I've got about 8 sets of rachet wrenches that are sitting in the garage. I've never gone out and purchased a set of rachet wrenches mind you, they've been given to me as Christmas presents. And more interesting to note, they're all from the same person. They've taken over the spot that underwear used to take under the family tree growing up. Gee Mom, underwear, how thoughtful and simultaneously embarrassing with my grandmother sitting right next to me. And what's that in my stocking? Grape bubble yum? 13 years and running, wow, what a surprise.
I was thinking about that as Christmas approaches and the Tylers are trying to figure out how to give our kids what they want for Christmas without giving them everything they want so we don't turn them into little ungrateful American jerk teenagers who grow up feeling entitled to pretty much everything because they're "special' and because "they can be anything they want to be if they only try hard enough".
We have some neighbors, The Jones, who have these wonderful kids who are teenagers that seem to have circumvented this process, perhaps I should sit at their feet an learn. But meanwhile, we've got Christmas coming.
Not sure if you've ever gotten gifts that require you to earnestly look on with a completely false sense of excitement and exclaim things like, wow that's interesting or man I can sure use that the next time I need to turn the lights on but am trapped in my bed and can only clap. The gifts that either didn't require much thought or the gifts that the giver actually owns, appreciates and assumes that everyone else would want one too. This is the population that is responsible for the success of the Chia Pet.
As we are giving this year, we're taking special care to involve our children in the process of giving to others besides ourselves. I just have to believe that them witnessing their parents sacrifice and give to others has to be more impacting than us getting a boat.
We're going to also teach them this year how to give to Jesus what he wants and not what we want Him. It would be nice if Jesus wanted things like us going to Church and voting for republicans but somehow that doesn't seem to be on the agenda in His mission. We can wrap that up in a pretty little bow, put a bumper sticker on our car for W, drive to church and think that we've accomplished His will for our lives.
I don't think that WWJD bumper stickers are bad, I just think they're on the level of rachet wrenches and bubble yum. Nice, but not necessarily what the Lord wants.
What does the Lord require? What is he looking for? What could we give Him for Christmas that he actually wants?
Micah 6:8 (The Message)
8But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
As we're gathered around this Christmas, celebrating the reality that God became flesh and dwelt among us, let's lay ourselves at the foot of the tree. (tree is used often as a picture of the cross) Let's offer ourselves as the living sacrifice that Paul talks about in Romans 12. Let's give unto Jesus ourselves, and all that means. Serving the poor, fighting for Justice, and being compassionate.
I don't know how it's possible that the Lord can possibly any more blessed than he already is, but I know that this will bless Him.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Crashing
You have know idea just how perfectly pleased I was with myself as I had the weekly Conduit Email polished and ready to go on Wednesday. It was full of insightful and witty commentary about flying. I wrote it as the flight I was on leveled off at 32,000 feet. There were astute observations about lift, clever banter about how entire gaggles of geese must be so jealous that gaggles of humans can fly without flapping, (seems like I had a clever joke about chickens being especially jealous)
I speak of this with a sense of longing and despair, for you see my hard drive crashed upon my arrival in Minneapolis. There is a certain sense of irony that my hard drive crashed right after writing prose that included something about an airplane crash. Truth be told if forced with a gun at my head to choose between a plane crash and a hard drive crash I would begrudgingly choose the hard drive, but not without careful consideration about when I last backed up.
Going for 36 hours with no computer access was simply unnerving. Especially when I got stuck in Chicago O'Hare for a 6 hour layover with nothing but a blackberry, coffee and a keen eye for the D level celebrities wandering the concourse (the chiseled jaw guy from Fantastic Four and the dude from This Old House on PBS. )
I was told by an impossibly chipper mac "genius" that it should only take 3-4 days to get me back up and running. But he said this with the kind of judicious fervor of a kid who used his computer for gaming and updating his myspace profile and not someone who manages his company, his bands, yes his entire life on his computer. Think about someone telling you that they'll get your head sewed back on in 3-4 days.
I digress.
