March 2017

Through him we received grace… to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith – Romans 1:5

I know a guy who stopped to help someone with car trouble. The car wouldn’t start. Was the battery dead? No, the headlights worked fine. They opened the hood, but couldn’t see a problem. Just when they were going to call a tow truck, someone asked, “Have you checked the fuel?” My friend jogged to a gas station, filled up a small gas can, and took it back to the car.

When they poured gas in the tank, the engine started like a charm. It had simply run out of gas. In our life with God, and our life with each other, we can run out of gas.

L. Moody, the American evangelist, was once asked “Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?” “Yes,” he said, “but I leak!” We all leak. So we constantly need filling up.

What fuels your work? What gets you up in the morning, and keeps you going? The Apostle Paul invites us into the obedience that comes from faith. He calls us into work that is fuelled by faith.

How is that different from obedience fuelled by fear? When we’re fuelled by fear, we obey whatever power holds sway over us: fear of failing, of being hurt; fear of letting others down, of the unknown, or of a bully—fears motivate us to act in certain ways. Obedience that comes from fear leaves us tense. It’s a deer-in-the-headlights mindset.

Some obedience stems from pride. We obey our own egos. We work like crazy to build a reputation, or because we’re sure that no one else will do it right. There are other motivators. But God invites us into obedience that comes from faith.

God calls us to work out of trust in his goodness, faithfulness, and love. Faith-obedience grows out of a relationship with God: knowing God enough that we really trust him. Knowing God enough that we discern what he’s calling us to do, and not do.

If we drive a car, we develop the habit of refilling our car gas tank before it runs dry. When we follow Jesus, there are life habits to help us receive the fuel that the Holy Spirit wants to give.

As we head into Lent this month, I invite you to cultivate three habits:

• Weekly Sabbath: Rest reminds us that we’re not indispensible. The world will keep turning, without our input.
• Daily prayer: Contemplating God’s goodness. Seeking God’s help for our people.  Inviting God to search our hearts and lead us.
• Reading the Bible: not just information, but for life-fuel.

These spiritual habits are not a Christian self-improvement plan. They position us to receive God’s gift. They make room for the Holy Spirit to work. They are like the gas-can holding the fuel to fill us up.

Great habits often start out small. Baby steps. The habit of prayer. The habit of Sabbath rest. The habit of reading God’s Word. Some habits make us miserable. But the habits of the Holy Spirit re-fuel us, and bring us life.

Denise

February 2017                           

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
& self-control. – Galatians 2:22-23

Love tops the list. It’s the first evidence that we’re under new management, that Christ is alive in us. Love grows in us because God is love.

Kate McCord relates her experiences living and working for five years in Afghanistan:

In Islam, there are 99 names for God, but none is ‘love.’ In Afghanistan, no one tells people that God loves them. They tell each other God is kind, all powerful, and omniscient. God commands and people must obey. God will reward or punish depending on how people obey. (In the Land of Blue Burqas, p. 105)

For the Afghans she met, the idea that God is love was absurd. They feared God’s judgement. Whatever happened, they accepted as God’s will. So, they became resigned to violence, loss, and acute suffering. But the violence and suffering that pervades the world does not reflect God’s will. They flow from our human inclination to resist God’s will with all we’ve got.

Our shared human rebellion, says the Apostle Paul, produces hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, sexual immorality, idolatry… the list goes on. The human heart beats with a love of power: a desire to get the better of someone else. A desire to take more for ourselves. We see it in school yards. In workplaces. In business. In election campaigns.

Songwriter Carolyn Arends says:

So many living for the love of power,  Wanting more until their final hour
The day has come for us to be part of,  The ones who find a ruler in the power of love.[1]

When we’ve grown up hearing that God loves us we may take it for granted. But listen again. Hear the great good news: God · loves · you. God loves us. God loves our neighbours.

He invites us to revel in his love for us and for others. To live it. To be ruled by the power of love. This is not mushy or romantic. It isn’t even a feeling. This love is a choice. A decision. A choice to bless instead of curse. A choice to give instead of grab.

This is difficult. It’s not what people expect. For too long we’ve practised the love of power. But the Holy Spirit enables us to practise the power of love.

