I've been reading Ephesians in my quiet time lately, going veeerrryyyy slowly so as to not gloss over any detail. Hence, just a few verses a day. I've been amazed at what I've seen while going through a book I've read dozens of times. This is what's struck me the most:
The word grace appears many times in Ephesians, and frequently with different meanings and applications. Here are a few examples, and my thoughts/interpretations...
1:2: "Grace and peace to you..."
Paul wishes that his readers would know and experience the grace that comes from the Father. I believe a key to my spiritual life is that I would experience daily this grace.
1:6: "...to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
Grace has been given to us, without cost to us. Jesus paid it all. How often, though, do I try to pay for it?
1:7 "...in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us..."
This grace was lavished on us. What an usual word: "lavish". What else gets lavished? I don't have a good picture of what that looks like. I think it's like being smothered. How wonderful it would be to be smothered by grace! How wonderful, now that I think about it, it was and is, when I really let in sink in.
2:7 "...the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."
Grace is expressed in kindness. Grace seems too big to me to be expressed by something as simple as kindness, but there it is. Of course, the kindness Paul refers to is Christ's sacrificial death on the cross, which kind of ups the ante on our typical definition of "kindness". Do we think of laying down our own lives as a form of kindness? Am I a kind person?
3:2: "...the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation..."
Now, a new understanding of grace. Grace, in this context, is a gift given to Paul for the benefit of others. This challenges me to think about what graces God has administered to me for the sake of the body of Christ. Part of the answer is, ironically, that God has administered to me a gift of administration. May that I use it well for the edification of all those who know Him.
3:7: "...by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power."
God's power is manifested in me through the gifts he has "graced" me with. These gifts are not something I've earned -- they are given to me without merit. And these gifts are not of myself -- they are the power of God in and through me. This calls me to stewardship of these gifts, not selfish exploitation of them, as sin in me is prone to make them.
3:8: "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles..."
I love Paul's humility. To us he's PAUL -- the awesome man of the Bible who we all aspire to be like in some way. In his own eyes though, he was less than the least. I believe his modesty is what made him great. And again, here he speaks of preaching as a grace -- an undeserved gift from God. His ministry was in itself an undeserved gift. And moreover, this ministry was to put salvation on its head: the message was for Gentiles too! This was an unpopular message among the Jews, but Paul considered it GRACE to be the one to preach it. That I would welcome and rejoice at ministry that is, at its core, hard.
4:7: "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."
What grace has been given to me and how am I meant to use it? My spiritual gifts and abilities are grace. My citizenships in heaven, and in the U.S., are grace. My intellect is a grace. My health is a grace. I deserve none of it. God's just chosen to bless me for some reason. And it seems clear to me that the reason is that I might be a blessing to others; that I might reveal something of the love of the Father to those who don't know that they, too, are loved with a zealous and everlasting love.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Hobbes Downer, 1988-2006
Late last month my parents had our cat Hobbes put to sleep. It was the humane thing to do because he was really struggling and seemed to be in constant pain, but he had been a part of our family for 18 years, so it's very sad to know he's gone.
Hobbes was, in a way, a rebound cat. About a year after my parents married in 1969 they got two cats: Tiger and Smudgy. Smudgy had a habit of peeing on the curtains, so he went to live on a farm. Tiger, however, lived with us for 18 years. He pre-dated both my brother and me as a part of the Downer household. When he died, in the summer of 1988, it was devastating.
We weren't a cat-less household though. We had picked up another cat four years earlier when we lived in California. Scamper had come with the house we were renting. She lived on the grounds and my brother and I eventually tamed her and she moved with us when we relocated to Nebraska. Still though, losing Tiger was tough.
We quickly decided to get another cat, to fill Tiger's spot in some way. My Mom and I picked out another tiger-striped one at our vet's office and gave him to my Dad as a birthday gift, since it was the first week of October. We named him "Hobbes" because we liked the comic strip a lot and I bore a strange resemblance to Calvin in those days.
