Saturday, July 6 - Scripture Meditation

Matthew 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God."

Friday, July 5 - Scripture Meditation

Matthew 5:7

"Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy."

Thursday, July 4 - Scripture Meditation

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

Wednesday, July 3 - Scripture Meditation

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek
for they will inherit the earth

Tuesday, July 2 - Scripture Mediation

Matthew 5:4

"Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted."

Monday, July 1 - Scripture Meditation

³ Matthew 5:3 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How to Vote as a Christian

Have you seen the viral video going around of the four-year-old girl who is crying because she is so tired of hearing about "Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney"?  I am guessing that if I lived in one of the swing states I might share her campaign-fatigue as well.

Funny. Cute. We grown-ups feel you. That being said, we need to be careful to not let our cynicism take away from the significance of what we are being called to do this coming Tuesday.

A friend of mine (Brian Howell) posted the following thoughtful post on his Facebook page that I wanted to share.  I modified it just a tiny bit, and am reposting, as a reminder of what it means to be a Christian and vote.  While I do think the economy is important, it ought not serve as the Christian's main pivot when it comes to voting.  Here is a reminder, I think, of what is important.

We are blessed to live in a country where we have a say in who serves in our government. As Christians, we live in this world as sojourners (1 Pet. 2: 11-12) called to live as citizens of the countries in which we find ourselves (Rom. 13:1). Like the Israelites living in exile in Babylon, we must “seek the good of the city,” (Jer. 29:7) and do what we can to serve the poor, support good rulers, and promote justice wherever we live. 

As we seek this good, we should consider how our votes support policies that promote the heart of the Gospel: doing justice, loving mercy, concern for poor, care for the orphan and the widow, making peace, and promoting life. There is lots of good debate about how best to translate these concerns into policy, so I will not suggest which candidates or parties do this best. I would just encourage everyone to prayerfully consider your vote this Tuesday.

Christian Faith and Mystery

Here are the three G.K. Chesterton quotes from this past Sunday's message:

"The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens in to his head. And it is his head that splits."

"Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health. When you destroy mystery you create morbidity."

"The ordinary man...has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradictions along with them."

Of course, these quotes are best appreciated within proper context, which in this case is Chesterton's classic Orthodoxy.

As we journey through the life Joseph for the next six weeks, I hope we all keep our hearts open to the wonderful mystery of the interplay between God's providence and human will.

Darkness into Light

An 'insight' moment for me today, from something I was reading.

Biblical (Jewish) understanding of time is that a new day begins at sunset: Sabbath begins on Friday night, holidays begin with the evening supper.

Life is often like that, isn't it?  It moves from darkness into light.

May those of you who find yourselves in darkness today find hope in the Light who is sure to come.  Amen.

Simple, Not Simplistic, Part II

So my daughter has been playing softball in our city's girls league.  She plays in the "6-and-under" (6U) division -- which is both what you might imagine ("Okay, run to first base!  No, that's third base!", "Great job, but next time, touch the base with your foot"), and much more than that ("Wow, did she just hit that line drive?", "They turned a double-play?").

What has really been impressive for me is the coaching.  It would not have occurred to me that you can teach even 5-year-olds how to bat properly.  If it were up to me, I would have been like "Just stick the bat out there!"  Instead, our coaches have been impressing on these little girls the proper stance, the right mechanics, muscle focus, etc..  Seriously, these little girls swing -- and often hit!  By the time they move up to 8U, or 12U, they look... 'pro.'

Here is where I am going with this.  The coaches did not start the season by having the girls sit down and memorize all the rules of the game.  Nor were they given a thorough instruction on the right way of batting versus the wrong way.  Rather, the coaches kept it simple, but kept on building, one piece at a time.

Simultaneously however, they never took short-cuts to the process, and they never taught them anything that the girls would have to unlearn later if they were to progress further in the game (Stanford?  ASU?  CS-Long Beach?).  In other words, they never made things simplistic, in the name of 'fun'.  The girls still found their 'fun', but it was in learning to do things the right way.

None of this surprising for anyone who has ever received good coaching in sports.  In fact, you would expect nothing less.

But it seems to me that churches... when it comes to helping people grow, have gone the simplistic route, instead of the simple.  We dumb down spiritual life left and right, and then blame the short attention span of our congregants.  Or for the sake of "getting people in the church." (Like what one church did recently raffling away a car, all in the getting people in the door. Uh, you think there might be a mixed message somewhere?  "Do not store up your treasures on earth, unless it is to encourage people to come to church." Awful.  Just awful.)

I am not for 'complicated.'  But going the simple route does require patience -- both for those who lead, and are being led, as the 'simple' route, simple insofar as it is meant to build something deeper, sophisticated, more real.  As Eugene Peterson emphasizes, "we don't get to ignore the how, for the sake of what."  We cross the border into a simplistic faith, if our message/action compromises the message of Christ.  We don't get to teach people something that people are going to have to unlearn later.

What are some examples of this?  That's my next post.  In the meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.