Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring?

 

Submitted by Larry Doornbos

 

“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”  On Christmas morning we light the Christ Candle of the Advent wreath.  The candle that tells us that Jesus, the light of the world has come, Jesu, joy of man’s desiring has come.  As we light the candle, as we hear the words about Jesus being the light of the world we feel the push of darkness, even on this Christmas morning.  The darkness that is close to home.  Firefighters shot to death as they respond to a fire, children killed in a hail of gunfire, and for all the pain of that it reflects only a small portion of the pain of the more than 10,000 murders in the U.S. during this past year.  We can add on to this violence so much more that speaks of darkness on this Christmas morning.  People who long for work but can find none, marriages that are failing, children who are abused--and such a picture comes only from our corners of the world.  This morning in Myanmar people got up and went to the pawn broker, sold their pillows and mosquito nets in order to buy a ticket for the bus to get to work, they will work all day and then come home, they hope they will have enough money at the end of work to go back to the pawn broker to buy back what they sold that morning, and they hope that they will have enough to have at least one meal.  And this is not just the story of adults; it is the story of children, most of whom get 1 year of education before they enter the work force or in an even worse case, are sold into slavery.

The darkness presses all around us on Christmas morning, on this morning when we light the candle that says that the light of the world has come.  We feel the darkness; we feel the powerful reality that when we look at the world we know that this is not the way it is supposed to be.  And yet we light the candle.  We declare that into the darkness light has come, into the darkness we hear the words, speak the words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5 ESV)  Wonderful words that John uses not only to tell us that the light has come, but also to draw our minds back to the beginning of the story, back to the beginning of the one true story of the whole world.  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.  And God separated the light from the darkness.  (Genesis 1:1-4 ESV) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…To the people reading this in ancient near east these words had echoes of chaos to them, to things being out of control.  And they, like us, were fearful of the chaos.  So what can God do in the face of this chaos that envelops the entire cosmos?  More of our text.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.”  (Genesis 1:3-5a NIV)  “And God said…”  This is the first time that God speaks and when He does His word shatters the silence and signals the birth of new cosmic order--an order designed to be a place of beauty, goodness.  A place designed to be a place of life, joy, justice, and deliverance--that’s what light symbolizes in the Bible.  Notice the first thing God creates is light; we don’t find the sun making its appearance until later, it is just light.  The first thing God creates is that which symbolizes life, joy, justice, and deliverance.  In the bumps and bruises of life, the struggles and tears of life we look at God’s creation; we look at the light of the morning and know that God’s heart toward His creation and toward us is life, joy, justice, and deliverance.  “And God said…” God said is another way of saying “God willed;” here we find God completely independent of His creation.  His creation doesn’t control Him, doesn't have power over Him.  No, He is over the creation.  And the fact that God can speak this creation into being shows an effortlessness in creating what we are awed by, an absolute reign over creation.

The beginning of the story is light; the beginning of the story is the overcoming of darkness by the light.  This is where John wants our eyes to go first as he speaks of Jesus as the light.  He wants us to go back to the beginning of the story.  As the light challenged the darkness in the days of creation so now again there is the challenge of light to the darkness.  Only now the light is the son of God, the Father, if you will, has upped His game.  As N.T. Wright comments, Whatever else John is going to tell us, he wants us to see his book as the story of God and the world, not just the story of one character in one place and time.  This book is about the creator God acting in a new way within His much-loved creation.  It is about the way in which the long story which began in Genesis reached the climax the creator had always intended.  And it will do this through ‘the Word’…The Word challenged the darkness before creation and now challenges the darkness that is found, tragically, within creation itself.  The Word is bringing into being the new creation, in which God says once more, “Let there be light!”

Let there be light! For there to be light there needs to be not only an announcement, but also a presence, the light has to break into the darkness.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14 ESV) The word became flesh and dwelt among us.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Dwelt:  Greek Skenoo, which is the Greek word for tent or tabernacle.  The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.  John wants us to know more the story.  He wants us to see the tabernacle.  And when we look at the tabernacle we should see God as work doing what He did in Genesis 1: creating, even as He created the heavens and the earth.  We read in Exodus 25, And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.  Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and all of its furniture, so you shall make it.  (Exodus 25:8-9 ESV) The tabernacle is God’s creation, made according to His specifications, even as the creation was put together exactly as God has spoken. 

The tabernacle is God’s new creation project.  It is a wonder of design and a riot of color, texture; it is a place of beauty and it is worthy to be dwelt in by the King of the universe.  It is built by craftsman who take the goodness of God’s creation and shape and form it into a structure that brings honor and glory to the creator of the universe i.e., by craftsman who take up God’s creational mandate to unearth the wonders of God’s creation and use them in a way that brings glory to God.  It is a place where God can again dwell in the midst of His people, even as He came down to be with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, to walk with them in the cool of the evening.  It was the one place in the whole world where people got God right.  While many other temples and tabernacles had similar structure in the ANE, the tabernacle was missing something that those temples had.  A bed for the god to sleep in and priests whose job it was to feed the god.  The structure of this tabernacle and what it is missing declared that God could take care of Himself and that He was the only God; there was no other.  It was a place where when the people had failed to live up to God’s standards, when they had failed to be His people who carried out His call to enjoy His blessing and to bless the world around Him, when they had rejected Him, here was a small place on earth where forgiveness could be sought, where holiness could be restored through sacrifice.  It is the one spot in all the world, all the fallen, broken world, a world of chaos and disorder where God’s command and word have been followed to the letter, as it was in the original creation. 