Hobbes was a fun kitten, but demonstrated early on that he had a surly disposition and a "his way or the highway" approach to life -- which is typical of most cats, but not common among past Downer cats. In his later years he softened considerably. He became an "only cat" in 2002 when Scamper finally left us. And left us she did. Ever the stray, she wandered off one day at the age of 18 and we never saw her again.
By the Fall of this year, when he turned 18 himself, Hobbes was mostly deaf, had arthritis in his hind legs and bore many scars from battles won and lost over the years. He was housebound by then since he was a bit too proud to back down from any fight, even though his body was no longer up to it.
Now he's gone, and we will miss him. He may not have been the nicest, friendliest cat ever (that would be Esther, the cat I share with Naomi), but he was ours. He was a Downer cat. Now my parents' household is cat-free for the first time since 1969. It's a very strange thing. I'm sure it won't last long. We're cat people after all.
Hobbes was, in a way, a rebound cat. About a year after my parents married in 1969 they got two cats: Tiger and Smudgy. Smudgy had a habit of peeing on the curtains, so he went to live on a farm. Tiger, however, lived with us for 18 years. He pre-dated both my brother and me as a part of the Downer household. When he died, in the summer of 1988, it was devastating.
We weren't a cat-less household though. We had picked up another cat four years earlier when we lived in California. Scamper had come with the house we were renting. She lived on the grounds and my brother and I eventually tamed her and she moved with us when we relocated to Nebraska. Still though, losing Tiger was tough.
We quickly decided to get another cat, to fill Tiger's spot in some way. My Mom and I picked out another tiger-striped one at our vet's office and gave him to my Dad as a birthday gift, since it was the first week of October. We named him "Hobbes" because we liked the comic strip a lot and I bore a strange resemblance to Calvin in those days.
Hobbes was a fun kitten, but demonstrated early on that he had a surly disposition and a "his way or the highway" approach to life -- which is typical of most cats, but not common among past Downer cats. In his later years he softened considerably. He became an "only cat" in 2002 when Scamper finally left us. And left us she did. Ever the stray, she wandered off one day at the age of 18 and we never saw her again.
By the Fall of this year, when he turned 18 himself, Hobbes was mostly deaf, had arthritis in his hind legs and bore many scars from battles won and lost over the years. He was housebound by then since he was a bit too proud to back down from any fight, even though his body was no longer up to it.
Now he's gone, and we will miss him. He may not have been the nicest, friendliest cat ever (that would be Esther, the cat I share with Naomi), but he was ours. He was a Downer cat. Now my parents' household is cat-free for the first time since 1969. It's a very strange thing. I'm sure it won't last long. We're cat people after all.
Rethinking the Call to Missions
On Friday, at the closing luncheon for our latest Candidate Orientation Program at PIONEERS, the worship leader brought our attention to Isaiah 6:8 -- the call of Isaiah. He pointed out, however, that it really isn't a call in the sense that we often think of a call. Isaiah is more or less eavesdropping on something taking place in the heavens. He is not actively involved in the events taking place, he's just witnessing them. So he's there when God asks, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Isaiah speaks up at this point. He makes himself known ("Here am I") and declares his willingness to be the answer to God's question ("Send me").
I think it's important to note that God does not tell Isaiah to go, nor does He address Isaiah specifically ("Will you go for me, Isaiah?"). Rather, He asks a broad question that implies the value He places on someone being sent out on His behalf.
I would like to suggest that it is still this way. How often I speak to people who are waiting for God to tell them to go, or who are waiting for the Lord to specifically ask them to go! They are looking for a clear sign from God -- something meant just for them. But the calling has already been given -- it is clear throughout the Word from Genesis 12 through to the end of the story in Revelation. The broad question has been asked since the beginning of time: Whom shall I send and who will go for us? God is calling on us to answer this question the way Isaiah did, by offering ourselves to Him at the very moment when we first become aware that He is still asking that question a couple thousand years later.
