Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all
making my prayer with joy,
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to feel this way about you all,
because I hold you in my heart,
for you are all partakers with me of grace,
both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness,
how I yearn for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, 
with knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may approve what is excellent,
and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ,
to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:3-11


Father,
this morning my anxiety clouds my judgment. I feel like I need to say all of the right words (and enough words) to get you to work. Will you remind us that you are at work in us today? Will you cause our souls to rest in believing that you don't take a day off or turn your back on us? Will you please help us to understand the affection of Christ Jesus...and to long for people's good with the same affection? Please do this for your name's sake...to show your love to a world that doesn't trust you.

The Good News is Not Shallow

Today is a day in which I long to know that the gospel is not merely story telling to make someone religious, but good news to the souls of people who do not even want the good news today.

It seems to me that I have such a narrow, law based view of the gospel, trying to "simplify" it down to a formula to use "on people." What if the gospel really is the heart of God and the power of God expressed to people for them to accept or reject?

In his book, Creating a Missional Culture, JR Woodword asks some interesting questions about the heart and the nature of being a gospel story-teller... (or an evangelist, whichever you prefer):

• What does it mean to be the church that lives under the reign of God?

• If God's reign were to be perfectly realized in this neighborhood, what would be different?

• What are the kinds of idols in our neighborhood that need to be unmasked? (This makes me think of Acts 17: 16-17; 1 Corinthians 14:25)

• What rhythms of life and what community happenings might challenge these idols and express the kingdom?

• How do we call others to receive and enter into the kingdom of God so that they might join us in representing God's reign in our neighborhood?

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (Luke 4:42-44 ESV)

Kindness

I spoke with a friend on the phone this morning who shared with me how he believed God was pursuing him out on a hike yesterday. He said that he "almost" put his faith in Jesus out there because he was so overwhelmed with an experience of God's goodness through nature.

My first response was to think that God does not work that way...he confronts sin. That is completely true, but not the way I was thinking it. Maybe God is showing kindness to a man who longs for kindness. Maybe the kindness will open the door of his heart to deal with the darkness...so that when the light of Jesus' holiness shines into his heart my friend will not run from the pain but know that the work being done is an act of love.

Maybe my God is more kind than I believe him to be.

"Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"
     Romans 2:4

"...so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
     Ephesians 2:7

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness...; against such things there is no law."
     Galatians 5:22-23

"And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her."
     Hosea 2:13-14

In some ways, I think I still believe that I was saved reluctantly. In some ways I think that my Father kind of just puts up with me.

Who is this God of grace that seeks after stubborn, heard hearted people in a flood of kindness that would lead me to turn my eyes away from stupid things to treasure him because of his kindness?

Find Rest My Soul in God Alone

I have asked for myself, my family and for so many we are connected with for the Father to open our hearts to receive his love. 

I have never felt the need to know his love deeply and affectionately as I do know.

What I seem to receive is silence.

I plead with him…"please Father, I need the waves of your love to wash over me…wash away my anxiety and fear. I am empty and need to be filled with a love that will overflow to my neighbors”

And still, silence.

I strive and feel like I cannot let go. Somewhere deep in my soul the lie resonates within me “If you ‘let go’ it will all unravel.” It is a lie, but it feels like the truth.

My uncle once told me cease striving and let God be God. My response inside was “Yes! But how?”

In the silence, in the barrenness of soul, the Spirit is quietly searching through the hidden places of my soul and pointing out the places where I believe lies:

“Yes you are saved by a simple trust in Jesus, but now you have to make everything else happen.”

“The Father has left you alone and wants to see if you are man enough for this.”

“He brought you here to fail.” (I would have fit in well with the wandering Israelites)

“Your ever-present sin shows you are not worthy of this…and the Fathers going to hold back giving to you until you get it right!” There is always a little truth in the lies that stick.

Why does this matter? This should be a story of how we have seen the King bring his kingdom. 

But that is exactly it: he is bringing his kingdom in a 1,000 different ways in people…most of which are hidden to us most of the time. There are volcanoes that seem dormant (Mt. Rainier is beautiful but too close), but the movements underneath the ground are real and they are preparing the molten mountain to show its beauty in an eruption. 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32 ESV)

"I will make a way..."