Or putting it simply: In the midst of a fallen world, in exile from the garden of Eden, the original ‘heaven on earth’, God undertakes an act of creation, a building project and creates a piece of holy ground in a world that has lost its way.  One commentator writes, At this small, lonely place in the midst of the chaos of the wilderness, a new creation comes into being.  In the midst of the disorder, there is order.  The tabernacle is the world order as God intended writ small in Israel.  The priests of the sanctuary going about their appointed courses are like everything in creation performing its liturgical service—the sun, the trees, human beings.  The people of Israel carefully encamped around the tabernacle in their midst constitutes the beginning of God’s bringing creation back to what it was originally intended to be.  The tabernacle is a realization of God’s created order in history…Moreover, this microcosm of creation is the beginning of a macrocosmic effort on God’s part.  In and through this people God is on the move to a new creation for all.  God’s presence in the tabernacle is a statement about God’s intended presence in the entire world.

When you read this part of Exodus you see God concerned with the smallest detail of the building because this is God’s new creation, a piece of holy ground and holy hope in a world that is in chaos, that is filled with darkness.  It is the small spot on earth that speaks of what the world is supposed to be like.  It is the small spot on earth where God declares, “Build me a sanctuary that I may dwell with them.”

That I may dwell with them, God fully intends to be present in the world.  But for that to happen God needs a new address; He needs to change His address.  His address has been the address of all the gods, if you will.  For gods as the ancients knew lived on mountains, far removed from the people, enjoying their own life, often uncaring and oblivious to the pain that’s down the mountain.  But God changes His address.  He leaves His mountain abode and moves into the midst of a messy world, into the midst of His people.  And from this place He will lead His people to restore His good but fallen world, back to the splendor that is hinted at in this tent in the desert.  God changes His address. 

And now John as he calls us to look back at the fullness of God’s story tells us that God is changing His address again on Christmas morning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:1-5, 14 ESV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Dwelt: Greek Skenoo, which is the Greek word for tent or tabernacle.  The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.  God changes His address.  God is loose in the world; He no longer is in the walls of the tabernacle, He is walking the streets not as a holy piece of ground in a world that has lost its way, but as a holy person touching an unholy world, an unholy people and restoring it and them to what God intended from the beginning.  The tabernacle is loose on the streets and by the way, on the water where He calms the chaos, feeds the hungry, releases those captured by the powers of this world and tells us that all of this points to the kingdom of God: the rule and reign of God where every part of this world is holy, where every part of this world lives out God’s call, where every part of this world finds peace instead of chaos, light instead of darkness.

And yet there is still darkness, too much darkness, even though the light has broken in.  Which is why I think that John adds those words, We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1: 14b ESV) Grace and truth bring us to a place that may surprise us.  For they bring us back again to the Old Testament, back to the covenant God, the God who makes it abundantly clear that He is the God who makes promises and will keep His promises.  The words go back to Exodus  The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.  The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…  (Exodus 34:4–7 ESV) “Steadfast love and faithfulness” is the way that Exodus speaks the words of John’s “grace and truth.”  In other words, Jesus reveals that God is remaining faithful to His promise, His promise of bringing light, His promise of creating a new world filled with a riot of color, of justice of righteousness, a new world where the light overcomes the darkness.  As God has been faithful to His promises thus far, so He will be faithful and one day all will be well.

One day, but what of today?  What about today’s darkness and chaos?  Three things.  One goes back to the magnificent song “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”  While many of have heard the words of the song, the reality is that the words we have in English are not a translation of the German  They were inspired by the German, but they are not the words.  Here are the words, words that tell us why we desire Jesus, words that tell us how we walk in the darkness clinging to the light.

Well for me that I have Jesus,

Oh how strong I hold to him

That he might refresh my hear,

When sick and sad am I.

Jesus have I, who loves me

And gives to me his own,

Ah, therefore I will not leave Jesus,

When I feel my heart is breaking…

Jesus remains my joy,

My heart’s comfort and essence,

Jesus resists all suffering,

He is my life’s strength,

My eye’s desire and sun,

My soul’s love and joy;

So will I not leave Jesus

Out of heart and face.

The Apostle Paul who lived through more than his fair share of darkness said it this way in the book of Philippians, I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.  (Philippians 4:11–13 ESV) In the darkness, “Well for me that I have Jesus.”

In the darkness well for the world that God fills the world with the body of Christ. The body of Christ, the church that both serves the light of the world and acts on behalf of the light to bring light.  Jesus says to us, You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14–16 ESV) God’s people, empowered by Spirit, led by Jesus Christ are the light that is to shine into the world, into the darkness.  The wonder of this call is captured by the Contemporary Testimony, In our world, where many journey alone, nameless in the bustling crowd, Satan and his evil forces seek whom they may scatter and isolate; but God…gathers a new community…In the new community all are welcome: the homeless come home, the broken find healing, the sinner makes a new start; the despised are esteemed, the least are honored, and the last are first…Joining the mission of God, the church is sent with the gospel of the Kingdom to call everyone to know and follow Christ…The Spirit calls all members to embrace God’s mission in their neighborhoods and in the world: to feed the hungry, bring water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and free the prisoner.  Into the darkness we people shine; out of the ashes of the world we, by the power of the Spirit, bring hope and healing, pointing people toward new life, toward the true light.

