Paul's thorn in the Flesh Revealed!!

With a great many more thanks to John Byron and Jonathan Robinson!  (See John Byron's blog on my blog list, to the right)

Holy Spirit (again)

 Last year (see "Highlight", March 24, 2011) I posted a note about a chickadee that came right up to me while I was filling the birdfeeder and just watched me with interest and curiosity for a while.  At that time I commented on the possibility that somehow the Holy Spirit was present in that moment, and I still associate chickadees with Him.

This spring we've had a number of chickadees around the feeders, of course, but one in particular is a frequent visitor.  He tends to flutter around our big patio door, tapping on it with his beak and beating on it with his wings.  He sure wants to get into our house, but there's no way I'm going to let him in because that would definitely not be good for either him or for us.

But that's the chickadee I'm talking about.  This little drama, repeated again and again for weeks, is causing me to think about my own relationship with the Holy Spirit.  Is there a place in my life where He's knocking to get in, and I'm not opening to let Him in?  Is it because I think it wouldn't be good for either of us if He got into that place in my life?  I hope that I'm at the point where I know that it would really be great if I opened all the windows of my life and let the Holy Spirit come into any one He wants, at any time He wants, and do what He wants when He comes in; but I also realize that there are probably places I haven't yet opened up to Him, places where He's still knocking and I've been ignoring Him or worse, watching Him from the inside without doing anything.

Holy Spirit, show me where you are knocking, and give me the courage to open the windows and let you in!

I'm not sure what to make of this, . . .

. . . so I'll leave it up to you.  Thanks to oldest son Nate for passing this one along!

Overheard

I overheard this comment from Beth Moore as our ladies were working through one of her Bible studies in the room just outside my office today - "we tend to want to withhold forgiveness from somebody until we get what we want out of them." 


Wow.  How true!  Whether it's major crimes or little errors, isn't that the way it is with us?  Admit it - forgiveness delayed isn't really for the edification of the offender, it's for our own satisfaction.  Yes, sometimes the sting of the offense is still so sharp that it will take a little time to heal enough to forgive - but that is not this.  This is delaying forgiveness so you can watch the offender squirm.  This is so you can have some control over them.  This is so you can feel that your hurt feelings are justified.  This is so you can make him beg.


And this is not how God deals with us.  In fact, when we withhold forgiveness it's like we've stuck a scarlet letter on them, big and bold for all to see.  Except God doesn't see that scarlet letter when He looks at them.  And if you try to point it out to Him, He'll just say, "Oh, that letter.  That's over here - on the cross where Jesus nailed it - and there it will stay forever."

Roses

Here's Ed Crankshaft and his daughter Pam talking about her mother-in-law Rose, who looked at the addition Pam and her husband are building onto their house for Rose to live in and said, "So how's my prison coming?"  Pam has been in a funk over this for several days, and here's Ed's comment.


People like Rose are often the most difficult ones to minister to.  There doesn't seem to be any room for hope in their lives.  No matter what you say or how you pray, there's always a reason it won't work.  No matter how much you say that God loves them, they'll insist that you can't be talking about them.  They'll amass all kinds of evidence and reasons why it can't be true, and why you're wasting your time trying.  


Sometimes you feel like giving up.  Sometimes you figure it's just not worth your time and effort.  Sometimes you want to say "Even Jesus said there are times you shake the dust off your feet and move on."  And sometimes, like Ed Crankshaft here, you just learn to live with them and not take it personally.


And sometimes, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, you keep going.  By the gift of the Holy Spirit, you keep loving them.  You keep inviting, you keep welcoming, you keep opening your arms.  Like the Prodigal Father, you run out to the road multiple times everyday to look for them so you can welcome them home.  And even though some of these Roses are only across the road and not completely out of sight, "across the road" is still a world away for them.  You call and invite and plead, and they still don't come.  It breaks your heart, you Prodigal Father, but you do it anyway because that's who you are called to be - that's who Jesus has made you to be.  


And you keep doing it because when they do cross the road and come home, you know why the angels are rejoicing.

Comes Praise

I'm telling the following story without permission, but . . . 

Two-year-old Cammie is one of the youngest members of our church.  She's in the front row every Sunday with her parents, and has been pretty much since the day she was born.  She munches her cereal, plays peek-a-boo with the people behind them, watches me walk around in the chancel.  Her parents bring her to the Communion rail for a blessing when Communion time comes.  Everybody in our church knows Cammie.

At Gramma's house for New Year's Dinner, Cammie passed the bowl of applesauce to Gramma and solemnly intoned, "Gramma, take and eat!"  When Gramma and the rest of the family asked where she heard that from, Cammie simply said, "Pastor."

 As far as I'm concerned, Cammie can keep coming to the Communion rail, she can keep sitting in the front row, she can keep playing peek-a-boo, she can keep watching me walk around in the chancel.  As Moses once said, "Oh, that all of God's people could prophesy!"

Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of God. - Jesus

In The Lord's Year 2012

This day that the rest of the world calls New Year's Day is also the Eighth Day of Christmas (cue Maids a-Milking).  On this day, the eighth day of the human life of God's Son, his parents took Him to the Temple to be circumcised and to be named Jesus, the name the angel commanded them to give Him before He had been conceived (Luke 2:21).

Although this important occasion in the life and ministry of Jesus is mostly obscured by other celebrations, resolutions, parades, and football games, there is something wondrous about this New Year's Day being Jesus' Name Day, something interesting about it falling on a Sunday, the Lord's Day, this year.

I'd like to suggest that this presents an opportunity to forget about silly resolutions and go with something completely different:  as Jesus received His Name on this day, and as we begin the year 2012 with His Name-Day on this Lord's Day, let us resolve to spend the year a little old-school and remember that the years were once designated with the initials A.D., meaning in the Lord's year.  How about a resolution that 2012 will be The Lord's Year in everything?  In all that we say or do, wherever we go and wherever we are, let this be The Lord's Year.  Let all our waking and sleeping, all our conversation, every day and night and week and month all be done with the knowledge that this is The Lord's Year 2012.

And let's see what the Lord does for us in this Year of His.