The Parables

The Parables of Luke are really stretching me right now. I have read them many times in the past but am getting so much out of them during this series in particular.

I continue to be amazed by Jesus' intensity and constant focus. He never looked for affirmation from those around him but only from His heavenly Father. He led with courage and spoke the truth. He called a "spade a spade." He loved and challenged at the same time. These parables are such perfect examples of Jesus' commitment to bringing the truth to light.

I want to be changed by hearing them once again.

Rob

Truth in Image

I am still chewing on John's message from this last weekend. He had 4 main points: truth in silence, image, comfort, and heart. All hit home with me. All brought conviction in my life.

Today I am focusing on image. There are so many different aspects to image. I am not sure of your struggle but mine is in the area of being a "fool" for Jesus. In fact I even hate the word. In the Hebrew Scriptures foolishness is described in detail as behavior we should avoid. Those proverbial scriptures remain intact for me. But Jesus introduces a different way that is labeled "foolish" as well. However, it is foolish only because it radically goes against the norm of society. This is the good "foolishness" of the Bible.

The aftermath of this kind of "foolish" living for Jesus typically involves being labeled as extreme, radical, unintellectual, non-mainstream, sectarian, "other side of the tracks," out of touch, irrelevant, and other even more disparaging remarks. And I confess that those labels have been a serious hang up for me. And this is where "Truth in Image" hits me between the eyes.

So my response today? It's time to embrace foolishness. It's time for me to get my marching orders from Jesus and not societal norms. It's time for me to say, "Thanks for the compliment!" the next time I receive one of the above mentioned labels. It's time to grow and mature in this area. It's time.

Rob

Inconvenience

This past weekend we identified four areas of inconvenience: time, messiness, money, and reputation. Each one of these are deeply inconvenienced when we step out to help our "neighbor" (as Jesus identifies neighbor in the parable).

For me I have been focusing this week on surrendering over my time to the Lord. This doesn't mean I have given up on planning and organization. God made me that way (I am an off-the-chart "J" on the Myers/Briggs)! However, it does mean that I am capable of responding with grace and mercy to "curves in the road" that I did not anticipate. God does not seem to warn us of them. It's as if God knows that the navigation of an unexpected turn produces something in us that would not develop if we were informed that the turn was coming. So let's get busy holding tight to the steering wheel and being ready for wherever God leads.

So this has been my focus this week from the sermon. I hope you are joining in with us and becoming ministers of inconvenience!

Rob

Fast and Ashes

The Lenten season is upon us. Last night's Ash Wednesday worship gathering was particularly meaningful for me. Dr. Ken Priddy began our series on the Parables of Luke with a message about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. This morning I still have ringing in my heart the following line from his message: "Mardi Gras is for the Pharisee. Ash Wednesday is for sinner."

As I sat there last night in worship feeling hungry from 3 days of Daniel fast, challenged to allow the Holy Spirit to realign any areas of my heart that have gone adrift, a little tired, and most of all moved to tears, I sensed a freedom and weightlessness come over me. As I repeated those words to myself, "Father, I am a sinner. Have mercy on me, " I enjoyed the resulting awareness in my heart that total dependence on God is the most "freeing" posture in which one can be.

May these 40 days draw us closer to our Holy God, be a "tipping point" in our Call to mission at ComChap, and cause us to be people of prayer not people who pray.

I look forward to hearing how God is showing up in your life!

Rob

Remember the Word

I challenged us this past weekend to commit an entire chapter of Scripture to memory between now and Resurrection Day (April 4th). It can be any chapter you want from any version of Scripture.

This morning I decided on Colossians 1. It is a chapter I have admired for years so why not just have it memorized. It has a total of 29 verses so I can memorize one per day.

As you select your chapter let me know. I will keep a running list of them. We will get back to you with a Tuesday night in April to present them (if you want to do that - no pressure).

Let the Scriptural Renaissance begin.

Rob

Valentine's Day Movie

Jenn and I went to see the new Valentine's Day movie yesterday late afternoon (had no idea the matinee is so expensive, when did that happen?) Afterwards we went to dinner and spent some time talking about the content of the movie.

We live in a culture that has officially joined the ranks of total depravity and carnality when it comes to relationships. Every relationship depicted in the movie represented a complete disregard for biblical morals (the only exception to this involved a young boy in 5th grade and his mother that serves in the army).

I realize that this is nothing new. I did not suddenly see something yesterday in the movie that was "on the big screen" for the first time. Rather I was alarmed that there was not even an attempt to present thematically a higher moralistic option. It was as if the movie was communicating that none exists! Has that part of our meta-thinking as a society completely evaporated? I thought there were at least some small morsels of it remaining? Not according to the how-could-you-be-so-educated-and-stupid-at-the-same-time writers and producers of this movie!

Brokenness and relational pain will continue to get worse the more our world discards the established truth of God and replaces it with immature, cheaply imitated, self-generated, narcissistically based, pathetic examples of relationships. How bad does the pain need to get for us to admit we are wrong and God is right?

If you want to see a good example of what is acutely foul in our messed up world's understanding of relationships, go see the movie. If you want to remain enlightened and focused on God's love and truth, spend your money on something else.

I wish we had.

Rob

Lost and Found Bibles?

We are doing some cleaning up this week at Park/Meadow facility. I am astounded at the amount of unclaimed Bibles we have accumulated over the last 5 years. Perhaps the body that was originally attached to the Bible is not aware of where it was left and he/she has been searching diligently for it for many years!? Or maybe it is tragic to consider that they have not evenly realized yet that it is missing!

So we are going to give the Bibles away this weekend in worship to people who actually want to study them and go deeper in their walk with Christ. Some of you may even want to get one for a friend.

Scriptural Renaissance begins this weekend.

Rob