Realization that the question has been asked and is still being asked IS the call, and like Isaiah, we ought to be willing to respond without hesitation and without questioning whether it was really meant for me. Such questioning, in my experience, is often just a search for a way out because we do not want to be sent. We would much rather fade into the background and live out our days undisturbed by things of eternal consequence.
But this post is not meant to be a condemnation so much as it is a challenge to re-think our idea about "calling". The command is clear -- God wants us to be His representatives on earth. Do we have the courage and perspective to fulfill this calling just as Isaiah did? The calling is a group one -- issued to a community of people (all those who identify themselves as children of God), but the response is a specific one that each of us must make.
I think it's important to note that God does not tell Isaiah to go, nor does He address Isaiah specifically ("Will you go for me, Isaiah?"). Rather, He asks a broad question that implies the value He places on someone being sent out on His behalf.
I would like to suggest that it is still this way. How often I speak to people who are waiting for God to tell them to go, or who are waiting for the Lord to specifically ask them to go! They are looking for a clear sign from God -- something meant just for them. But the calling has already been given -- it is clear throughout the Word from Genesis 12 through to the end of the story in Revelation. The broad question has been asked since the beginning of time: Whom shall I send and who will go for us? God is calling on us to answer this question the way Isaiah did, by offering ourselves to Him at the very moment when we first become aware that He is still asking that question a couple thousand years later.
Realization that the question has been asked and is still being asked IS the call, and like Isaiah, we ought to be willing to respond without hesitation and without questioning whether it was really meant for me. Such questioning, in my experience, is often just a search for a way out because we do not want to be sent. We would much rather fade into the background and live out our days undisturbed by things of eternal consequence.
But this post is not meant to be a condemnation so much as it is a challenge to re-think our idea about "calling". The command is clear -- God wants us to be His representatives on earth. Do we have the courage and perspective to fulfill this calling just as Isaiah did? The calling is a group one -- issued to a community of people (all those who identify themselves as children of God), but the response is a specific one that each of us must make.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Christmas Leftovers
I didn't get a chance to get this out before leaving for Urbana, so consider it a helping of Christmas leftovers...
My pastor, at our Christmas Eve service, based his message on John 3:16 ... for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (my NIV/KJV mishmash paraphrase). This is a familiar verse of course, but not one that I often recall hearing on December 24ths past.
On second thought though, it's perfect. That second thought occurred as I sat in the pew that night. I don't recall anything else he said as late night turned into morning. I got stuck on this verse and it suddenly dawned on me how incredibly brilliant the whole thing is.
God gave His Son! And He gave Him as a baby ... completely weak and helpless. His entry into the world was a marvelous picture of humility that would be topped only by His exit from it. But let me get back to that verb: gave. God handed Him over, in a sense. And then what did we, who received Him, do? We paid Him no mind for 30 years, marvelled at Him for two or three, got tired of His antics and then put Him to death.
But God knew it would be this way all along. Why then did He give Him to us? What would possess Him to do such a thing? Well that's what's so brilliant! It was part of the plan all along. God knew, even at Jesus' birth, that He was sending Him to His death. He knew that we would put Him on a cross, but He also knew that insodoing, we would be setting in motion the plan that would defeat Satan for good. He knew that only a guiltless man perishing could ever release us from the curse of Death that had rested upon us since Adam. So He gave His Son to us, with full knowledge that we would reject and crucify Him and that through this treachery salvation would be made possible for all men.
It's brilliant. He fooled us all, but Satan most of all. He did not come as we might have expected, nor did He accomplish what we might have expected or hoped for, but He delivered instead something entirely unexpected, but also unforgettable and incomparable. To God be the Glory -- His ways are higher than ours!
Here's hoping you might rejoice in the brilliance of Christmas!
My pastor, at our Christmas Eve service, based his message on John 3:16 ... for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (my NIV/KJV mishmash paraphrase). This is a familiar verse of course, but not one that I often recall hearing on December 24ths past.
