Driving through Rhode Island yesterday...

My car radio was tuned to 90.9 FM to pick up my favorite Boston NPR news station. Coming in from Connecticut somewhere was a student radio station on the same frequency, playing avant-garde indie rock. The band's name included an anatomically unmentionable body part.
As my road rose and fell, my radio alternated between the two stations and sometimes just gave me a confused signal of the two on top of each other.

It struck me that this was an analogy of the Christian life. The voices of the Holy Spirit broken up by and sometimes drowned out by the voices of our world - entertainment, endless sports, news, work...the avalanche of noise and information we are all immersed in.

How necessary, beautiful, restoring to turn the world's signal down a while and listen to the pure signals of Father. Of course Boston isn't heaven, and I wouldn't equate NPR to the Holy Spirit, but you get the idea.

The closer I got to Boston, the clearer my station came in...

3 little words, Part 1
I've been considering three little words that each convey to us the very character of God, tell us about ourselves, and are the bedrocks of both church, and the ultimate goal of God working in time/space. Pretty comprehensive huh? Well as you might imagine, for three such powerful God-words, they are in Hebrew.
Word number one is...macom. It's pronounced 'ma-comb'.
Macom is often translated into English as 'space' or 'hospitality'. As with all Hebrew words, it conveys a complex idea. This is hospitable space. This is what the powerful one does for the weak one in a relationship. They create a hospitable space for a relationship to happen. It doesn't take but a moment to see this is a word for grace, and indeed it is sometimes translated that way.
God , the one whom we frequently ignore, malign and blaspheme, He opens macom towards us. He come to us. He creates a hospitable space, and there He invites us into relationship. It is a self-giving, but not overwhelmingly so - for that would not be hospitable.
Rather, astonishingly, He creates space for us. For us. For us to misbehave in, for us to encounter Him, discover Him. He waits for us there. It is sheer utter graciousness. Macom. What a beautiful, powerful, wonderful idea.
Last, macom is a word for heaven too. Heaven is macom-space. Where God is filling, where we can grow in worship of Him, continually discovering Himself, and what it means to be made in His image, together, for ever and ever.

The church is heaven on earth. An instance of the in-breaking Kingdom of God on earth. Where the fabric of heaven is being formed in the here and now. Church is macom - a hospitable space where people - anyone - can come and encounter God. Christ will be in church. Because the church is Christ's body, we are Christ. And we open up macom and invite the world in, without pre-conditions, without expectations. Just a grace-space. May you dwell in macom, may you be a macom-creating person for the world around you to encounter the Christ within and through you.

Soulfest 2009

After a shower and a change of clothes, I’m reflecting on Soulfest 2009.  The mud on Friday was a challenge – a day of solid rain and about 10,000 people trudging around – cheerful but messy.  And boy did the mud smell!

As always, the highlights for me was the time spent with my LCN family and the conversations we had.  I wish we could have more time just relaxing together and talking.  Jeffrey Todd Keel (ex Fort Pastor) came and played for us at the LCN camp site, which was cool, and Tom Conlon gave me a CD of his latest project – which is, as expected, excellent.  Casting Crowns never disappoint and the Jim & Allison Trick / Maeve / Brant Christopher stable were all good to hear and meet.

Soulfest is not inexpensive and could do with more working restrooms, but putting that aside, it is a phenomenal expression of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and a wonderful explosion of the artistic  creativity that the church has locked up within in.  Viva Soulfest!

Having turned the ripe old age of 49 on Friday, I can attest that time flies. How am I using this time?

I pray this morning for more wisdom from God than I have, also for discipline for my mind, this body and Spirit than I have, for greater love for all the people in my life. This last prayer is humbling because I understand more now that love is such a costly business. It is about giving myself - ourselves - away, piece by piece; often unappreciated. But that's what makes love Christ-like - to not count the cost. After all, where did my life come from in the first place? Surely our lives are not our own, and are given to us for a while.

I praise You God, that you will renew my life, for ever, with You and all the people You have renewed - all those who You have saved. What a mystery!

Rudyard Kipling, in his poem 'If' says much that is brilliant including:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

I've had just a little open window for reflection recently, and have considered the great grace of God in allowing me to experience both success and failure in my business life. In ministry triumphs and disasters come in many forms, often at the same time, and it can be unnervingly hard to tell the difference. From God's perspective, He can tell, but from my vantage point on events, it's not always so clear.

I'm also reminded that God guides events with an invisible hand, and with perfect timing. My past disasters and failures are really of little consequence, and His triumphs and successes are to be celebrated.

Imposters? Well, to the extent that with the passage of time, the truly meaningful events are often those that go unnoticed at the time. The take-home truth is to renew my energy for spending time alone with God, and loving the people in my life with Christ's expensive love. Really, everything else is just details.

Jesus Christ taught against judgementalism because it places us in the position of God - who alone is the judge of everyone.  When we forhet that teaching we move from loving rebuke and encouragement of each other into a dark shadow of assuming power.  

Islam - a religion based around the idea of obedience to a written law - a righteouness attained by outward works rather than inward holiness - can veer off into this darkness.  This is nowhere more terribly illustrated than by the Taleban.  Here is an example of wicked judgmentalism worked out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7997749.stm

Thank God today for Jesus Christ - God's ultimate self-revelation - full of mercy, grace and that most un-Taleban like notion - selfless, unconditional love - iconized in the cross.

Japanese Christian Martyrs Honored

We don't often think of Japan as being a part of the Christianized world, but it is.  Back in the 1600's there were so many Christian sin Japan (mainly due to the work of the Jesuits) that it became a political problem for the then warlords.  The city of Nagasaki was founded as a Christian city.  Our brothers and sisters were terribly persecuted as the warlords sought to eradicate Christianity from the island.

Pray for Japanese Christians, as they seem to honor God as a tiny minority in a land that has lost it's way spiritually.  The majority religion, Shinto, is a system of manners and superstitions that brings little enlightenment to those who follow it.  There is a reason why alcoholism and suicide are such large social problems in this land of the rising sun.  May The Son rise in Japan!