One day, but for today well for me that I have Jesus, and well for the world that God’s people see themselves as the light of the world, a people of good works who seek to bring light into the darkness.  And well for all of us that God is not yet done. The lighting of the Christ candle is not only a remembering, it is a declaration that finally light will invade the world in such a way that the darkness not only will not overcome it, but there will be absolutely no place for the darkness.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there…Then the angel showed me…the tree of life…The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be [the city], and his servants will worship him…And night will be no more.  They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 21:22–22:5 ESV)

Being Loved By God

Submitted by Rod Hugen

I giggle with delight sometimes at the goofy way God works.  We try to box Him up and force Him into our strictures of how He should do His work and then He blows it all up with His tender love and gracious actions toward those He calls to Himself.

I spoke a couple of weeks ago at Pima Community College in David Gainey's class entitled "Religion and Pop Culture."  David is a good friend and asks me to speak to his class each semester around the theme of spiritual warfare and demons and angels.  He has the class watch the horror movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose as a setup for my visit.  Since I am not a professor but only a guest speaker, I am not bound by rules about sharing my faith.  The class is full of folks who self-identify from every imaginable religious background as well as agnostics and atheists.  I usually tell some stories around demonic influences in peoples' lives.  That triggers some great conversations.  We talked about "sensing" evil on Thursday and one guy, Frank, asked me if I ever experienced evil in a place.  Were there places where I "felt the evil."  I told him there were places that made me uncomfortable and he asked me to name one.  I told him that Sedona, Arizona was one of the most beautiful places on earth but that it felt very spiritually dead to me.  He said, "I love Sedona.  Thanks for ruining it for me!"  That got a good laugh from his classmates and soon because a punchline in several other questions during our time together.

Unbeknownst to me, Frank went home that day and told his girlfriend Jessica about my lecture.  She was experiencing all kinds of spiritual darkness and had weird encounters in the night that would give her chills and then make her sick the following day.  She got my name from Frank and searched the internet for my number.  When she found it, she called me on a Monday and asked if I could come and bless their house and make the forces of darkness leave.  I told her that I would love to pray for her but that I would like to meet and talk elsewhere first.  She agreed to come to the church on Wednesday and talk with my co-pastor, Eric, and me.

She came and told us her story.  It is an amazing story!  She was born in Italy, near Milan, and her parents were followers of Rev. Moon.  As members of the Unification Church the marriage had been arranged in order to bring harmony in the future.  Jessica's father was abusive and eventually her mother took her and her brother to the United States to get away from their father.  Her mother left the church and began to abuse drugs and alcohol.  She introduced all sorts of strange men into her life.  Jessica's father eventually came to the states as well and they reestablished a bit of a relationship.  Jessica had a few wild moments also, but eventually became deeply involved in the cult activities.  She would raise money and even got involved in political efforts in Washington on behalf of the church.  She hobnobbed with high government officials before she was eighteen years old.  She was matched and married in a mass ceremony in New York.  Her new husband was from Korea and wanted to go back to Korea, but instead they moved in with his parents in Tucson.  He was mean and abusive to her.  She got pregnant but the baby died seven months into the pregnancy.  It was a horrific blow to her since she had always longed to be a mom and raise children.  She got pregnant again and had her daughter.  She finally ran away from her husband, divorced him, and had a series of relationships before settling in with Frank.  Frank became a father figure to her little girl and they have been together for five years.

We listened to her story.  Eric asked her what she wanted and she wept and told us she wanted to be free of the darkness.  She told us she was going to all kinds of spiritualists looking for help.  Eric asked her what she believe about Jesus and she told us that she was taught Jesus could have been the Messiah but that he had failed to get married and have children so that he was a failed Messiah.  He was considered a wise and good prophet.  Eric told her that we believe Jesus was the Messiah and that he was God.  "For reals?" she said.  "You actually believe Jesus is God?"  She had a hard time getting her head around that.  Eric did a beautiful job of telling the story of the gospel to her and she sat back, amazed.  I told her that we would love to walk with her but to truly find peace she would have to come to grips with Jesus being God.  She said she wasn't sure she was ready to acknowledge that.  We told her we would love to help as best we could in anyway and that we would pray with her.

She bowed her head and Eric asked her if she would like to pray first.  She nodded her head and started an argument with herself.  She went back and forth first announcing that Jesus was God and then denying it was possible.  Then she would say it more firmly and renounce it again.  It was amazing to listen to.  Finally, she announced that she was choosing to believe that Jesus was God and that she wanted to give him her whole life, as messed up as it was.  It was a sweet moment watching the peace flow over her.  We prayed for her and she took a Bible and some passages that Eric said she should read and left with a promise to come to church and become part of that community.  We prayed that she would find a new place to live and that she would find peace from the torment and sickness.

She called me the next day to tell me that when the demons had come to her in the night she had told them to go away since she now belonged to Jesus and then she cried out to Jesus to come and rescue her.  She said that the chills left immediately and that she did not wake up sick.  She was thrilled to have found such peace.  She also told me they would be moving into a new apartment the next day.  Those were beautiful answers to prayer!