On second thought though, it's perfect. That second thought occurred as I sat in the pew that night. I don't recall anything else he said as late night turned into morning. I got stuck on this verse and it suddenly dawned on me how incredibly brilliant the whole thing is.
God gave His Son! And He gave Him as a baby ... completely weak and helpless. His entry into the world was a marvelous picture of humility that would be topped only by His exit from it. But let me get back to that verb: gave. God handed Him over, in a sense. And then what did we, who received Him, do? We paid Him no mind for 30 years, marvelled at Him for two or three, got tired of His antics and then put Him to death.
But God knew it would be this way all along. Why then did He give Him to us? What would possess Him to do such a thing? Well that's what's so brilliant! It was part of the plan all along. God knew, even at Jesus' birth, that He was sending Him to His death. He knew that we would put Him on a cross, but He also knew that insodoing, we would be setting in motion the plan that would defeat Satan for good. He knew that only a guiltless man perishing could ever release us from the curse of Death that had rested upon us since Adam. So He gave His Son to us, with full knowledge that we would reject and crucify Him and that through this treachery salvation would be made possible for all men.
It's brilliant. He fooled us all, but Satan most of all. He did not come as we might have expected, nor did He accomplish what we might have expected or hoped for, but He delivered instead something entirely unexpected, but also unforgettable and incomparable. To God be the Glory -- His ways are higher than ours!
Here's hoping you might rejoice in the brilliance of Christmas!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Urbana 06
I don't have any idea where to begin... how do you capture a week that changes your life?
Last night I slept 13 hours. Went to bed at 7:30pm and got up at 8:30 this morning. That's how tired I was. I don't think I've slept that long since I was in diapers. I was tired on every level: physically, emotionally and spiritually. But I've never had a more enjoyable time getting that exhausted.
I actually made it to three plenary sessions this time (compared to one last) and the speakers were pretty good. Rick Warren showed up and Bono had taped a message for us -- both were worth listening to. The worship was much better than last time and I often got carried away singing along with 22,000 others. We made a ton of contacts this time too: we collected more than 800 cards to follow up on -- compared to 548 last time. Each of those 800 represents a life -- someone God is stirring up -- and now the real work of follow up begins. Even these 800 represent only a portion of the people we encountered and ministered to. Many of my conversations didn't end in filling out a card. And that's OK. It's not about PIONEERS growing larger or doing more -- it's about the Spirit of God working in the hearts of His people.
But none of these was the highlight. The highlight was the time spent with our team. What an amazing privilege to be part of this group. Even though the team came together much later than it did three years ago, God was clearly knitting it together. We had an incredible spirit of unity even though many of us met for the first time on December 27th.
Our team meetings on the 28th (two hours), 29th and 30th (one hour each) and 31st (one and a half hours) were highlights of my life thus far. We got to know each other through a quick game, covered a lot of details about meals, appointments, schedules and other logistics and came together each morning through a devotional led by one of the team. But what made it so great were the prayer times we shared and the stories we shared about the people we'd met the previous day. That's when we really came together I think. We rejoiced to hear how God was moving, answering our prayers and drawing people to Himself. We prayed passionately for the people we'd met, for each other, for lost people around the world. It was just an amazing experience to feel the Lord moving among us and through us.
It was a great conference for PIONEERS as well. More than once we overhead a student tell another to go to the PIONEERS booth because "they pray for you there". And we did -- after every single conversation. Many people stopped by to have their picture taken with our giant globe (check it out below) ...
We also had many people stop by because of an email I'd written about a week before. Like every other organization attending Urbana (there were about 270 there), we were given the opportunity to purchase a list of attendees who'd indicated that they were "highly motivated" to go into missions. We purchased this list and sent out an email, as did 20-25 other organizations. I wrote the email and knowing that they'd be getting quite a few, made a distinct effort to make mine personal, heartfelt and not the least bit manipulative or pushy. It seems to have hit the mark. I got a number of responses leading up to the conference and many more people who stopped by mentioned the email as a principle reason they'd come to us. It was very gratifying to see what effect those words had had on people.
