Knowing Your Place

An Inkling

“Where’re you from?”  I felt like I needed an answer, and “Texas” was as close as I could get.  But it wasn’t true.  My parents were from Texas.  I didn’t know where I was from.  The only place we had was where Boeing assigned my dad, and that turned out to be plural, not singular.  I was not alone in that.  Most of my peers in the suburbs were like me – they had wheels, not roots.

“Where’re you from?”  Now I answer, “Richmond, Virginia.”  I’ve never felt so quickly at home anywhere I’ve ever lived.  Even after being here four years, there is still a delight for me in being here.  Maybe at the ripe old age of 55, a fellow who learned young how to roll, is finally learning how to root.

Both skills are useful in life, for God directs us toward each at various times.  The scripture recounts multiple occasions of each for our instruction.  For example, God rooted his long-transient people in a land of their own.  And Jesus uprooted his disciples, who left their nets to follow the one who had no place to lay his head.

It’s well to ponder such stories, for over the course of our lives we have multiple occasions for both rolling and rooting.  These play out geographically, vocationally, relationally, congregationally, etc.  For most of us one or the other tends to be more familiar, more comfortable.  But God works in both ways, and is with us in both modes.  And finally, even in this life, we begin to learn what we will fully know in the Kingdom, that our place is with him.

Blessings,

Keith

Fixing Our Wanters

An Inkling

The scripture says it many ways, but this one is particularly lovely:  Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).  On first reading we take that to mean that God gives us what our hearts desire.  But there’s another way to read it – that God transforms what our hearts desire.  Not only does he give us what our hearts desire, he gives us new desires for our hearts!  In other words, he fixes our “wanters.” 

Most of the time people do what they want to do.  Occasionally people will discipline themselves to do what they should do even if they don’t want to do it.  But that usually doesn’t last very long.  Witness the shelf life of New Year’s resolutions.  It’s when we really want to do something that we find a way to do it, and we keep at it.

I was reminded of this last week on our Kazakhstan trip.  One of our team members, Tim, went because he really wanted to go.  And he had to want to go strongly, for there were dozens of reasons not to go – e.g., it cost a lot of time (half of his annual vacation), it cost a lot of money, it took him apart from his wife and two teenagers, and the trip came at a pressure-packed time in his banking job.  But Tim went.  People do what they want to do.  And what Tim really wanted to do was lovely indeed – to see and to bless the two children that he and his family sponsor.

We can tell people what they ought to do, and occasionally they will do it.  This was the Pharisees’ approach, and they were perplexed that their directives didn’t work better.  (Actually the “ought to do it” approach didn’t work so well in their own lives either, despite their careful efforts to project the image.) 

Jesus took a different approach, the Psalm 37:4 approach.  He wanted the delight of our relationship with the Lord to reform our desires – to fix our “wanter.”  And so he described our new life in him with images like this:  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44).  The man doesn’t see it as a burden to sell it all so that he can acquire the treasure; rather he joyfully does, despite the cost!  People do what they want to do, and so Jesus strategically shapes what we want to do, wedding freedom and obedience in a union of great joy.

May it be that our delight in the Lord would give him full access to our “wanters.”  They need fixing!  Upon repair, those wanters put us to doing some amazing things, some Jesus things – and we’ll not let anything stop us.

Imagine that!

Keith

Adorned by Love

An Inkling

I am writing this week from Kazakhstan.  Do you know where that is?  I know I didn’t, until I came to St. Giles and learned about our partnership with an interchurch group that enables us to join in blessing orphans ten time zones to the east.  I first came here in 2008, and am most grateful to be able to come again.  

Many of the state’s orphan care efforts are admirable.  But even where it works as well as possible, there is a huge love deficit.  That’s where we come in.  We just show up and love the kids.  They show us their rooms, what they’ve made in school, and their pictures of family – if they have family.  I’m not particularly gifted in working with children.  But this takes no great gifting – just a willingness to show up and love.

That love has found a particular focus for me this week in Anastasia.  She is the little girl that Sarah and I have begun to sponsor through Interlink.  She’s eight years old, and has been in the orphanage for most of her life.  She’s not an orphan in the classic sense.  Her parents are living, but they have yielded her and her brother to the orphanage, due to their inability to care for them.  If anything, that’s a sadder legacy than having no parents at all.