On Thursday after Missional Cafe', I was visiting with my sister in Englewood.  The phone rang and it was Jessica.  She told me they were moved in and that she was unpacking.  She said that her boyfriend, Frank, had told her to relax and that he would pay the bills for awhile while she took care of herself.  Frank identifies himself as an unbeliever who has occasionally gone to church on Easter or Christmas or whenever he feels bad about his life.  Jessica told me that she was feeling guilty not doing things and wondered what the requirements were to belong to the Village.  She told me she wanted to do lots of things including helping people, but wanted to also start doing things that the church would require of her.  She must have used the word "do" fifty times.  I finally interrupted her and told her that she didn't have to do anything.  I told her that she was dearly loved by God and to just "be" Jessica.  I told her to love her daughter and Frank and take joy in not having to do anything.  She started to cry.

She told me how much she loved being home with her daughter, meeting her new neighbors, and decorating their new apartment.  She cried some more.  I told her to continue to do the things that delighted her.  She said that every night she was reading books to her five-year-old before she went to bed and how much fun that was.  She said she felt like a good mom.

"Rod," she said.  "I might have messed up, but I need to tell you something."  She went on to tell me that she had been reading a book to her daughter and when they finished her daughter pointed to the Bible and said, "Let's read the new book you got, Mommy."

She told me she didn't know where to read from so she just opened the book and started reading.  She told me she was reading about some guy pursuing a girl and describing her with an ivory neck and breasts like towers and like fawns.  Jessica said, "I don't know if you have read that part of the Bible, Rod, but it is hilarious.  My daughter and I were rolling on the floor laughing.  It was so funny my daughter kept asking me to read more.  We giggled all night.  I don't know if it was appropriate for my daughter or not or if that is what I should be reading myself, but was very good and very funny."

I told her that the man in the story was God and that she was the girl He was loving and pursuing.  I told her that the girl in the story didn't have to do anything to earn the love of the man and that she didn't have to do anything to earn God's love either.  I told her to giggle and laugh and roll on the floor in delight and take pleasure in being loved by God.  She wept for a long time before she whispered, "I needed to hear that," and we finally hung up.

Sunday, she and Frank and her little girl came to the Village.  Folks engaged them and asked them good questions.  They made them feel welcome.  It was good to see them being gently enfolded into the community.  Since they were surrounded with folks, I ate dinner with April and her husband Michael, who is also not a believer.  He says he is just supporting April and isn't at the Village to hear about God.  He had liked some things in the sermon and was talking to me about it.  He is a prison guard and liked the idea of confession as a path to be released from darkness since prison inmates are always trying to turn guards and it is important for guards to quickly confess when they have done wrong so as to keep from being turned.  Frank stopped by the table to tell me how much he appreciated the message and that he had learned a lot.  He said he would be back next week along with Jessica and her daughter.  Michael told him to make sure to come back because even though he himself wasn't a Christian, people at the Village were "good people" who cared about each other and helped other people.  Michael said that he himself was learning a lot of stuff about God.  Frank assured Michael that he would be back.

You have to love when unbelievers are inviting other unbelievers to church!  You have to really love when God uses horror movies, new apartments, and randon verses from the Song of Songs to draw people to Himself.  You have to love the gospel.

I love telling the stories of God's victories!

Mission: Relational Equity

Submitted by Todd Murphy

The principle of community in our missionary practices is to intentionally bring people into close and valued relationships with our community.  But it is more than just connection.  It has also been my experience that as we increase the relational investment quantitatively, the indentification and conversion moves along more rapidly and effectively.  Let me explain.

There are two types of relational equity.  First is Qualitative Equity.  The deeper the quality of the relationship and personal connection between two people, the greater comfort level and intimacy is obtained so freeing up conversation.  For instance, persons who are long-time friends may talk openly about the personal problem one of them has, which may not happen with a newer acquaintance.  It should be noted here that this is usually what people have in mind when they talk about "friendship evangelism."  In this view people are thinking that the primary goal is to go deeper in the relationship until a level of intimacy is obtained to be able to talk about spiritual things.  Sometimes this does in fact happen, but sometimes it does not.  Sometimes people bracket their relationships where they may allow a great deal of intimacy on certain topics, but not others.  For instance, a Christian woman may have a close girl friend at work who connects with her and even opens up to her about her relationships with the men she is dating and even sleeping with.  But she may, on the other hand, be completely closed off to spiritual questions with this person for unknown reasons.  Then the Christian woman can often feel discouraged because she has been making a great deal of investment in this relationship only to hit an invisible brick wall.  Then comes the desperation of trying to force the subject, which often leads to an awkward conversation, in spite of all the intimacy and emotional investment anyway.  This is discouraging.  Or it may leave her feeling like it was a waste of time and eventually she will give up on the relationship.

The other type of relational equity is Quantitative Equity, which is not the depth of the relationship with the person but actually the number of relationships with other Christians.  This is what the "friendship evangelism" paradigm grossly underestimates.  It always tries to go deep, rather than wide.  But since we are communal people, there is a power in numbers that cannot be underestimated.  For instance, nobody enjoys a party where they don't know anybody, or even just one person.  But when you walk into a party and four or five people say, "Hey Todd!" there is a deeply soothing and compelling level of comfort and belonging that comes over a person.  With this you also relax more and feel more comfortable to be yourself.  In fact, this comfort might even embolden you in the crowd you know more so than in one-on-one settings.

