"Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling."
"Each one in the calling in which he was called--in this he should remain. Were you called while a slave? Do not let it be a concern to you. But if indeed you are able to become free, rather make use of it. For the one who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed person. Likewise the one who is called while free is s slave of Christ. You were bought at a price; do not becomes slaves of men. Each one in the situation in which he was called, brothers--in this he should remain with God." 1 Cor 7
So we were called to die with Christ, be buried with him and rise again as the Lord's freed persons from sin and as the Lord's slaves in the His new kingdom which He is bringing. Amen!
So how do we do it? We covered so much last night and it was good and i loved Tom's pointed questions: So what does that look like in our day to day? How do we do that? How do we be honest and humble in the places we are? When i think about what all this means, how life changingly important it is that God himself died for me(!) and chose me specifically even before i was born(!!), it is so tempting for me to think that i should therefore also see some sort of equally bloody revolution in my life, some Damascus road moment that knocks me off my ass (it's biblical, look it up), turns me from my intended destinations and sends me careening off into seven year missionary journeys where i learn six new languages and dialects in order to bring the gospel to unreached people groups wearing loincloths in disease ridden jungles, or that i need to sell all i own and go live with the homeless, caring for them and bringing them new cardboard for their concrete jungle sukhots with Bible verses printed on them, or that's it's time to chuck it all, buy a guitar and become a traveling gospel minstrel, oh, and maybe learn to play the guitar. Or we go home depressed because somehow we have this notion that this life with Jesus is supposed to be like all of that and we know ours will never be. Or we take our plans home only to find our lives waiting for us there with all of our very real but very mundane problems ready for us and Tuesday follows Monday and then it's Thursday before we know it and if we think about this at all it's with tinges of despair around the edges. And we want to cry out, "Isn't it supposed to be different? Aren't we supposed to DO something?"
But is that how it's supposed to be? Is that the abundant life Jesus has called us to? Is that freedom we have found in Christ who has done all things for us and done them well? Is that faith in His finished work? Shouldn't that bring peace? Not existential angst? Is that what Paul was saying to the Corinthians? Paul who had the Road to Damascus moment?
Well, let's look at that real quick. What in Paul's life was changed? He was already employed as a form of evangelizing clergy as a Pharisee. Scriptural purity was his job. He was already so zealous for it that he was taking his little heretic-bashing show on the road from town to town. He was already so on fire for YHWH that he was willing to kill for Him. Jesus didn't have to remake Saul as much as we think. He just had to free him and tweak his theology a bit... like a lot.. like, knock him off his high-ass and get him off the throne of his own life so that Jesus could sit down on it. But then Jesus looked around and said, 'yeah, I can work with this.' Paul stayed true to what God had designed him to be: a man on fire for God, only now he actually KNEW him, the true God. He had been a slave to his own self-salvation plan, his rigid, religiosity and narrow view of Scripture and thus his squinty view of an angry God and now Christ freed him from that and thus Paul willingly became Jesus' slave, joyfully became Jesus' servant, zealously took his evangelizing show on the road from town to town to spread the good news that the Scriptures had been fulfilled in Jesus! Was so on fire for Jesus that he was willing to die for Him! Paul stayed in many ways, exactly what he was when he was called, he just did it now for the right King in the right way for the right reasons. Paul's job description never really changed. He was a traveling cleric devoted to Scriptural purity and the right worship of God when Jesus slapped him blind (or revealed his blindness, but that is a post for another day) and he was a a traveling cleric devoted to Scriptural purity and the right worship of God when Jesus opened his eyes. Heck, he even was a tent maker both before and after, only now he had a new crew to make them with and a new purpose in making them! He was on mission--making tents!
