Monthly Archives: September 2006

Living Forgiven

Posted on by
4

Well, I’m a day late.  My saving grace is that our topic is… well, you kind of HAVE to let it slide now, don’t you?

This IS a great topic.  I’m tipping my hat to you, Chelsey.  Really, I am.  Right now.

As I sit to type, I think I’ve only got one thought to share…

Forgiveness is like a fantasy coming true.  It’s every person’s dream becoming real.  For who hasn’t wished to be in the “Butterfly Effect” at one time or another?  Who hasn’t felt the need to go back and right a wrong?  To change a course?

Everyday carries dozens of instances of “I’d do THAT another away if I could”.

But we can’t.

A simple example:  I’ve often visited with someone who felt like he/she couldn’t effectively voice their thoughts.  My suggestion: “You just fire away.  See how I respond, and if you didn’t nail it, we’ll push ‘delete’ and go at it again.”

Wouldn’t you love it if forgiveness could work that cleanly–just take you back before the blunder?  But that’s what it DOES, isn’t it?  Isn’t that the point–to get a ‘do-over’?

No.  Not really.

The beauty of forgiveness is that it does MORE than that.

It doesn’t merely take us back to life before our fall, back to that un-screwed-up state.  Forgiveness is so powerful that it actually takes us to a NEW realm, one beyond what we had before we blew it.  By travelling through the failure and hurt, by being forced into humble and open confession of the wrong, by seeking restoration, and having another place their forgiveness upon us, we actually come out somewhere we’d have never arrived at otherwise.

This isn’t an attempt to confuse things, to get a little “let’s go on sinning so that forgiveness may abound” thing going. This truth simply highlights the power of forgiveness for both seekers and offerers.

Forgiveness opens new doors and ignites new flames; it is proof that the Kingdom is real and among us–that purity is more powerful than sin, that death cannot defeat life, that condemnation truly is not the law of the land, and that even the blackest darkness cannot withstand even the simplest source of light.

And that IS good stuff!

Passion

Posted on by
7

I read this over a year ago.  But I’ve been thinking it ever since, and I ran across it again today.

According to Donald Miller:

“If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you.  People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something.  If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don’t, some clue to the meaning of the universe.  Passion is tricky, though, because it can point to nothing as easily as it points to something.”

Does that force anyone else to do some stock-taking?

  • How passionately do I live?
  • All the stuff I claim to believe… do I believe it deeply enough that it shows itself passionately to those who are touched by my life?
  • When others DO observe my passion showing itself, what does it point them towards?

Thanks Donald… for sticking your nose into the lives of many.

Now THAT Explains It!

Posted on by
Reply

A headline from Yahoo today…

Too Much Testosterone Kills Brain Cells

The article is actually about steroid abuse, but in an effort to boost my female readership, I thought I’d just put the leading caption out there and allow confused or frustrated wives and girlfriends to simply read it and nod knowingly: “I knew that something wasn’t quite right with him.”

Should an anonymous “Shannon” post a comment on this one, we’ll quietly move on to the next post.

Rules of the Road

Posted on by
6

Saw this video on Yahoo originally, and just laughed. Not because it’s crazy, but because it’s SO common in SO MANY places. It reminds me of several places we’ve witnessed.

It is fairly entertaining to watch and wonder: How can no apparent rules result in something that seems to work?

After having no clue how to post a Yahoo video, I found it elsewhere as well.

Prayer

Posted on by
3

On Sunday morning, I spoke about prayer as a part of the process of “preparing the way for the Lord”. Any sermon that allows you to impersonate Bob Barker while proclaiming the Word of God… that’s good fun!

At the end of service, we knelt together in the dark and prayed this prayer in unison. It had been requested by someone afterwards, so I figured I’d post it here as well.

The words below are a mix: Some are pure Scripture–prayers taken from Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, and Daniel. Other parts are my paraphrases of such passages or thoughts that were reached as a result of praying through those prayers last week.

For what it’s worth…

O Lord, there is no God like you in all of heaven or earth.

You keep your promises
and show unfailing love
to all who obey you
and are eager to do your will.

You have promised that we will be Your temple,
that You will live among us and within us.

But how, Lord?

Even the highest heavens cannot contain You;
how much less our divided hearts.

Yet Lord, You are our Father.

We are the clay,
and You are the potter.
We are all formed by Your hand.

So don’t remember our sins forever.

For we are the creatures of Your hands,
born to bear Your image,
and called to carry Your glory
to the ends of the earth.

Father, hear our humble and earnest requests.
We are a needy people:
Needy of Your forgiveness
and needy of Your nearness.

Display for us Your might in powerful ways.

Oh, that You would burst from the heavens and come down!

How the earth would quake in Your presence!

As fire burns wood and boils water,
Your coming would shake the world.

When You came down long ago,
You did awesome things beyond our dreams.

And oh, how things shook!

For since the world began,
no ear has heard, and
no eye has seen a God like You:

You work for those who wait on You,
and You welcome those who lovingly follow Your ways.

We kneel before You this morning, Lord.

We offer ourselves;
we surrender ourselves.

Your will is our command,
and we will spend our lives upon serving You.

Search our hearts this morning,
and burn away anything in us that is untrue or impure.

For we desire to serve You alone.

Our Father in heaven, great is Your name.
May Your kingdom come
and Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Do not lead us into temptation
and deliver us from the evil One,

for the kingdom is Yours,
and the power is Yours,
and the glory is Yours,
forever and ever,
amen.