As we also noted, people tend to conform to the group they identify with.  That is why "going deep" with "friendship evangelism" can often seem so ineffective.  You may have a lot of relational equity with a person, and they may even value that relationship so much that they do not mind putting up with your annoying attempts at evangelizing them, but if they have their identity rooted somewhere else, you will have a hard time getting through to them.  Like I said, the Gospel is a "world view" and it is inseparable from our personal identity.  The problem facing the Christian woman exampled above is that she is going at it alone.  She has no support.  However, if she is part of a Christian community, and she and that community make intentional decisions to befriend the non-Christian woman too, they will begin to do things together as a group.  They will all as a group begin to share experiences and enjoy one another.  But then what will happen is the non-christian woman will begin to notice (without them asking her to church or having an awkward conversation, etc.) that they will also speak freely when around her of their corporate experiences in faith together.  This does not need to be "spiritual talk" either like "Praise Jesus" every other sentence!  In fact, such spiritualized jabber should be avoided because it always sounds weird, even to a lot of Christians, and if nothing else, fake.  Rather, she will just begin to enjoy the mutual relationships of the group, while also seeing that there is another experience that her friends are sharing that she does not understand and enjoying that she is not.  This will naturally evoke interest and questions.  I have seen this happen again and again.

The key principle is quantitative community equity.  This is to say, the more connections a person has to your Christian community (that is people), the more they naturally begin to identifuy with that group and are naturally prone to begin asking questions of faith.  A particular way of life may not be persuasive until that person relaizes that quite a number of pople they respect buy into it which will naturally make investigation seem much more worth while.  Of course this becomes all the more compelling when these poeple are loving each other, serving one another, and speaking to one another respectfully in contrast to their other typical relationships.  The most compelling aspect of the Gospel is always our love for one another.  Also, this quantitative equity (the multiplication of persons in relationship to the non-Christian) naturally supports the qualitative equity of the primary contact person.  The great relief to the rank and file Christian is that with this approach you do not need fancy presentations, intellectual gifting, apologetic knowledge, or even printed literature.  Also, you do not ever have to feel tongue tied or the pressure of having all the right answers because you are not doing it alone.  You are not trying to present a list of propositional truths and defend them, but you are bringing that person into the experience of the community and way of life where the Gospel already exists in the lives of each person.  As the person begins to ask questions, you can easily defer to someone else who has more knowledge.  Ironically enough, it is the humility of "I don't have all the answers" that is more often far more winsome than the typical apologetic evangelism that wins battles and loses wars.

Contact with the Christian community offers a gentle and friendly exposure to a world view lived before their eyes.  But for a person to see this most compelling aspect of disciples loving one another, they must be in contact with a community of disciples.  They cannot see our love for one another if they only know one of us!  This is what Jesus says in John 13:35, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  They cannot see us love one another if they are not exposed to the community.

You are more influential than you think. 

Righting Our View of Self

Submitted by Summer Mohrlang (from Randy Rowland's Church)

 When God created us, He designed us to be in 4 relationships.  We are designed to be in relationship with God, ourselves, other people, and with creation.  But things aren't as God intended them to be anymore because humanity, starting all the way back with Adam and Eve, has made choices that has led to brokenness in ourselves, and brokenness in these 4 key relationships.  Previously we have looked at some of the ways our relationship with God has been broken.

Now this relationship with God, with our Creator, is the most important, the most defining relationship we are in.  And so when it gets out of whack, when we got off track there, all of our other relationships derail as well.

Today we are going to explore our relationship with self, some of the ways it's gotten off track, and then we're going to move towards a more healthy view of self, rooted in Scripture.  So, that's where we're going...we're going to do some self-reflection.

We're going to begin by diving right into our Scripture, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - and not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

I want to ask a question and I want you to think about it for a minute.  How do you primarily see yourself, as a saint or a sinner?  If you had to pic just one, what would you say?  That you are more of a saint?  Or a sinner?

Well, this dichotomy shows up in Paul's words in Ephesians 2.  Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, one of the elite believers, is a Jewish Christian.  He has an impeccable pedigree.  And, Paul is writing to blue collar Christians in the industrial port city of Ephesus.  He's writing to Gentile Christians, converts from a variety of different Hellenistic religions, people who had practiced magic and astrology.  This is a different breed he's writing to.  And this is what he says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world. (Ephesians 2:1-2a)  You could read these words with such disdain, with disgust at the lives people used to live.  And if anyone had the right to look down their nose at someone, it would have been Saint Paul.  But when we keep reading, this is what we see, All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following the desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3)  Suddenly the language is uncomfortably us when he uses "us" instead of "them."  Paul doesn't get more than a sentence in to describing the Gentiles' sinfulness before he's lumping himself, the Jews, and all of us right in there too.  We are all, by nature, children of wrath.  We are fallen; we are all sinners.  We are all in the same boat.

But here's the problem, often we don't live this way.  We don't live as if we are all on an equal playing field, all of equal worth.  Most of us have a tendency to have either too high, or too low a view of ourselves.  This tendency, this evidence of brokenness, has its roots all the way back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God.

So why does this matter?  What does my view of myself have to do with Embracing Justice?  Well, a faulty view of self is a sickness that takes root down underneath the surface and then has the potential down the road to manifest itself as injustice.

