again, I don't know if the people I encounter on city streets or at the lights of freeway off ramps aren't druggies, boozers, or users.
And even if they are any of those things, there's a good chance that they still get hungry.
Besides, those words of Jesus were haunting me: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one the least these, you did not do for Me" (Matthew 25:45).
So, I prayed. "God," I asked. "How can I be responsive to these people, without judging them, leaving that to You alone?"
Then, it occurred to me that I could honor such folks' professed request by giving them a gift card to a fast food place that doesn't sell alcohol. Voila: McDonald's.
Yes, people can sell the cards I give to them and use the cash to buy drugs or drink. They can ditch them, too.
But I'm not responsible for what people do with the gifts from God that we share with them. I'm only responsible for what I do with God's gifts to me.
Everything else is up to God.
So, I bought some gift cards from McDonald's as a way to be obedient to the God of love Who, through Christ, has changed from His enemy to His friend. I plan to keep a few of the cards with me all the time.
You never can tell where life with God may lead you. Maybe even to McDonald's.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Starbucks
This photo, shared by Charlie Lehardy, cracks me up.
I don't know what makes some Christians think that it's Starbucks' job to share Christ with the world. It's ours as Christians.
And I'm sure that in places where Christians actually are persecuted, like Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations, China, and parts of Africa, our fellow believers shake their heads at silliness like this coming from American Christians.
A thought
Much of what happens in this broken world is meaningless, even tragic. It falls to us then, by the grace and power of God, to imbue our lives here with meaning and to help others do the same.
Morality v. Christian Faith
This Spurgeon quote, shared today by Depraved Wretch on Facebook, surfaces the difference between civil righteousness and true righteousness.
Civil righteousness categorizes the behaviors in which we engage to stay on the right side of earthly authority.
True righteousness is that perfect shalom righteousness that characterizes life lived in loving community with God and others.
True righteousness is required of anyone who would be part of the eternal kingdom of God.
It's also, unlike civil righteousness unattainable by human effort or will power.
This latter righteousness is a gift of grace which God grants to those who trust in Jesus, God in the flesh.
To trust or to believe in Jesus is to seek, by God's power, to turn from our sin--our failure to love God or to love others--and follow Christ as our King and Savior.
Civic righteous is all about shame and coercion. It has its place in an imperfect world: Not all people live voluntarily in God's kingdom of love. That's why we need governments, armies, police forces, FDAs, EPAs, and taxing authorities.
The righteousness from God is conferred by grace on those who let Christ save them from sin, death, and hell in order to live in peace with God, others, and ourselves.
This righteousness gives the peace of God that passes all understanding for living today and the certainty of perfect life and peace in eternity with God.
The God we know in Christ is our peace (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
What happens in those who receive God's Word
"The one who finds the way of God must first lose all his own riches [not just money, but everything by which we measure our value or in which we take self-centered pleasure] in order to find all manner of riches. God's word creates joy and delight in the one who receives it. It is delight about restored fellowship with God. It is delight about deliverance from fear and sin. It is the joy of the one who had gone astray and, after a long night, has found the right way again." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his meditation on Psalm 119:14)
First verse of a new song
As I've mentioned here before, I write songs and have done so since I was about eight. Not all my songs are rooted in personal experience or, if they are, in deflected ways. (I'm protecting the innocent and the guilty, including myself.)
Here's the first verse of a little bluesy thing I'm working on. It affirms that Jesus, as C.S. Lewis writes of the Christ-figure in his Narnia novels, isn't a tame lion...though He is good.
Jesus saves those who follow Him from sin and death. But when you surrender to Him, you never know what He may call on you to do.
Here's the first verse of a little bluesy thing I'm working on. It affirms that Jesus, as C.S. Lewis writes of the Christ-figure in his Narnia novels, isn't a tame lion...though He is good.
Jesus saves those who follow Him from sin and death. But when you surrender to Him, you never know what He may call on you to do.
Feeling fine
Drinking wine
Talking with my friends
Dreaming dreams
Seeing scenes
I thought it would never end
But when you're talking with the Holy Spirit
He may give you a call and you'd better fear it
Following Jesus is a Jenga game
He's gonna tear down your bricks
He cannot be tamed
(c) Copyright, Mark Daniels 2015
Monday, November 09, 2015
What God Wants
[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Springboro, Ohio, this past Sunday, November 8.]
Mark 12:38-44
“All she had to live on.”
That’s what Jesus and the disciples witnessed the poor widow put into the temple offering a few days before Jesus was crucified.
And, this is no exaggeration on Jesus’ part, by the way. When you read the Greek in which Mark originally quotes Jesus, Jesus says of the woman’s offering: “ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς,” literally all her life or her whole life, she placed in that offering box.