So what does it look like to live simply and humbly before our God for our Savior Jesus Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit in this life? What must we do to do the work of God? Well, what were you doing when he called you, minus your sin of course? It's quite possible that an All-Knowing, Pre-destining God was already preparing you before you repented of your former way of life and were baptized into the new life He had been equipping you for since before He laid the foundations of the Earth. He's kind of efficient like that. He could take a steel soup kettle and reshape it into a glass vase to hold flowers if he wanted, He has that kind of power, and i'm not saying He doesn't call some of us to drastically different roads than the one we thought were were on, cuz He's God and He can do what He wants according to His good will. i'm only saying that historically and scripturally, that doesn't seem to be what He does the vast majority of the time. Because He doesn't need to. He's been doing something far more revolutionary: He's been crafting you from the beginning of time and crafting time to the beginning of you so that in the fullness of time you could display Jesus in your setting, in your manner, with your gifts which He gave you, in your work and your words, with the love he has shown you.
What is your calling? It's you, only better! Because now it's more than you, it's Him in you, through you, for His glory which He is inviting you to share with Him forever.
But don't take my word for it, search His! He is waiting there for you,
softly and tenderly, calling....
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Floggin' the resurrected horse.
"And you, although you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all formerly lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind, and we were children of wrath by nature, as also the rest of them were.
But God(!), being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and raised together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them." Eph 2
It may feel like we're beating a dead horse here (see what i did there?) but it's only because we're trying to remind him that he isn't dead anymore. Christ has resurrected him! He is a new horse! You are a new horse! You went looking for water on your own and like that skeleton in the cowboy movies, you found the alkali flats that only look like water.
But God!
God has knitted you together, new flesh to bone, heart of flesh instead of stone, and he has led you to green, fertile pastures (himself) and beside still waters (himself) and he speaks tenderly to you, he leads you now and he will use bit and bridle if he must but he'd rather you knew your owner, your master, your friend, be guided by knee pressure and soft word. That's humility. A horse is not weak. If it was, it wouldn't be useful. It is strong, it is fast, it is an image of power. Humility is not weakness. It's meekness. Power restrained. Power under control. Power for a purpose. It is knowing your place, knowing your relationship to the master, trusting your friend. The horse does not choose the way unless the rider gives him the reins. And when that happens the horse thinks with it's stomach. It goes to water, it goes to grass, it goes to the stable, it goes to comfort. Horses don't choose noble paths, glorious paths for their riders and themselves. The master does that. The knight to battle, the wrangler to cattle, the jockey over the fence, round the steeple and to the finish line, as hard as we can go, hell bent for leather.
Okay, i think i've flogged that metaphor into the dust but you take my meaning. "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." You have been made new, you have been given a new name, a new life, a new purpose and a new Master. Will you obey? Will you submit? Will you carry this King who died for you, will you bear this Master who serves you, will you love this Friend who loves you? Yes, it may go places you don't want to go, it won't always be comfortable, there won't always be a warm stable, or enough fodder or as much water as you would like but you will have what you need, Him, He will be there with you in all of it and He guarantees as surely as He lives and by the same proof, it will be glorious!
But God(!), being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and raised together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them." Eph 2
It may feel like we're beating a dead horse here (see what i did there?) but it's only because we're trying to remind him that he isn't dead anymore. Christ has resurrected him! He is a new horse! You are a new horse! You went looking for water on your own and like that skeleton in the cowboy movies, you found the alkali flats that only look like water.
But God!
God has knitted you together, new flesh to bone, heart of flesh instead of stone, and he has led you to green, fertile pastures (himself) and beside still waters (himself) and he speaks tenderly to you, he leads you now and he will use bit and bridle if he must but he'd rather you knew your owner, your master, your friend, be guided by knee pressure and soft word. That's humility. A horse is not weak. If it was, it wouldn't be useful. It is strong, it is fast, it is an image of power. Humility is not weakness. It's meekness. Power restrained. Power under control. Power for a purpose. It is knowing your place, knowing your relationship to the master, trusting your friend. The horse does not choose the way unless the rider gives him the reins. And when that happens the horse thinks with it's stomach. It goes to water, it goes to grass, it goes to the stable, it goes to comfort. Horses don't choose noble paths, glorious paths for their riders and themselves. The master does that. The knight to battle, the wrangler to cattle, the jockey over the fence, round the steeple and to the finish line, as hard as we can go, hell bent for leather.