The authors of When Helping Hurts say, Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work to alleviate injustice is likely to do far more harm than good.  It's important that we take the time to recognize our own brokenness in how we view ourselves so as we move towards a place of living justly, we come from a place of humility where we can honestly say, "I am not okay, you are not okay, but Jesus can fix us both."

Let's look at a couple of these inaccurate views of ourselves.  But as we enter this time of self-reflection I want us all to hear a word of encouragement...there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  No view of ourselves can put us outside of God's ability to redeem and to use for His plans and His purpose.

The God Complex

The first inaccurate view of self we may struggle with is having too high a view.  The authors of When Helping Hurts call this having a 'God Complex.'  

Is this something you struggle with?  If you're not sure, here's a little test.  In interactions with others are you often accused of not listening?  If so, you may struggle with this.

Now there are any number of reasons we are susceptible to this tendency to have to high a view of ourselves. 

1. We grew up in an environment where we were taught, either implicitly or explicitly that God blesses those He loves so since I am blessed, He must love me more.
2. Maybe you've been told or led to believe that we are where we are because we are smarter, or more morally upstanding, or have made better choices than those people over there who don't have the things we have
3. We've bought into the lie that our success is a result of our efforts rather than evidence of God's unearned favor and so our view of ourselves begins to increase.

But no matter how we arrive at this place of having too high a view of ourselves, attempting to embrace justice while also holding a faulty, overly elevated view of self is dangerous because it puts us at risk of hurting the very people we want to help.  Either we will engage in types of charity that foster dependency rather than independence (because this makes us feel powerful and needed), or we will be prone to rush in with solutions without taking the time to listen, to value the input of those we seek to help.

Another risk is that those with overly high views of themselves, those with unexamined lives, may unintentionally (or intentionally) dominate over or victimize others out of a sense of entitlement or on a quest to get what they want or deserve.

America's sense of entitlement to whatever we want, whenever we want it (nice clothes, electronics, fresh fruit in December), has it's cost.  Our killer deals at Safeway, H&M, or Ross are made possible because somebody else, far away with much less voice than we have, is paying the price through low wages, bad working conditions, etc.  It's a hard reality but it's true.  And having too high a view of ourselves enables us to turn a blind eye.

House building in Mexico is a popular spring break mission trip for youth groups across the states and as a seminary intern I helped lead my church's spring break youth group mission trip down to Juarez to build houses.  As you look around in Juarez, there are entire neighborhoods, huge hillsides of row after row of these houses, you can pick them out because they're all the same 12x24 plan.  Hundreds of churches go down each year, build a house or 12 and go home feeling good about themselves and the work they did.  But here's a window into my trip.

Now the first day, you have to get the foundation framed and poured or you won't have time to get the rest of the house done.  Mark has led a dozen of these trips down to Mexico when he was on staff at University Pres and so before I went he gave me all sorts of tips.  He told me that often, at the end of the first day, no matter how late the team left, the father of the family who the house was for, would be out, in the dark, smoothing the cement with a trowel and water until is was so smooth it looked like glass because many of the men in those neighborhoods are construction workers.  That's what they do for a living.

Well, I remembered that story when I got to Mexico and I was determined to have a perfect floor so the day my kids poured the foundation, I made sure I was one of the ones smoothing the cement.  You see, you build the frame and then you begin filling it with cement at one end and you level it by dragging a 2x4 across the surface of it, resting it on the fame on either side to make sure the floor is level.  Then 1 or 2 people will be out in front of the 2x4 where you haven't poured cement yet with water and a trowel, carefully smoothing the cement so that by the end you should have a level, smooth floor.  Well, I was the one out front with my trowel, smoothing that cement like Mark had showed me, and man it was a beauty by the end of the day and I went home proud of the work I had done.

Well, I'm sure you can guess that something went wrong.  We showed up the next morning and I saw in the daylight what I hadn't noticed in the dark.  As our team had dragged that 2x4 along, pushing that pile of cement level...every time we'd pause so I could smooth with my trowel, that pile of cement in front of the board would harden just a bit more so that when the kids started dragging the board again it would bump over that pile a bit before it started smoothing again.  The result?  A floor with a surface as smooth as glass that rolled like a wave on the ocean.  It was horrible.  And to make matters worse, one of the kids thought it would be cute to push a glass marble into the foundation right in front of the door...which of course broke before we finished the house.

I got mixed up on that trip and began to think that our time down there, the work we  produced in 5 days, was somehow going to change those family's lives.  I never asked for help, offered to let them work with us to make their house what they wanted it to be.  It never occurred to me.  Because I was the ex-Air Force project manager.  I could do this and my overly high view of myself made it so I couldn't see the people I had come to serve.

Low Self-Esteem

Okay, now the second inaccurate view of self we struggle with is having to low a view of ourselves.  Here's a test to help you figure out if this is something you are susceptible to: in interactions with others are you often accused of not speaking up?  If so, you may struggle with this...or...you may just be an introvert.

There are many reasons we may struggle with too low a view of ourselves.

1. Perhaps we grew up in a community where we were never good enough, where our sinfulness rather than God's grace was the focus.
2. Maybe we were the victim of physical or emotional abuse that led us to believe we aren't valuable or resulted in our feeling broken or impure.
3. Or perhaps our gifts have simply never been appreciated.  Maybe you're an artist and grew up in a family of engineers or vice versa and your unique gifts were discouraged rather than encouraged.  