Last week we hit Revelation 2 head on. Remember as we look at these letters that
1. They were written to an actual local church that at one point in history actually existed
2. They apply to churches across the ages. The letters say "hear what the spirit says to the churches" plural.
3. They apply to you and I personally. "he who has an ear, let him hear". So if you have an ear you qualify
4. Amazingly, when looked at in order, represent the 7 epics, stages or whatever fancy name you want to call it of Church History.
Ephesus represents the early church from 32-100AD. The name Ephesus means darling in the Greek language that it was taken from, and that is exactly what the Lord was dealing with them about. After commending them on their passion for sound doctrine and their good works, He challenged them because they had forsaken their first love. That is a word for you and I personally and especially as a group at The Conduit. We're passionate about the Word, and we're anxious to do good works. We just can't forget the reason we do it all to begin with.
This week is Smyrna. It's a church name that means myrrh. Remember myrrh? The very things the wise men brought at Jesus birth were Gold (for a king) Frankincense (for a priest) and Myrrh which was a burial spice. Seems like someone (God) was up to something doesn't it. At any rate Smyrna represents the church from 100-312 AD. This is a time in history when 10 Roman Emperors carried out some of the most massive persecution and murders of Christians ever recorded. Myrrh is a spice whose properties are released through crushing. Crushing? Well, we'll talk about that Sunday night.
This is the last Sunday night before Thanksgiving. Would love to see everyone before I commit diet hari-kari.
See you Sunday at 7pm!
I speak of this with a sense of longing and despair, for you see my hard drive crashed upon my arrival in Minneapolis. There is a certain sense of irony that my hard drive crashed right after writing prose that included something about an airplane crash. Truth be told if forced with a gun at my head to choose between a plane crash and a hard drive crash I would begrudgingly choose the hard drive, but not without careful consideration about when I last backed up.
Going for 36 hours with no computer access was simply unnerving. Especially when I got stuck in Chicago O'Hare for a 6 hour layover with nothing but a blackberry, coffee and a keen eye for the D level celebrities wandering the concourse (the chiseled jaw guy from Fantastic Four and the dude from This Old House on PBS. )
I was told by an impossibly chipper mac "genius" that it should only take 3-4 days to get me back up and running. But he said this with the kind of judicious fervor of a kid who used his computer for gaming and updating his myspace profile and not someone who manages his company, his bands, yes his entire life on his computer. Think about someone telling you that they'll get your head sewed back on in 3-4 days.
I digress.
Last week we hit Revelation 2 head on. Remember as we look at these letters that
1. They were written to an actual local church that at one point in history actually existed
2. They apply to churches across the ages. The letters say "hear what the spirit says to the churches" plural.
3. They apply to you and I personally. "he who has an ear, let him hear". So if you have an ear you qualify
4. Amazingly, when looked at in order, represent the 7 epics, stages or whatever fancy name you want to call it of Church History.
Ephesus represents the early church from 32-100AD. The name Ephesus means darling in the Greek language that it was taken from, and that is exactly what the Lord was dealing with them about. After commending them on their passion for sound doctrine and their good works, He challenged them because they had forsaken their first love. That is a word for you and I personally and especially as a group at The Conduit. We're passionate about the Word, and we're anxious to do good works. We just can't forget the reason we do it all to begin with.
This week is Smyrna. It's a church name that means myrrh. Remember myrrh? The very things the wise men brought at Jesus birth were Gold (for a king) Frankincense (for a priest) and Myrrh which was a burial spice. Seems like someone (God) was up to something doesn't it. At any rate Smyrna represents the church from 100-312 AD. This is a time in history when 10 Roman Emperors carried out some of the most massive persecution and murders of Christians ever recorded. Myrrh is a spice whose properties are released through crushing. Crushing? Well, we'll talk about that Sunday night.
This is the last Sunday night before Thanksgiving. Would love to see everyone before I commit diet hari-kari.