Anastasia is like the other kids, hungry for love, and for someone to be especially focused on her.  That’s been my job this week.  My tear ducts have gotten a good workout in the process, and especially so the second day I saw her.  I had brought her a box of brightly colored ponytail holders that Sarah found for her as a gift.  We weren’t certain what she would like.  But all doubt was removed when I saw her on that second day, with all of the ponytail holders in her hair at once – as you can see in the picture.

I lost it.  Just seeing her with every color in her hair at once – her proud effort to receive this simple gift fully – was as beautiful a sight as I’ve ever seen.  May it be that we would receive the full rainbow array of adornments given by the One who has not left us as orphans (John 14:18).  In his love he would make us beautiful.  And my guess is that our eagerness to sport his adornments might well bring tears to his eyes.

Of course in my case I trust he has something other than ponytail holders… Ha!

Blessings,

Keith
P.S. – My friend, Tim Brown, who is on the trip too, saw my blog post and made this youtube video to fill out the picture a bit. Thanks Tim!

In the Blacksmith's Shop

An Inkling

One value of conflict is that it makes us think through why we believe what we believe.  Unchallenged beliefs can remain vague and confused.  Not so beliefs that are challenged.  As they say, “Iron sharpens iron.”  We find ourselves in the blacksmith’s shop courtesy of a biblically unfaithful choice made by our denomination this week. 

Here’s the short of it.  Last summer the General Assembly (our national governing body) voted to remove from our church constitution the requirement that ministers and elders must live in fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.  The proposal then went to the 173 presbyteries around the country for their consideration.  Three times in the last ten years we have defeated similar proposals in the presbyteries.  But this time it passed, with the majority gained this week.

Knowing that this biblically unfaithful proposal would likely gain a majority vote sometime in May, our Session has begun to talk about how we will respond.  The Session’s letter to you can be found on our church website (see the link just below).  In the coming months the Session will enable us as a congregation to discern God’s guidance.  There will be several options for faithful response, and we will be seeking the one to which God is guiding us.

In the process the iron of our beliefs will be sharpened about such basic matters as:

·      Sexual ethics – what does the Bible teach?  Considering the ferment in our society about sexual ethics, it’s well to have clarity.

·      Biblical authority – why should we care what the Bible says about sexual ethics? 

·      The nature of God’s grace – is God’s grace a love and acceptance that prompts transformation, or is it simply an unconditional positive regard?

·      Our relationship with the historic and global church (beyond our denomination) – what does it mean that this action divides us from the historic position of the church, and from almost all of our global partners?

·      The nature of the church – yes, we’re one in Christ, but how much diversity of belief can a church handle without making itself crazy?  Whatever that threshold is, it looks like we’ve passed it.

·      Etc, etc, etc.  These are just some of the basic matters that we’ll be addressing as we seek God’s guidance.

I don’t know what all God is going to do through this.  But I know the blacksmith shop in which we find ourselves belongs to him.  And I know that we’ll be sharpened for more effective service.  That’s to the good.

Blessings,

Keith

Reporting From Japan

An Inkling

How was the trip?  The short answer is, “very good.”  Sarah and I had never been to the Far East, and so when our daughter, Dorothy, and her new husband, Brandon, landed there courtesy of his Navy Chaplain duties, we decided to make the big journey. 

It has been a wealth of new sights.  As I write this on my way home, I’m still processing it all.  Here is some of what I observed (along with a few pictures):

It was fun to see Dorothy and Brandon’s new life together.  Family traits and values show, but they show differently in a new setting and season.  The greatest joy of the trip by far was seeing how they are serving the Lord in such a different place.

We visited lots of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.  I was fascinated by the various facets of these faiths, as adherents seek to make sense of life and its limits.  I prayed for those we saw burning incense and bowing to various idols, that they might come to know the One who sent his Son for us.

At one of the shrines we saw a hillside of baby Buddhas.  We were told that they place such images to remember lost babies, some of which are by miscarriage, and most of which are by abortion.  It was one of the saddest sights I’ve ever seen.  Abortion is a scourge in their land, as in our own.  May all such heartsick moms meet the One who alone can heal the heart.  And may both their land and ours be delivered of this scourge.

We saw lots of young Japanese people wearing shirts and jeans with English phrases emblazoned on them.  Most of them were either misspelled or entirely nonsensical.  Apparently English is fashionable in appearance, and the sense of it is irrelevant.  I didn’t know what to make of that.  I’m eager to be back where English at least makes some sense!

And I’m eager to be back with the St. Giles family!  You’re the biggest part of why “there’s no place like home.”