In general, I didn't have as many great conversations at Urbana this year as I'd had last time, but I feel very good about my role in all of it. My best work for Urbana may have been the email, but it may also have been just acting as the leader for our team and being able to guide them, by God's grace, into a place where He was invited to work through us. I feel like I took on many cares and concerns last week so that the team didn't have to, and in being freed from those details, they were freed up to concentrate wholly on blessing those we came to serve. So it worked. It was perfect and I'm so thrilled, blessed, happy, humbled, weary and jubilant.
To God be the Glory. I will remember this experience the rest of my life.
Were you there? What's your story?
Last night I slept 13 hours. Went to bed at 7:30pm and got up at 8:30 this morning. That's how tired I was. I don't think I've slept that long since I was in diapers. I was tired on every level: physically, emotionally and spiritually. But I've never had a more enjoyable time getting that exhausted.
I actually made it to three plenary sessions this time (compared to one last) and the speakers were pretty good. Rick Warren showed up and Bono had taped a message for us -- both were worth listening to. The worship was much better than last time and I often got carried away singing along with 22,000 others. We made a ton of contacts this time too: we collected more than 800 cards to follow up on -- compared to 548 last time. Each of those 800 represents a life -- someone God is stirring up -- and now the real work of follow up begins. Even these 800 represent only a portion of the people we encountered and ministered to. Many of my conversations didn't end in filling out a card. And that's OK. It's not about PIONEERS growing larger or doing more -- it's about the Spirit of God working in the hearts of His people.
But none of these was the highlight. The highlight was the time spent with our team. What an amazing privilege to be part of this group. Even though the team came together much later than it did three years ago, God was clearly knitting it together. We had an incredible spirit of unity even though many of us met for the first time on December 27th.
Our team meetings on the 28th (two hours), 29th and 30th (one hour each) and 31st (one and a half hours) were highlights of my life thus far. We got to know each other through a quick game, covered a lot of details about meals, appointments, schedules and other logistics and came together each morning through a devotional led by one of the team. But what made it so great were the prayer times we shared and the stories we shared about the people we'd met the previous day. That's when we really came together I think. We rejoiced to hear how God was moving, answering our prayers and drawing people to Himself. We prayed passionately for the people we'd met, for each other, for lost people around the world. It was just an amazing experience to feel the Lord moving among us and through us.
It was a great conference for PIONEERS as well. More than once we overhead a student tell another to go to the PIONEERS booth because "they pray for you there". And we did -- after every single conversation. Many people stopped by to have their picture taken with our giant globe (check it out below) ...
We also had many people stop by because of an email I'd written about a week before. Like every other organization attending Urbana (there were about 270 there), we were given the opportunity to purchase a list of attendees who'd indicated that they were "highly motivated" to go into missions. We purchased this list and sent out an email, as did 20-25 other organizations. I wrote the email and knowing that they'd be getting quite a few, made a distinct effort to make mine personal, heartfelt and not the least bit manipulative or pushy. It seems to have hit the mark. I got a number of responses leading up to the conference and many more people who stopped by mentioned the email as a principle reason they'd come to us. It was very gratifying to see what effect those words had had on people.
In general, I didn't have as many great conversations at Urbana this year as I'd had last time, but I feel very good about my role in all of it. My best work for Urbana may have been the email, but it may also have been just acting as the leader for our team and being able to guide them, by God's grace, into a place where He was invited to work through us. I feel like I took on many cares and concerns last week so that the team didn't have to, and in being freed from those details, they were freed up to concentrate wholly on blessing those we came to serve. So it worked. It was perfect and I'm so thrilled, blessed, happy, humbled, weary and jubilant.
To God be the Glory. I will remember this experience the rest of my life.
Were you there? What's your story?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)