Okay, i think i've flogged that metaphor into the dust but you take my meaning. "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." You have been made new, you have been given a new name, a new life, a new purpose and a new Master. Will you obey? Will you submit? Will you carry this King who died for you, will you bear this Master who serves you, will you love this Friend who loves you? Yes, it may go places you don't want to go, it won't always be comfortable, there won't always be a warm stable, or enough fodder or as much water as you would like but you will have what you need, Him, He will be there with you in all of it and He guarantees as surely as He lives and by the same proof, it will be glorious!
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Whose life is it anyway?
"Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may live a new way of life." Romans 6
My life is not my own.
Actually, i died a long time ago. i may have even been still born, i'm not sure, i don't remember life before knowing Jesus, others seem to know the exact date they were born again. The person i would have been, the one made in the image of my father the devil died and Jesus put his own life into my body. My breath was cut off and His, the Holy Spirit himself, came into me. Somehow, Jesus took the satanically corrupted, sin saturated, self worshiping Scruffy Fricken and dragged him up onto his cross with him. There God destroyed him, utterly, wholly, with divine prejudice when he destroyed his own Son. i never even felt a thing but i know it happened because the devil has not stopped trying to take me back. To rework me again into his image, has never ceased to mar and scratch and to claw at the image of my new, my adopted, my true Father God in heaven and yet he has never won, never taken back complete control (though i have sometimes given it to him), never succeeded, never not met fierce resistance. That doesn't come from me; i wouldn't have done that. i totally would have gone along with every fool notion the devil threw up for consideration. i'm dumb like that. But Jesus isn't. Jesus isn't letting him have an inch. No matter what it takes, no matter what he has to do to me to stop him, Jesus has won, is winning and will win. It is finished. i'm a battlefield where the outcome is assured, there's nothing left to do but finish the fighting and mop up the last pockets of resistance. This insurgency may set off a bomb or two, it may melt back into the mountain citadels to pop back up at what it thinks is a more favorable time but General God has already factored all of that into His plan. The enemy will only succeed in bringing about his own demise.
"And as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant." Jeremiah 31
"For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ... Do you not know that you are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3
My life is not my own.
My life is a house and i may have thought i invited Jesus in. Found him outside, thought he needed a place to stay and graciously offered my own couch with promises to build him his own room, a savior-in-law suite, out back somewhere, especially if he could chip in towards it. But he comes in and starts tearing everything down, knocking out bearing walls, exposing termites and cockroaches to the light, tears it down, bulldozes the foundation which crumbles all too easy on its sandy mud and starts laying out plans to build a completely new house, on a new foundation, on the rocky highground i didn't want to have anything to do with. Too hard to get to. Too much work. He's not even building in the same styles and motifs of the neighborhood! This life is going to stick out like a sore thumb! People will talk. The neighbors are going to report me to the association. And when i ask just what the hectare he thinks he's doing, he just shows me the deed. He bought the house. He bought the land. With his own blood. With his own priceless righteousness. Paid a fortune for it too. Much more than it was worth.
"I AM YHWH your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Exodus 20
"Thus says YHWH, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
"Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of YHWH, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and He has chosen you." (Isaiah 49)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6
My life is not my own.