Homeward bound,

Keith

Confirmed

An Inkling

It doesn’t get any better for the Elders of our church than this:  we were gathered to hear Rachel, Geoffrey, and Matt tell about their faith in Jesus.  Dwight Hedges, our Director of Student Ministries, had been meeting with them for ten weeks, and they were more than ready – even if a bit nervous.

Here are some of the questions they answered:

§       If Jesus Christ has shown us what God is like, then what do you know about God from having observed Jesus? 

§       Can you affirm that you are ready to follow Jesus, and that you consider him as your Savior and Lord? 

§       What people or events have led you to trust Jesus? 

§       What does the word “Trinity” mean? 

§       What are some meanings of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? 

§       What are the missions of the church?  What part of the mission appeals to you?

The zeal and understanding with which they answered truly blessed the Elders.  Now they’ll complete their profession of faith during worship this Sunday.

What qualifies them to do so?  The right answers to the questions?  No.  They are no more qualified to be a follower of Jesus now than they were five years ago, when defining the Trinity would have been a stretch.  They’ve not been qualified; they’ve been confirmed.  Thus our term for this process:  confirmation.

They have a role in this.  They have studied so that they can profess their faith with understanding.  So they are confirming their faith. 

But more importantly, they are being confirmed by the One who has used all manner of things to form them in Christ:  from the vows their parents spoke at their baptisms, to a thousand family prayers, to scores of Sunday School classes and student ministry outings.  Having been confirmed, they are now ready to stand in worship this Sunday and confirm what they believe.

Then, with the rest of us, they’ll get to confirm that belief by the ways they live.  And it only adds to the joy that we get to do so together.  God’s goodness has been yet again…

Confirmed!

Keith

A Week that Rubs Off on Us

An Inkling

We call it “Holy Week.”  But that doesn’t mean that it’s made of silver or gives off mysterious smoke.  In the scripture the word “holy” first describes God, and the quality of his being that sets him apart from the ordinary.  God is holy, and through Jesus we are welcomed into his holy pres­ence, and are even made holy ourselves.

What is Holy Week?  Its celebration goes back at least to fourth century Jerusalem.  It’s no surprise that the saints there, with the places of the passion all around, would come to celebrate the events leading to Jesus’ resurrection.  The custom soon spread, and so Holy Week has been celebrat­ed ever since.

So how is a week holy?  The simple answer is that it is not.  It’s no different than any other week, in that we celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection every week.  Yet the church discov­ered that our every week celebration is enhanced by a special week with a singular focus on the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.  For in that week the holiness of God was most clearly revealed.  Thus its celebration is called “Holy Week.”

Holy Week begins this Sunday with Palm Sunday.  We’ll celebrate the Lord’s glorious entry into Jerusalem and his reign in our lives.  Then comes Maundy Thursday.  “Maun­dy” is from the Latin word mandatum (mandate), recalling that Jesus mandated his remembrance in bread and cup.  Our service is at 7:00 p.m.  On Good Friday we will gather at noon for a service that focuses upon the cross.  Then on Easter, we’ll have a grand resurrection celebration at each of our worship services.

What are you doing for Holy Week?  How about following a centuries old tradition by gathering with other Christians to worship the One who is wholly holy.  Part of the good news is that it (God’s holiness) does rub off, making for…

Holy Presbyterians!

Keith

Sloganeering

An Inkling

How do we describe ourselves?  At St. Giles we describe ourselves via website, mission statement, E-News, and signs.  Each has its purpose. 

Now we also have a slogan.  A slogan has to be short and catchy – short enough to fit on a sign or a website banner, and hopefully catchy enough to be memorable without being trivial.  We wanted something that captured our essence as a church.

The Session has been seeking a slogan for months, and now we believe we have it:  Christ for All – All for Christ.  That’s not a play on the Three Musketeers’ slogan.  It’s who we are in brief.  Here’s what we mean:

Christ…

·      The One God sent for the salvation of the world is Jesus Christ.  He is the beginning and end of what God is doing in the world, and in our lives.

·      Not Christ reduced to convenient size, but Christ in all his fullness and scandal, Christ in his radical claim to be God’s unique provision for salvation, and in his equally radical outreach to all, Christ the Lord of each life and all creation.

… for All…

·      We respect all people and religions, but we humbly take up Christ’s own radical claim to be uniquely the Savior and Lord of the world.

·      We seek to love as Christ loved, reaching across all divides, be they personal, global, or something in between.

… All…

·      Through his love Jesus Christ has captured us: heart, soul, mind, and strength!