There are many reasons why we might see ourselves as less valuable than we really are, but what happens when we view ourselves in this way?  There are a couple of possibilities.  We may fail to act on the behalf of others because we don't think we have anything to offer.  Perhaps we succumb to the "when I" syndrome, where we believe we'll do something, we'll help, "when I get a job, finish school, get a handle on my finances" but that day never comes and so we never reach out to lend a helping hand.

Another possibility when we have too low a view of ourselves is that we might become the victim of injustice ourselves.  When we don't value ourselves, then likely we don't expect others to value us either.  We aren't likely to stand up for ourselves because we don't believe we deserve any better.

Too high a view, too low a view...both can negatively affect our ability to embrace justice.

What Do We Do About It?

So what do we do about it?  How do we begin to find a middle ground, to find a healthy view of ourselves?

The answer may be a little counter intuitive because the most important step towards righting our view of self has nothing to do with changing 'me."  The key to righting our view of ourselves is righting our relationship with God.  The key is re-orienting ourselves.  It's changing our perspective so that Jesus is our focus, our relationship with him rather than ourselves or our problem.  The key to having a healthy view of ourselves is re-orienting ourselves so that Christ is at the center rather than ourselves or our problems.

Ephesians 2 offers several truths that can help us refocus, that can help us maintain a healthy view of ourselves.

Truths To Transform Us

The first thing Ephesians 2 tells us is that God loves us.  In verse 4 Paul says, Because of His great love for us, God,...made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions.  Even when we are our most sinful God loves us.  And because God loves us, we are valuable.

Second, in verse 10 Paul tells us that we are God's handiwork.  The word here is poiema and it means work of art.  We are God's masterpiece.  He created us and He delights in us just as Michelangelo must have delighted in his statue of David.  Just like Michelangelo must have delighted when he first stepped back and gazed at the finished ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  God delights in us.  This is true.  Nothing anyone says or does can change this fact.  God made us and therefore, we are valuable.

Third, in verse 5 Paul reminds us that we are saved by God's grace not by our ingenuity, hard work, or good luck.  Paul is clear that it is God who is responsible for picking us up out of the muck of this life, for making us alive, and for raising us with Jesus rather than leaving us here mired in the muck.  If we are great, it is God who has made us great.  If we are strong, it is God's strength in us.  If we are pure, it is God who has washed us clean.  None of this is our accomplishment.

And finally, God didn't make a mistake with you.  Now I've been know to leave an ingredient out of a recipe and to end up with a royal mess, but God didn't leave anything out when He made you.  He didn't leave you on the burner too long.  You are exactly as God intended you to be, and He has prepared you, just as you are, to do good work in His name.

There's an African saying that goes, "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito."  None of us is too small to make a difference.  David, the youngest brother, a mere pip-squeak, killed a giant and became a king.  Mary, an unwed teenage girl, gave birth to the Messiah, and Peter, a lowly fisherman, established the church and changed the world.  There is no one too small to make a difference.

Conclusion

These truths have the power to transform us if we let them.  They can help pull us towards the center if we've gotten off kilter in ourselves.  But if you are like me you need a little help to keep these truths front and center and so I want to remind us all of the value of community and worship in helping us remain healthy.

People close to you often have a more accurate view of you than you have of yourself.  If you struggle with low self-esteem or is you wrestle with pride, invite someone you trust, or a few someones to help you make an honest assessment of your strengths and to point out areas where perhaps you need greater humility.

And challenge yourself to devote a few minutes of each day to some self-refection and self-examination.  Whether you do it during times of silence, singing, or prayer, this is a space set aside for that exact purpose.  Re-orienting ourselves.  This is a place we come to take ourselves down off the throne, and to put Christ back on it, to be reminded of your value in God's eyes and so allow yourself some time to do that.

What's a Blessing For - Jude 2

Submitted by Larry Doornbos

What gives strength to a person and to a community?  Jude is about to enter into a hard conversation with people who have liars, deceivers, and destroyers of community in their midst.  Living in this environment they need strength.  Jude offers that strength in terms of a blessing: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. (Jude 2)

A blessing of mercy, peace, and love.  A blessing is a prayer for God to give something to a person or to a people.  But it is also much more than that.  When done correctly a Biblical blessing is given by one of God's representatives.  This means that no one less than God Himself stands behind the blessing.  It is God who will bring to fruition the blessing that His spokesperson has pronounced.  The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says, In general, the blessing is transmitted from the greater to the lesser.  Its major function seems to have been to confer (i.e. grant or bestow) abundant and effective life upon something or someone.

Jude, as God's representative, is bestowing an abundant life of more and more mercy, peace, and love.  Mercy speaks of God's loyalty and loving-kindness toward His people (in the Old Testament mercy refers to God's covenant faithfulness).  In the New Testament Jesus most often shows mercy by bringing all different kinds of healing into people's lives.  In a situation where the people are struggling, God assures them of His loyalty to them, and His tenderness toward them.  The blessing is one of mercy and peace. 