See you Sunday at 7pm!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Friends Are Friends Forever
Luke 16: 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
Jesus had just told a story about a manager getting canned Donald Trump style for mismanaging the owners cash. The manager, like many desk job people(i.e. ME) realized he was entirely too old, too fat, and too out of shape to work a real job so he had to skate to the puck. Figure out what he would do. His solution was to call all of the folks who owed his boss money, and cut their bills in half as his last act of "management". His plan, a very shrewd one, was to make friends so that his future would be secured.
Here's what sort of surprises me, Jesus commended him. And then Jesus goes on to say that the "children of light" should take some cues from this guy and plan for our future as well. He says that we should use money to make friends.
Now I think I can speak for all of us when I say.. "what?" At first glance that doesn't seem to make any sense. But notice what Jesus says in totality.. "so that when it's gone, you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings. "
Jesus is talking about making friends with your money, but not friends for the here and now. He's not saying to use your money to buy influence, or to get people to like you because you're the person who buys lunch. He is saying that we should plan for our future. OUR REAL FUTURE... Heaven. Friends for eternity. When you or I take the money that we've been entrusted with, and give it to serve the poor and the vulnerable. Those with great debts to the Lord so to speak, we are making friends. How so?
Imagine your first day in heaven. Imagine meeting folks whose lives were saved, whose suffering was alleviated, whose hearts were changed by the power of God as a result of money that you gave to a person, a church or an organization to fund them in their mission. Or money that you gave directly to someone in need. These folks, many of whom you may never meet this side of eternity, they are your friends.
And what Jesus is saying is that these friends, will be there to welcome you and I to our eternal dwellings. I personally can't wait to meet them. What a great day that will be.
So instead of my energies being focused on planning on my retirement, my bigger house, my shopping sprees, I can actually planning for the real future. Retirement is just a stopping off point on the way to eternity. Me spending money that I don't have to buy things I don't need to impress people I don't really like is ridiculous.
I can't take my money with me, but I sure can take other people. And those people, well they're my real friends. Friends that will be there to welcome me, and welcome you into our eternal dwelling.
www.myspace.com/conduitbiblestudy
Jesus had just told a story about a manager getting canned Donald Trump style for mismanaging the owners cash. The manager, like many desk job people(i.e. ME) realized he was entirely too old, too fat, and too out of shape to work a real job so he had to skate to the puck. Figure out what he would do. His solution was to call all of the folks who owed his boss money, and cut their bills in half as his last act of "management". His plan, a very shrewd one, was to make friends so that his future would be secured.
Here's what sort of surprises me, Jesus commended him. And then Jesus goes on to say that the "children of light" should take some cues from this guy and plan for our future as well. He says that we should use money to make friends.
Now I think I can speak for all of us when I say.. "what?" At first glance that doesn't seem to make any sense. But notice what Jesus says in totality.. "so that when it's gone, you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings. "
Jesus is talking about making friends with your money, but not friends for the here and now. He's not saying to use your money to buy influence, or to get people to like you because you're the person who buys lunch. He is saying that we should plan for our future. OUR REAL FUTURE... Heaven. Friends for eternity. When you or I take the money that we've been entrusted with, and give it to serve the poor and the vulnerable. Those with great debts to the Lord so to speak, we are making friends. How so?
Imagine your first day in heaven. Imagine meeting folks whose lives were saved, whose suffering was alleviated, whose hearts were changed by the power of God as a result of money that you gave to a person, a church or an organization to fund them in their mission. Or money that you gave directly to someone in need. These folks, many of whom you may never meet this side of eternity, they are your friends.
And what Jesus is saying is that these friends, will be there to welcome you and I to our eternal dwellings. I personally can't wait to meet them. What a great day that will be.
So instead of my energies being focused on planning on my retirement, my bigger house, my shopping sprees, I can actually planning for the real future. Retirement is just a stopping off point on the way to eternity. Me spending money that I don't have to buy things I don't need to impress people I don't really like is ridiculous.
I can't take my money with me, but I sure can take other people. And those people, well they're my real friends. Friends that will be there to welcome me, and welcome you into our eternal dwelling.
www.myspace.com/conduitbiblestudy
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