·      We intend to live under his lordship, and to practice the spiritual disciplines that foster this intention.

·      Those disciplines include worship, study, prayer, solitude, silence, service, fasting, simplicity, and fellowship.  Through such disciplines God advances his reign in our lives.

… for Christ.

·      Finally a purpose big enough to live for!   All we have, are, and do is for Jesus Christ – not Christ as we imagine him, but as he is portrayed in the scripture, and described in our creeds.

·      Thus we decide how to use our time, energy, and money by no lesser standard than this:  is it ultimately for Christ and his Kingdom?

How’s that for bold?  We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way – with Jesus!  What a privilege!

Blessings,

Keith

As It Is Not Written

An Inkling

Lent always brings a spate of passion plays.  Have you seen one?  They can be both enjoyable and inspiring.

But I feel for the folks who portray Jesus.  No matter how able they are, few in the audience are satisfied with their inter­pretations of Jesus.  He’s always too wimpy, too spacey, too stiff, or too something.  It’s odd that we’d be so picky, since we have no description whatsoever of Jesus’ appearance.  In the early centuries of the church, artists depicted Jesus every which way.  It was several centuries into the church’s life before the standard artist’s conception that you’re thinking about emerged.

Why do the gospels not tell how Jesus looked?  Maybe for the same reason they don’t tell us what happened with him between the ages of twelve and thirty.  Nor do they give us much detail about his suffering on the cross.  (Can you imagine how cable news would have covered the crucifixion?!)  Nor do the gospels describe exactly what sort of body Jesus had after his resurrection, a body which could be touched, but which could appear and disappear.  What a long list of questions we could make about Jesus!

The story is told of John Calvin that he was once asked what God was doing before he made the earth.  Calvin’s reply was, “Making hell for people who ask questions like that!”  That was Calvin’s not so subtle way of saying that God tells us as much as we need to know to follow him, but not all we would like to know.  The serpent’s temptation to Eve and Adam was to seek to know all they would like to know (Gen 2:17, 3:4-5).

We’ll have to trust the portrayal of Jesus to the artists’ conception.  Let’s go with what we’ve got in the gospels:  a risen Savior and the faith he gives us.  That’s more than enough!

Blessings,

Keith

How Odd

An Inkling

Yes, we're odd.  We admit it.  We get excited about worship.  We talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit as if we really believed he were here.  We sing as if God himself were our audi­ence.  Tears come to our eyes as if we really had met Jesus.  How odd.

There's no denying it:  we're odd.  Our membership standards create no aura of exclusivity.  Wealthy, well-connected, beautiful people are welcome here.  But they're no more welcome than are the unemployed, addicts, and ex-cons.  That's because our only membership standard is repentant faith in Jesus Christ.  How odd.

We're odd:  we give money away.  All around us people are concerned (including us) about the shaky economy.  And yet when it comes to our family of faith, we're looking for ways to give more away, both as individuals and as a church.  As a church we're seeking to manage so well the parts of our budget that go toward what we can see (the physical plant, etc) that we can put more and more toward mission and ministry (results of which we often cannot see).  How odd.

Our oddity extends yet further:  we are people of commit­ment.  In a day of radical individualism, a day when people avoid most commitments and break the commitments they find inconvenient, we make commitments, and by God's grace, keep them.  We know no love but love with commitment.  How odd.

How odd?  We're a bit odd, and becoming odder.  That's because Jesus is very odd, and we're becoming like him.  Those who know him won't find that so odd.  Indeed...

The odds are in our favor,

Keith

God's Highlighter

An Inkling

I’m writing this on Tuesday.  I don’t believe much differently than I did last Tuesday.  But in the meantime God took his highlighter to some of my beliefs.

We awakened Friday to learn about the huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Our middle daughter, Dorothy, and her husband, Brandon, live on the Atsugi Naval base, just south of Tokyo.  So naturally we were concerned.  Thankfully Brandon had already posted on Facebook that they were both okay. 

But there was more to the story.  When the earth quaked Dorothy and a friend were an hour from home, up in the mountains at a spa.  The quake shook the building, rocking its columns, but it stood fast.  But then they didn’t know what to do.  They heard announcements – in Japanese, but they found no one to interpret.  They gathered that the train which had brought them there was not running.  They also discovered that they were out of cell phone contact with the base.  So they were alone and afraid.  Then, amazingly, a retired naval officer and his wife, who had driven to the same spa, appeared out of nowhere and offered them a ride back to the base.  The wife, who is Japanese, could understand the tsunami warnings, and so they steered away from the coast, using her iPhone to map a course on the back roads.  Between their roundabout course and some mudslides, it took them ten hours to get home.  But home they got!