Now, let’s be clear. In the Old Testament God only called His people to give a tithe, the first ten percent of their income, to the temple.
And that same Old Testament law would have exempted a poor widow from giving anything.
But here is this woman giving all she has to live on.
Was she crazy?
Was she imprudent?
Was she trying to make deals with God?
Jesus doesn’t seem to think that there's anything wrong with this woman.
In fact, he commends the woman as an example of faithfulness for His disciples, for you and me.
But before you put your money over your wallets to protect them, let me just tell you that our Gospel lesson for this morning is about a lot more than money.
It’s about our whole lives and how we will spend them.
Our lesson, Mark 12:38-44, takes place in the temple during Holy Week. Just before where our lesson picks up, Jesus has had another confrontation with the scribes, the experts in Biblical and Jewish law. They’ve said that the Messiah Whose coming they anticipated would be a “son of (or a descendant of”) David," Israel’s greatest king, who lived about a thousand years before the birth of Jesus.
The claim is true enough, but they seem to think that the Messiah will be inferior to David.
Jesus though, quotes Psalm 110, written by David, where it says: “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ Here, Jesus says, the great King David called the Messiah--Jesus Himself--Lord.
As our lesson begins, Jesus talks about the scribes: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Jesus is warning us against people and warning us against being people who like to look like super pious believers, but are really looking out for number one.
Today, they’re people who like to have titles, to have people bow and scrape to them and honor them. They’re hung up on status and hierarchy.
You find them still in the Church today.
We were invited to a dinner with a prominent man and just before dinner started, a local pastor was invited to offer the prayer. It went on forever, certainly what Jesus would call a “long prayer.” And, I hope I wasn't judging unfairly, but it certainly seemed that the man was praying less to God than to the prominent man visiting our town.
Jesus says that our aim shouldn't be to pray impressive prayers, but to pray honest prayers, humble prayers.
Jesus is also warning us against people and warning us against being people who crave money and the status it can confer on us. He said that the scribes found ways to extort money from widows because of their love of position.
Of course, the particularly slimy thing about the scribes as Jesus describes them here is that they want, with their elevated status, to look like pious servants of God, men who are close to God, holier than others.
In fact, how they looked was of paramount importance to them. It was all about the show.
They’re like pastors and church people who focus on the performance of liturgy with elaborate exactness, but don't believe that Jesus was God. Or that He was born of a virgin. Or that He rose from the dead. Or that He was (and is) “the way and the truth and the life,” the only Lord by Whom we can be saved from sin and death. Or that the Bible is the Word of God.
Like the scribes’ friends, the Pharisees, who Jesus once described as “whitewashed tombs,” the scribes were spiritually empty suits. But for as long as they lived on this earth, they were, if I can mix my metaphors, the big dogs. Jesus says though that beyond the gates of death, people like them will be condemned by God.
Then, we’re told this, starting in verse 41: “And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’”
The widow wasn’t trying to be seen by anyone. She didn’t make a show of her appearance at the temple. She simply--almost furtively, it seems--gave everything she had.
She believed that the God Who gave her life would either sustain her in this life or give her new life beyond the grave.
She didn’t worry about sacrificing herself in this way because she knew that the God Who gives life has plenty more to give away.
Jesus says that this gift of her whole self exceeded the value of all the fat offerings by the “look at me” crowd.
To me, it’s instructive to consider when this incident took place.
Just a few days later, Jesus Himself would give His whole life on the cross.
Repeatedly, Satan and the world had striven to tempt Jesus, to divert Him from His mission of dying as the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that all who believe in Him can live with God and share in His resurrection life. But He was intent on giving His whole life for us so that He could give new life to us.
And in fact, the only way you and I can share in the life that God gives exclusively through Jesus Christ is to for us give our whole lives to Jesus. That’s what it means to believe in Jesus: To trust Him with our whole lives.
Thirty-nine years after coming to faith in Christ, I realize that I am only now beginning to understand that truth.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:25: “...whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This isn’t legalism. God doesn’t require our lives in a legal transaction to claim the salvation He gives in Jesus.
Rather, it’s a simple fact that until we empty ourselves of all thought of needing earthly power or comfort, we can’t be free to take Christ’s outstretched hand of forgiveness, life, and love.
Again, after all these years of being a Christian, I feel that I am only now beginning to learn this.
All the scribes, obsessed with earthly comfort and status, were slaves to this world, weighed down with concerns over what people thought of them, how others saw them, whether they were happy.
The widow cared only about what God thought of her.
And she already knew that God cared very deeply for all people, even poor, powerless widows.
That’s why her offering was so valuable: It came from an authentically surrendered believer putting her surrender into practice.