Peace is about God giving His people security, safety, prosperity, and happiness - it is the promise of a full life.  In the Old Testament peace or shalom was pictured as each man under his own vine and fig tree.  The New Testament does not shy away from giving a full-orbed picture of God's shalom (both physical and spiritual fullness), but it always holds that complete peace comes only with the return of Christ and our concern needs to be first with God's kingdom even if it means we have to sacrifice some physical fullness (see 1 Timothy 6 and Hebrews 10:32ff).  But even in this sacrifice we can find the fullest life possible on earth as we live blessed by God's peace.  The blessing is mercy, peace, and love. 

 Love is God's unfailing giving of Himself for His children.  This blessing gives strength to the community Jude writes to and to us.  For the blessings we read in the scripture are blessings that are ours.  Ours not only because we read them and take the words in with joy, but because these blessings are spoken over us at the end of worship services.  John Calvin once said it was worth going to worship just to hear the blessing given.  Sometimes people make a mad dash for the exits during the last song in a worship service - it is a sad mistake, for they are missing the blessing of God conferred on them and the community.  A blessing of mercy, peace, and love.

Judging By Our Weaknesses

Submitted by Todd Murphy

A good friend of mine and I were chatting recently.  We were discussing a situation in which he had lost patience with a friend and needed to go back and make some amends.  We all have been through this.  Truth be told, there are many more times where we don't actually hurt the surface relationship while we hide it beneath the surface in our heart.

We are constantly sizing people up, even those who are closest to us, and then comparing them with ourselves.  Why do we do this?  We do it to make us feel better about ourselves.  When we see a fault in someone else, we can easily say, "Well, at least I don't do that," or "I am not that bad."  We also have more subtle approaches where we begin to treat others with contempt, and when a situation arises, we find ourselves talking down to that person as if from a superior position.  It is a form of posturing that makes us feel superior.

This exposes a self-righteous pattern in our thinking that we often over look.  If you ask anyone if they have faults, almost all will admit they do.  We are just not to forthcoming about them, and the ones we do take responsibility for are usually more like faux pas that we are really not all that ashamed of.  It is admission of the particular more serious character faults that we most often don't see.  And when we do see them, we try the smoke and mirrors approach to avoid the shame.

The reality is that when we are judgmental of other people it is because we are not looking at our own faults. Let me say it this way: The reason we judge other people is because we judge other people's weaknesses by our own strengths.  So let me give you an example.  You may have a friend with a drinking problem, but that is not your particular weakness.  You have been friends for some time with this person and have watched their destructive behavior.  At some point though, their drinking problem becomes a problem for you.  Now this does not mean you do not lovingly challenge self-destructive behavior in them.  A real friend does, even if your friendship eventually gets rejected over it.  But what usually happens is we tend to get personally exasperated with that person and at some point effectively wash our hands of them, even if temporarily.  People do this in marriage and other relationships all the time.  Becoming exasperated with the person's faults, we want to cut-off or distance.  Or perhaps we stay in relationship, but we begin to treat them in a somewhat patronizing way.  My point is this.  It is easy to judge people for things that we don't struggle with.  I have never struggled with binge drinking and have never had any attraction to drugs.  At one point in my teens when I had left home, I was living with drug dealers.  I saw tens of thousands of dollars of street cocaine pass through my house while I was there.  I never tried it or any other drug once.  But I have struggled with other things.

This creates an "apples and oranges" scenario.  If I don not have a problem with drinking and my neighbor does, or if I don not have a problem with greed, complaining, unthankfulness, etc., and my neighbor does, then it seems that I am comparing "apples with apples."  Right?  Wrong.  Different people have different strengths and life experiences that make them have different patterns of strength and weakness.  So to compare my strength with my neighbor's weakness, be they the same thing, is actually comparing apples with oranges because we are not the same person.  To play fair and to remove our naturally self-righteous posture, we need to compare our personal weaknesses with that of my neighbor's.

For example, since I have never struggled with substance abuse, it does not help my personal growth nor my neighbor's to compare my strength with his weakness.  However, my temper is another thing.  I have always struggled with that to one degree or another.  That is where my flank is exposed.  I have worked really hard throughout my Christian life to control my anger.  I know the same frustration of lapsing in this area that a binge drinker might in his own area.  As I have grown, these have gotten fewer and far between.  But it is not gone.  It is a daily struggle that I still have to keep wraps on myself about, perhaps a lot like a recovering substance abuser.

What is most important is that only when we begin to see us against our neighbor through our own weaknesses will we not only be a help to him, but a help to ourselves.  Comparing ourselves by our weaknesses levels the playing field and creates the opportunity for true humility.

As I was chatting with my friend I pointed out a climbing analogy.  When rock climbing or mountaineering, you only understand and see clearly what you have already climbed.  What is above you is always obscured by what is right in front of you.  When climbing a sheer face, you cannot see beyond the next outcropping or bulge in the rocks.  Our pilgrimage of life is similar.  What we have overcome already is clear to us, but what we have not is still obscure.  So in the climb of life, the person that is farther ahead may be able to see the person's situation more clearly and wonder why they cannot.  Yet if he turns his gaze back upward, there is someone else above him who sees things clearly that he does not.  We often look at each other mystified by how in our struggles we cannot see what seems grossly obvious to others.  But that is the challenges of the climb of life.  We need to understand that our own perspective is always limited by our current location in the ascent.  But if we learn to begin with our weaknesses it helps ground us in a humility that will help both us and our neighbor.