The auctioneer's gavel fell. The money changed hands. A king's ransom was given for me. Yeah, for me! i was standing, naked on the auction block, the dregs of the slave market and a king, THE King bought me as a bride for his Son. i am a gift. i am being scrubbed sore. My wounds are being dressed. My malodorous pungency, acquired from years on the streets, in the pigpens, in the robber's dens, in the prison cells, years of neglect, poor hygiene, self-loathing are being washed away and replaced with the finest beauty treatments from the most exotic places i've only dreamed of, perfumes, ointments, oils, soaps. Robes and garments of spun gold and crimson silk and purple yarns and linen as white as snow that has yet to gently touch the earth (Did you know the process that forms snow actually purifies the water perfectly?) are being prepared for my wedding along with gemstones forged in the heat and pressure of the sufferings and troubles of my life to be used in the crowns, rings, necklaces being custom crafted to fit only me. i am being trained, how to walk, how to talk, how to carry myself in the presence of my King, my Husband, my Master.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world preserves it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I AM, there my servant will be also." John 12
My life is not my own. i was king of my own life and then i died. The king is dead, long live the King of Kings!
My life is not my own.
Actually, i died a long time ago. i may have even been still born, i'm not sure, i don't remember life before knowing Jesus, others seem to know the exact date they were born again. The person i would have been, the one made in the image of my father the devil died and Jesus put his own life into my body. My breath was cut off and His, the Holy Spirit himself, came into me. Somehow, Jesus took the satanically corrupted, sin saturated, self worshiping Scruffy Fricken and dragged him up onto his cross with him. There God destroyed him, utterly, wholly, with divine prejudice when he destroyed his own Son. i never even felt a thing but i know it happened because the devil has not stopped trying to take me back. To rework me again into his image, has never ceased to mar and scratch and to claw at the image of my new, my adopted, my true Father God in heaven and yet he has never won, never taken back complete control (though i have sometimes given it to him), never succeeded, never not met fierce resistance. That doesn't come from me; i wouldn't have done that. i totally would have gone along with every fool notion the devil threw up for consideration. i'm dumb like that. But Jesus isn't. Jesus isn't letting him have an inch. No matter what it takes, no matter what he has to do to me to stop him, Jesus has won, is winning and will win. It is finished. i'm a battlefield where the outcome is assured, there's nothing left to do but finish the fighting and mop up the last pockets of resistance. This insurgency may set off a bomb or two, it may melt back into the mountain citadels to pop back up at what it thinks is a more favorable time but General God has already factored all of that into His plan. The enemy will only succeed in bringing about his own demise.
"And as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant." Jeremiah 31
"For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ... Do you not know that you are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3
My life is not my own.
My life is a house and i may have thought i invited Jesus in. Found him outside, thought he needed a place to stay and graciously offered my own couch with promises to build him his own room, a savior-in-law suite, out back somewhere, especially if he could chip in towards it. But he comes in and starts tearing everything down, knocking out bearing walls, exposing termites and cockroaches to the light, tears it down, bulldozes the foundation which crumbles all too easy on its sandy mud and starts laying out plans to build a completely new house, on a new foundation, on the rocky highground i didn't want to have anything to do with. Too hard to get to. Too much work. He's not even building in the same styles and motifs of the neighborhood! This life is going to stick out like a sore thumb! People will talk. The neighbors are going to report me to the association. And when i ask just what the hectare he thinks he's doing, he just shows me the deed. He bought the house. He bought the land. With his own blood. With his own priceless righteousness. Paid a fortune for it too. Much more than it was worth.
"I AM YHWH your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Exodus 20
"Thus says YHWH, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
"Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of YHWH, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and He has chosen you." (Isaiah 49)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6
My life is not my own.
The auctioneer's gavel fell. The money changed hands. A king's ransom was given for me. Yeah, for me! i was standing, naked on the auction block, the dregs of the slave market and a king, THE King bought me as a bride for his Son. i am a gift. i am being scrubbed sore. My wounds are being dressed. My malodorous pungency, acquired from years on the streets, in the pigpens, in the robber's dens, in the prison cells, years of neglect, poor hygiene, self-loathing are being washed away and replaced with the finest beauty treatments from the most exotic places i've only dreamed of, perfumes, ointments, oils, soaps. Robes and garments of spun gold and crimson silk and purple yarns and linen as white as snow that has yet to gently touch the earth (Did you know the process that forms snow actually purifies the water perfectly?) are being prepared for my wedding along with gemstones forged in the heat and pressure of the sufferings and troubles of my life to be used in the crowns, rings, necklaces being custom crafted to fit only me. i am being trained, how to walk, how to talk, how to carry myself in the presence of my King, my Husband, my Master.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world preserves it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I AM, there my servant will be also." John 12
My life is not my own. i was king of my own life and then i died. The king is dead, long live the King of Kings!
