Offering

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Offering

That’s the theme around our church this year: Offering Ourselves to God. Below was something we looked at together recently…

There’s a story about the famous violinist Fritz Kreisler. After a concert, a fan rushed up to him and gushed, “I’d give my whole life to play as beautifully as you do.”

Kreisler replied, “I did.”

None of us are strangers to the feelings expressed by the fan. We are often like Peter, who declared that he’d do whatever it took—only to learn that he had no idea what he was talking about. The sentiments were great, but intentions alone are insufficient. Good intentions make great pavement for roads we’d rather never travel, according to the old saying.

What’s needed is the actual act of offering ourselves. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the God revealed in Scripture knows that He is One who requires the commitment and devotion of any who long to side with Him. Piles of biblical concepts are built upon the idea that God’s followers will offer their entire lives to Him, as their chosen Master. Examples of this include sabbath, tithes, circumcision, sacrifices, confession, repentance, prayer, worship, baptism, fasting, charity, service, forgiveness. Minus a heartfelt desire to offer ourselves to God, these holy acts are reduced to legalistic tasks or bargaining chips that we bring before God and others.

Even more, the Scriptures display a powerful pattern: We are drawn to God and empowered by Him to the extent that we offer ourselves to Him. How many of Scripture’s wonders would not even exist, if not for the willingness of God-seekers to trust Him and step out in faith? Better question: How much of what He’d love to do in our lives and world might be limited by a lack of such servants today?

Kreisler reminds us of the level of commitment it takes to be part of something beautiful. Nothing compares to the beauty of seeing God’s work within our lives and the lives of those we love. So this year, we offer ourselves to God.

If You Need Anything…

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Reading a recent Philip Yancey article, this resonated with where I’m at today…

“I’ve become more convinced than ever that God finds ways to communicate with those who truly seek him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static.  I remember reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. 

‘I hope your stay is a blessed one,’ said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell.  ‘If you need anything, let us know, and we’ll teach you how to live without it.'”

Who Are You?

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Did anyone else just sing that title and then go, “Woo, woo; woo, woo” as CSI started rolling in your mind?  If you said yes, you win a golden star.   Oh yes, you do.

I’m preaching through the book of John each Sunday lately, so I’ve been spending a lot of time there.  Here’s something that seemed special…

In John 1, John the Baptist is on the scene and turning some heads.  Everyone wants to know who he is (1:19-23).  The Christ?  No way.  Elijah?  Nope.  The Prophet?  Not him either.   Then who?  Just a voice calling out in preparation.

Elsewhere, (as in Matthew 11), Jesus speaks about John the Baptist: “He is the Elijah who was to come.”

What is the deal?

John denied being exactly who Jesus said he was, yet nothing about the accounts of John the Baptist would lead us to think of him as deceitful.  What gives?

John was just “doing his thing”, being “a voice”, obeying what he knew was expected of him.  In his mind, that may have seemed small.  How would he have known that he was THE voice and THE Elijah that were expected immediately before the Messiah would arrive?

But Jesus knew.  He saw John exactly as he was.  He knew the place that John filled in the grand scheme of things, even if John didn’t have the slightest.

We can so often get our heads shrunk into thinking that things are exactly as we perceive them to be: No more and no less.  Surely we must have a grasp that is realistic on the things that are right around us, right?

Truthfully, likely not.

This little idea reminds me of that song in “Prince of Egypt”, when Moses is in the wilderness, being shaped by sheep-care and led towards a burning bush… “Look at your life through heaven’s eyes”…

A single thread in a tapestry, though its color brightly shines
Can never see its purpose in the pattern of the grand design.

And the stone that sits on the very top of the mountain’s mighty face,
Does it think it’s more important than the stones that form the base?

So how can you see what your life is worth or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man; You must look at your life…

Look at your life through heaven’s eyes

A lake of gold in the desert sand is less than a cool fresh spring.
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy is greater than the richest king.
If a man lose ev’rything he owns, has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning of a new and brighter birth?

So how do you measure the worth of a man in wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come, the answer will come to him who tries…
To look at his life through heaven’s eyes

And that’s why we share all we have with you though there’s little to be found.
When all you’ve got is nothing, there’s a lot to go around.

No life can escape being blown about by the winds of change and chance,
And though you never know all the steps you must learn to join the dance.
You must learn to join the dance.

So how do you judge what a man is worth by what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth; look through heaven’s eyes.
Look at your life, look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes.

Do whatever you’re called towards, and trust that the Caller has a plan.

And by doing so, you, my friend, are now a part of it regardless of whether or not you have any clue how it all fits together–and oh my… it DOES fit together!

And life lived this wasy is good.

Panda Viewing

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Seeing a panda… that’s a relatively rare thing.

Seeing a panda do this… that’s got to be rare-r.

Like Mike… or Denzel

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You know that scene from “Remember the Titans”… the one where Coach Denzel walks out to a quiet and empty football field and says something like, “Yeah, this is it.  This here is my sanctuary.”… you know the scene?

I love that scene.  Even more, I love that feeling.  Tonight I feel it.

It’s past 2:30 AM.  I’ve been the only one up for a couple hours already.  I’m finishing my lesson for tomorrow.  No, I don’t normally work this schedule.  I actually hate it when it happens like this.  But this does feel like my sanctuary, like that place where things make sense and where I am blessed beyond what I deserve.

If tomorrow sees the blessing pass on to others as well, then it might even count for something.

Good night.