As I said, I don’t believe differently than I did a week ago.  But through this event God has highlighted some his truth and promises, such as:

• That which looks solid is really not.  Only the Lord is beyond quaking.
• Life is fragile.  Thus the joy of knowing that our life in Christ is beyond shaking.
• The Lord is endlessly resourceful in caring for his children.  (How about a retired Navy guy and his Japanese wife with a car!)
• We must trust our loved ones to the care of the One whose arms are both longer and stronger than ours.
• Even so, it is well to pray for God’s blessing and protection for our loved ones.  You never know how God might use your prayers.
• And finally, watching the horrid images of the destruction, I can say ever more certainly that our world needs a Savior.

In the scripture God has given us all sorts of amazing promises and enlightening truths.  But he didn’t just publish them once long ago and then move on to other things.  Rather, through the various events of our lives, he highlights them in ever new ways.  And so this week the Lord’s power, goodness, and grace has been highlighted for me. 

Thank you Lord!  What’s he highlighting for you?

Blessings,

Keith

Lent Indeed

An Inkling

Lent begins this week.  Last week I encouraged you to think ahead, and specifically to think about what you might give up for Lent.  I have a further suggestion:  don’t just lay something aside, take something up.  Disciplines of abstinence are well balanced with disciplines of engagement.  (If you’re interested in the rationale, check out Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines.  He’s a profound thinker on disciplines.)  How can you take something up?  Through such disciplines as study, service, or memorization.

First study.  Study is a discipline through which we enrich our understanding.  You can  do so with a Lenten focus.  Here are three books with Lenten themes:  The Cross of Christ, by John Stott; The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, by Cornelius Plantinga.  The titles of the first two make their topics obvious.  The third is a profound reflection on the nature of sin, and yet is uplifting.  Any of the three would be a good read for the seven weeks of Lent.

Another possibility is service.  We all serve in various ways.  But what special regimen might you take up for Lent?  Here are some ideas: 

§       a weekly visit a near-by nursing home, and focus on the residents that the nurses tell you get no other visits

§       walk your neighborhood once a week picking up trash

§       write a weekly note of encouragement to someone – anyone

§       bake some bread and take it to a neighbor

You get the idea.  What form of service would work for you?

And the third possibility for engagement is memorizing scripture.  Dallas Willard touts the importance of this neglected discipline.  Because it’s one I’ve neglected, and because it’s one that my mind resists, this is the discipline I’m taking up for Lent.

Specifically, I’m memorizing John 14.  These were Jesus’ words to his disciples on his last night with them.  They are more than fitting for Lent.  Might you join me?  Thirty-one verses spread over seven weeks is certainly doable.  And what better words to sink into one’s heart? 

What might God do in us as we’re postured in readiness for his work through such Lenten disciplines?  He knows, and we’ll find out!  But we already know it will be good.  Which might you take up?

Blessings,

Keith

Tilting Toward Lent

An Inkling

We’re still a week out from the season of Lent.  So you have several more days for your Mardi Gras revelry.  But I’d like to prompt you this week to think ahead about how you might be engaged with a Lenten discipline this year. 

You know the routine:  people typically give up something for Lent – sweets, red meat, chocolate, or some such.  Why?  For some it’s just a ritual.  But there are good reasons for Lent being associated with some form of fasting.

Lent is the season when we give special attention to the gospel’s claims upon us.  The gospel promises are still in effect; the gospel’s grace is still to be celebrated.  But during Lent we focus on the gospel’s total claim upon us.  And that means that we give special scrutiny to anything that distracts our attention and divides our loyalty.  To act on our readiness to be focused on our highest calling, we then set aside something that we really like, or even crave.  In that discipline of fasting we then find our focus on what’s most important revived – and just in time for the highpoint of our gospel celebrations:  Easter.

So how do you decide what you’ll set aside?  The traditional cravings are good ones:  sweets, chocolate, etc.  But think more broadly about what you crave.  Because we usually have ready access to all that we crave, we don’t even recognize our cravings.  So think about what agitates you most when it’s removed.  When the electricity is out, or when you’re on a trip that disrupts your ordinary patterns, what most puts you in a grump?  That which you most miss is a good candidate for your Lenten fast.