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Love it or leave it?
Disclaimer first: this is not, NOT, NOT a political post. All in? Lovely. Let's proceed.
i met John Ruiz and heard about DTY (Die To Yourself for the uninitiated) on the same day. Which is only notable because DTY did not yet exist. It was an idea bouncing around the fertile mind of John even then. A place where Christ loving guys, church going guys, could get together and be ...guys. But not just guys. REAL men. Men who were, above all else, honest about the messiness of their lives with each other. But not just honest, messy men wallowing in self-pity like some kinda group therapy their wives made them go to, but honest, messy men in search of a real relationship with Christ and therefore--because how could they not--be in real relationship with each other. "Would you go to something like that?" John asked me. Would i? Heck yeah, i would!
And i did. And so did many of you. And it was revolutionary. i don't use that word lightly. i was ready to leave this church. i was disgruntled and disaffected. i didn't know half of you half as well as i would like and liked less than half of you half as well as you deserved. It is easy for church to be about you when you don't love anyone else but yourself. That's not to say that i wouldn't have missed many of you, i had made a few friends but i no longer had a reason to stay.
The church was not my family. It was not a place i belonged. It was just a church. There are many like it. And this one did not feel like mine.
DTY changed all that. From its inception it was more than a Bible Study, more than a fellowship time, more than a prayer meeting, more than a vehicle for social-justice work. It was all of them. As much as it was born from Ruiz' dynamism and fed off his charisma as many movements do, it was obvious God was doing something through him and the other leadership, Josh, Matt, Matt, Martin, Grayter, Dave and the others, through DTY and in us and desired to do something through us: to build a family of brothers.
To build His Church.
Brokeness could meet healing. Isolation could meet brotherhood. The unknown could be known. Needs could be met or if not met, at least prayed over. Sins confessed. All the things i'd read about in the Word, the people of God becoming the hands and feet and mouth and ears of Christ, all the things i'd thought a church was or should be, seemed to be coming to fruition in DTY, in this messy little group of men. Lives being changed. The church being changed. When Christian men lead as Christ has commanded us to, God does some cool stuff!
But time passes. Things change. Ideas become institutions. Movements become monuments. Fires burn out. Church plants become generational churches. Exciting, challenging, groups become clubs. The life cycle goes on, Spring becomes Fall, birth-death-rebirth. God has His plan and it is good and it is best. But we temporal creatures still mourn a loss. We are right to lament. We are right to cry out to YHWH when He strikes the shepherd and the sheep are scattered. We are right to cry out to Him when we feel the gears slipping and grinding to a slower and slower rhythm. We are right to fight against complacency and apathy and isolationism and self-centeredness and selfishness and greed and unforgiveness and busyness and pride and all the enemies of love the devil will throw at God's work, God's church, God's people! And trust me, the devil has come down to make war against the children of the woman, the Bride of Christ is touchable and the serpent hates us. Hates the image we bear so much more clearly when we are obeying Christ and loving as He does and working for his Kingdom. The mere act of standing up makes us better targets. Much easier to hide in a pew, safely separated so one wicked grenade can't take out the whole group.
i don't know if DTY has had its day, completed the mission it was born for and now is making way for something new or if its just going through growing pains or metamorphosis... or if it's dying a premature death. i don't know if God will raise up another charismatic visionary to lead it. i do know that it still has much to offer, no matter what it is and God has, is and will do great things through it. That we are better for it having existed, for the time we've spent in it and being it. That i know many more of you now half as much as i'd like to know you and like more than half of you half as much you deserve because of it. That i thank God for it and for you and that i look forward to seeing you there! Because i love God and so i love his Bride, his Church, DTY, you.