What are you willing to give to the Lord?
Of course, every Christian will see it as an appropriate expression of our faith to give of our finances to the mission of Christ’s Church.
But even more than your money, God wants you.
He wants you because He loves you.
He wants you so that He redeem and make new every part of your life: your mind and emotions, your work, your friendships, and your marriage, your present and your eternity.
God wants you because He’s given His all--even death on a cross--to make you His own.
And He wants you for all eternity.
May we, like the widow, learn what it means to give our whole selves to the God we know in Jesus. Amen
Mark 12:38-44
“All she had to live on.”
That’s what Jesus and the disciples witnessed the poor widow put into the temple offering a few days before Jesus was crucified.
And, this is no exaggeration on Jesus’ part, by the way. When you read the Greek in which Mark originally quotes Jesus, Jesus says of the woman’s offering: “ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς,” literally all her life or her whole life, she placed in that offering box.
And that same Old Testament law would have exempted a poor widow from giving anything.
But here is this woman giving all she has to live on.
Was she crazy?
Was she imprudent?
Was she trying to make deals with God?
Jesus doesn’t seem to think that there's anything wrong with this woman.
In fact, he commends the woman as an example of faithfulness for His disciples, for you and me.
But before you put your money over your wallets to protect them, let me just tell you that our Gospel lesson for this morning is about a lot more than money.
It’s about our whole lives and how we will spend them.
The claim is true enough, but they seem to think that the Messiah will be inferior to David.
Jesus though, quotes Psalm 110, written by David, where it says: “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ Here, Jesus says, the great King David called the Messiah--Jesus Himself--Lord.
Today, they’re people who like to have titles, to have people bow and scrape to them and honor them. They’re hung up on status and hierarchy.
We were invited to a dinner with a prominent man and just before dinner started, a local pastor was invited to offer the prayer. It went on forever, certainly what Jesus would call a “long prayer.” And, I hope I wasn't judging unfairly, but it certainly seemed that the man was praying less to God than to the prominent man visiting our town.
Jesus says that our aim shouldn't be to pray impressive prayers, but to pray honest prayers, humble prayers.
In fact, how they looked was of paramount importance to them. It was all about the show.
They’re like pastors and church people who focus on the performance of liturgy with elaborate exactness, but don't believe that Jesus was God. Or that He was born of a virgin. Or that He rose from the dead. Or that He was (and is) “the way and the truth and the life,” the only Lord by Whom we can be saved from sin and death. Or that the Bible is the Word of God.
Like the scribes’ friends, the Pharisees, who Jesus once described as “whitewashed tombs,” the scribes were spiritually empty suits. But for as long as they lived on this earth, they were, if I can mix my metaphors, the big dogs. Jesus says though that beyond the gates of death, people like them will be condemned by God.
She believed that the God Who gave her life would either sustain her in this life or give her new life beyond the grave.
She didn’t worry about sacrificing herself in this way because she knew that the God Who gives life has plenty more to give away.
Jesus says that this gift of her whole self exceeded the value of all the fat offerings by the “look at me” crowd.
Just a few days later, Jesus Himself would give His whole life on the cross.
Repeatedly, Satan and the world had striven to tempt Jesus, to divert Him from His mission of dying as the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that all who believe in Him can live with God and share in His resurrection life. But He was intent on giving His whole life for us so that He could give new life to us.
Thirty-nine years after coming to faith in Christ, I realize that I am only now beginning to understand that truth.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:25: “...whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This isn’t legalism. God doesn’t require our lives in a legal transaction to claim the salvation He gives in Jesus.
Rather, it’s a simple fact that until we empty ourselves of all thought of needing earthly power or comfort, we can’t be free to take Christ’s outstretched hand of forgiveness, life, and love.
Again, after all these years of being a Christian, I feel that I am only now beginning to learn this.
All the scribes, obsessed with earthly comfort and status, were slaves to this world, weighed down with concerns over what people thought of them, how others saw them, whether they were happy.
The widow cared only about what God thought of her.
And she already knew that God cared very deeply for all people, even poor, powerless widows.
That’s why her offering was so valuable: It came from an authentically surrendered believer putting her surrender into practice.
What are you willing to give to the Lord?
Of course, every Christian will see it as an appropriate expression of our faith to give of our finances to the mission of Christ’s Church.
But even more than your money, God wants you.
He wants you because He loves you.
He wants you so that He redeem and make new every part of your life: your mind and emotions, your work, your friendships, and your marriage, your present and your eternity.
God wants you because He’s given His all--even death on a cross--to make you His own.
And He wants you for all eternity.
May we, like the widow, learn what it means to give our whole selves to the God we know in Jesus. Amen
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