Here are some possibilities – the sorts of things that many of us are really attached to:  Facebook, high falutin’ coffee, Fox News (or MSNBC, depending on your politics), a talk show, web surfing, ESPN Sports Center, fine wine, a soap opera, a sit-com, NCIS or Bones or Glee (the top three shows these days), Twitter, Diet Coke, or… you fill in the blank.  What agitates you most when it’s missing?

As they say, “Preacher, now you quit preachin’ and gone to meddlin’!”  Yep.  Sort out one or more of those meddlesome possibilities as the right one for you this Lent.  I’ll be doing the same.

And next week I’ll have another suggestion for us to take up together for Lent.

Blessings,

Keith

How's It Going?

An Inkling

“Hey, how’s it going?”  Ordinarily that query leads to a report of life’s details.  When asked by one of life’s daily friends, we answer simply, speaking of a work project or a coming trip.  But when we’ve just seen someone for the first time in thirty years, “how’s it going?” is a more challenging question.  Thirty years of daily life details make for an unwieldy answer.  So other categories must be sought.

I just saw this play out last weekend at a reunion of our high school and college youth group.  My brother, Kirby, and Sarah and I were in Austin for the first reunion of “Koinonia” since we were all together in the mid 1970s (thanks to Facebook).  Now we’re all in our 50s, and a lot has happened in life. 

People answered “how’s it going?” in many ways.  Most of us showed pictures of family.  We described careers and residences.  All of us had some sad stories, and some had quite a few – likewise with happy stories.  Mixed in with the reports of now were the reminiscences of yore.  It was great fun.

It was also instructive.  As I’ve thought back on our brief reunion, I’ve realized that some were quite at ease describing a larger trajectory and purpose of life.  Their lives with the Lord served as the string for the “pearls” of their stories, and even gave them a means to interpret the harsh turns they had known in life.  Others sought to describe the broader sweep of “how’s it going?” with selected details or the trappings of the American dream.  That didn’t work so well.

For the last generation scholars have been debating about the validity of “meta-narratives.”  Those are the overarching stories by which individuals and groups interpret “how’s it going?”  The debates about meta-narratives are complex, and I’m obviously not very conversant. 

But I just witnessed a case study in how hard it is to describe “how’s it going?” without a string for the pearls.  And the farther I go with the Lord, the more convinced I am that the only string which finally works is our relationship with Jesus.  It’s part of what Paul was describing to the Colossians – “in him (Jesus) all things hold together.”

So, “how’s it going?”  What would you say?

Blessings,

Keith

We Get the Picture

An Inkling

It’s one of our well-worn clichés:  a picture is worth a thousand words.  That’s true not just in the news business.  It’s also true in our life with God.

Jesus knew this.  It’s not that he whipped out pictures from his wallet to show us the Father or the scenes of heaven.  Actually he relied on words – a thousand of them plus!  But you know his words – he spoke in pictures:  wide ways and narrow gates, a house built on sand, yeast in dough, and a shepherd who lays down his life for sheep.  It’s well to define words, categorize types, organize concepts, and so on.  We have to find ways to speak intelligibly about our beliefs and our experiences with God. 

But we inevitably do what Jesus did:  for every spoken concept, we attach several verbal pictures to illustrate.  That seems especially helpful when we talk about the Holy Spirit.  How do you describe the Spirit?  Jesus himself painted pictures:  the whence and whither of the wind, an Advocate/Counselor/Comforter who draws alongside, and the One in whom we’re clothed with power. 

This past weekend the Lord used Brad Long to stir the Spirit’s presence in our midst.  I’ve been interested to hear how people describe what the Lord did.  Not surprisingly, it’s been mostly with pictures.  Barbi said that it’s like the Lord upped the current from 110 to 220 – and it comes with different plugs.  Janet said that it’s like what happened in 2 Kings 3 when the Lord brought water from out of nowhere to refresh a parched land.  Brad himself said that his Sunday preaching felt like wading through syrup until the Spirit came with freedom and made it a dance.  And that was just one of the comparisons to a dance.

It’s that last picture that I would lift up for you as a prayer request.  The Session has its annual retreat this Friday and Saturday at Richmond Hill.  With a thousand words they will pray and discuss what God is doing in our midst.  Pray for them to have a clarity of concepts.  But pray with a picture in mind too.  Pray that they will readily follow the nudging leads of their Divine Dance Partner.

He is the One truly too good for words.  Even the pictures don’t do him justice.  You have to get to know him – which happens to be exactly his intention.  And we get to do so together – wow!

Blessings,

Keith