YHWH bless us and keep us.
YHWH smile upon us and be gracious to us.
YHWH turn his whole attention to us and give us peace.
i met John Ruiz and heard about DTY (Die To Yourself for the uninitiated) on the same day. Which is only notable because DTY did not yet exist. It was an idea bouncing around the fertile mind of John even then. A place where Christ loving guys, church going guys, could get together and be ...guys. But not just guys. REAL men. Men who were, above all else, honest about the messiness of their lives with each other. But not just honest, messy men wallowing in self-pity like some kinda group therapy their wives made them go to, but honest, messy men in search of a real relationship with Christ and therefore--because how could they not--be in real relationship with each other. "Would you go to something like that?" John asked me. Would i? Heck yeah, i would!
And i did. And so did many of you. And it was revolutionary. i don't use that word lightly. i was ready to leave this church. i was disgruntled and disaffected. i didn't know half of you half as well as i would like and liked less than half of you half as well as you deserved. It is easy for church to be about you when you don't love anyone else but yourself. That's not to say that i wouldn't have missed many of you, i had made a few friends but i no longer had a reason to stay.
The church was not my family. It was not a place i belonged. It was just a church. There are many like it. And this one did not feel like mine.
DTY changed all that. From its inception it was more than a Bible Study, more than a fellowship time, more than a prayer meeting, more than a vehicle for social-justice work. It was all of them. As much as it was born from Ruiz' dynamism and fed off his charisma as many movements do, it was obvious God was doing something through him and the other leadership, Josh, Matt, Matt, Martin, Grayter, Dave and the others, through DTY and in us and desired to do something through us: to build a family of brothers.
To build His Church.
Brokeness could meet healing. Isolation could meet brotherhood. The unknown could be known. Needs could be met or if not met, at least prayed over. Sins confessed. All the things i'd read about in the Word, the people of God becoming the hands and feet and mouth and ears of Christ, all the things i'd thought a church was or should be, seemed to be coming to fruition in DTY, in this messy little group of men. Lives being changed. The church being changed. When Christian men lead as Christ has commanded us to, God does some cool stuff!
But time passes. Things change. Ideas become institutions. Movements become monuments. Fires burn out. Church plants become generational churches. Exciting, challenging, groups become clubs. The life cycle goes on, Spring becomes Fall, birth-death-rebirth. God has His plan and it is good and it is best. But we temporal creatures still mourn a loss. We are right to lament. We are right to cry out to YHWH when He strikes the shepherd and the sheep are scattered. We are right to cry out to Him when we feel the gears slipping and grinding to a slower and slower rhythm. We are right to fight against complacency and apathy and isolationism and self-centeredness and selfishness and greed and unforgiveness and busyness and pride and all the enemies of love the devil will throw at God's work, God's church, God's people! And trust me, the devil has come down to make war against the children of the woman, the Bride of Christ is touchable and the serpent hates us. Hates the image we bear so much more clearly when we are obeying Christ and loving as He does and working for his Kingdom. The mere act of standing up makes us better targets. Much easier to hide in a pew, safely separated so one wicked grenade can't take out the whole group.
i don't know if DTY has had its day, completed the mission it was born for and now is making way for something new or if its just going through growing pains or metamorphosis... or if it's dying a premature death. i don't know if God will raise up another charismatic visionary to lead it. i do know that it still has much to offer, no matter what it is and God has, is and will do great things through it. That we are better for it having existed, for the time we've spent in it and being it. That i know many more of you now half as much as i'd like to know you and like more than half of you half as much you deserve because of it. That i thank God for it and for you and that i look forward to seeing you there! Because i love God and so i love his Bride, his Church, DTY, you.
YHWH bless us and keep us.
YHWH smile upon us and be gracious to us.
YHWH turn his whole attention to us and give us peace.
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