Thus says the LORD,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

"Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

The wild beasts will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sign of the Kingdom: A Gospel Community

“People want to belong before they will believe.” 

A few weeks ago, the people of Dwelling Place Church in Seattle said “goodbye, for now” to David as he moved his life to Arizona. David is an intelligent skeptic, a cautious truster, a great asker of questions, and a devoted friend. I (Wes) will miss our weekly in-person discussions about faith in Jesus. Thankfully, our phones work well over the distance.

On the last Sunday evening that we were able to gather with David, I got to see the gospel lived out in community like I had never noticed before. We ate dinner together. We prayed together. We laughed together. We opened up God’s word together. Each of these things was a beautiful expression of how God shows his power among us. 

Except for some unforced laughter, these things were planned, but something I didn’t expect happened.  This was not on my agenda for the evening. While walking around cleaning up the mess we made of our host’s home, I heard people sharing the gospel with David in the natural course of conversation. Four different people, in fact. Four different, unplanned, conversations that were authentic expressions of love for our friend…and love for our King.

To see very imperfect (but transformed!) people lingering with each other over a meal, to share the same limited space week after week, and to show vulnerability without (much) fear communicates a message: something is profoundly different about these people.

Its not that there aren’t disagreements. Its not that we don’t sin against each other and hurt each other. Its that the gospel of God’s grace so saturates his people that when all of those things happen we still draw near to each other in love.

In this was one more expression of the gospel that I almost missed: the community of Jesus gathered together in love. The message that was so loud and pervasive that I almost missed it is this: the community that the Spirit of God creates through the proclamation of the gospel! 

To say that a person must belong before they believe does not mean we do not actively share our faith. We absolutely should communicate with our words about how God demonstrates his love in the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son.  No, what I mean is that people need to see and experience just how that message transforms all of our lives.  When a bunch of messy, selfish, and yet beloved people come together to worship and love each other in Jesus’ name and when they welcome people into their lives who were once considered “outsiders,” then what people experience is a visible expression of the authenticity of the gospel. The authenticity of individual lives changed. The King of grace gives us a deeper experience of his grace while we are together.

I have seen a sign of the Kingdom of God in how a group of people growing in faith in their King welcome one another with a love that is otherworldly…which can only happen if our Welcoming King welcomes us to himself.

May it be that more and more people are so affected by the gospel heard and the gospel seen that our lives overflow to those near us with the joy of that message. The people who know that they belong with us will better be able to understand why we believe in King of grace. 

May that be true of my good friend David. 

Musings at the Meyer

It has been too long since I have added anything to this blog. That is mostly because most of what I would like to say seems to come out as jumbled words and I don't have the time to reshape those thoughts into some thing someone else might read.

Also, I started writing this blog for myself and then I started writing it for others. Though that sounds selfless, it was most definitely not. It was very subtly self absorbed.

But now I write again as if no one will read this. If you are reading it, I hope that God's Spirit encourages you with it. But, from now on, I will write it as if no one else is lurking around.

I write today because I am overwhelmed. Up on the second floor of Fred Meyer watching people as I prepare for future sermons, I am overwhelmed with how powerless I feel to transform someone's life.

People from different neighborhoods, different worldviews, and each sporting different hairstyles all come to find the best prices on their tomatoes. There is a leveling effect.

Here the wealthy and influential mingle (silently) with the marginalized. Some walked determinedly through the produce section to get the freshest organics while others sneak in shyly, hoping not to be noticed as they buy their craft beer. Deep arrogance shares the same space with resigned hopelessness.

In brief moments I feel the compassion that Jesus felt when he saw the crowds, how they were weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Some of those people are around me now, eating a microwave warmed Stouffers lasagna.

One way or another, though, I think there is a depth to that compassion that I will not truly take in until I come to an end of myself...the end of my own desire to wield the power to save. I am too afraid to take it all in (to express the heart of my King) until I understand that I really am an earthen vessel. What all of these people need is not my striving to "fix" them, but a real experience of the loving, authoritative power of God.

And, when it comes down to it, that is true for me too. I will only cease striving, cease worrying when I experience the same power and know that the power is from God and not from us.

I will go back to studying now and wait for the Spirit of God to do what only He can do.