Of course, once we discover that God loves us, it dawns on us that God loves other people too. Even people we don’t like much. Just for fun, think of someone in your office, or classroom, or extended family. A neighbour or customer. Someone who’s a challenge to love.

What might help them know that they matter to God? What if, this month, we began to pray for someone who only God knows how to love? Let’s dare to choose love. To live love, in Jesus’ name.

Denise

[1] From “The Power of Love,” by Carolyn Arends, on the album Love Was Here First,  http://carolynarends.com/site/discography/10

January 2017                   

Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. – Matthew 2:2

How long did they journey? What did they hear? What smells escorted them? Let’s open a topographical map of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel. Imagine travelling with them.

Western Iran’s mountains rival the peaks of Alberta’s Rockies. From such heights, the adventurers voyage down into lush valleys of the mighty Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Fording each in turn, they trek the valley’s length and climb the long desert shoulder, roughly 100 kilometres, through Syria or Jordan. Finally they cross the Jordan River into Israel.

They risk all this on the strength of a rumour and a hope. Following the Light.

Sounds foolhardy, if you ask me.

The same rumour motivates King Herod to a different kind of quest: A light brighter than his own? Will he lose control? Give up power? Forfeit the comfort he has carefully amassed for years? Not on your life. Disturbed and hostile, Herod seeks to extinguish the Light.

He’s clearly the villain in this story. But, give the guy a break. Do I want God to rearrange my circumstances? Overturn all that I’ve established?

And what about the Scribes? Like the Persian astronomers they’ve spent decades learning. They have illumined minds, but they’re content to philosophise. Offer opinions. Argue theories. What they know doesn’t move them to worship.

Who can blame them? When we’ve grown up with the stories, it’s easy to keep our distance. To enjoy the ideas, without getting enmeshed in what God is doing.

The Magi have a rumour: a glimmer of light. They don’t know what God might be up to. But their hearts are full of courage and hope and longing. They jump in with both feet. Foolhardy?

Here’s the thing: before the Magi set out on their quest; before they throw everything on the line in search of the King, God sets out on a quest of his own. Travelling to Earth, becoming a human baby, the God of the universe comes to seek his people. He lays his love, his reputation, his life on the line—for us.

When Jesus grows up, he, too, will journey to Jerusalem. There another Herod will see him executed on a cross. God pours his life out as a love-gift for you and me. He conquers death for us. He trades our sin and death for his love and life.

We can’t control God. But God is governed by his love and faithfulness. Our power becomes tyranny. Our smugness is a trap. But when we actively trust God, who comes to us in Jesus, his Light grows in us.

As we begin this Year of our Lord 2017, let’s jump into the quest to know Jesus and his love. This God has poured himself out in love for us. Let’s learn to love him with all we’ve got, and all we are.

Denise

December 2016          

Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you. – Luke 1:28

Right around now, life can get a bit squirrely. You’re probably more organized; I seem to pick up the pace, make long to-do lists, collect stuff, and then try to remember where I put it.

But, that’s not really what Advent is about. Advent is not about squeezing Christmas into a busy life. It’s not about fitting Christmas into a time of sadness.

Advent is about allowing the fact of Christmas to re-shape life. God has come to us! God has come to reshape our sadness, our hope and our joy. That’s what it was about for Mary; and that’s what it is really about for us.

“The Lord is with you, Mary. Don’t be afraid!”

Mary has a lot on her mind. She’s preparing to get married. She has responsibilities at home. No doubt there are issues. Suddenly, an angel appears, announcing: “You are highly favoured. The Lord is with you!” And Mary is greatly troubled.

The message that God favours her, that God is here with her, is a disturbing experience for Mary. Really? Why? Perhaps most of us, most of the time, don’t really expect to hear from God. It’s one thing to say we want to draw near to God – but perhaps we don’t expect him to show up.

Maybe we’re just as glad if he doesn’t. Because when God shows up, we can’t control the outcome. Our plans might have to change. When God shows up, he asks us to meet him with courage. Most of all, he asks us to trust him. To make ourselves available.

That can be tough for us, because we get confused about our purpose.

We like the idea that God will helps us in what we set out to do—finding a good job, raising a family, enjoying retirement. But we’re not convinced about God’s agenda. What if God’s plans are different from ours? We forget that God created us, not just so he could participate in our plans, but so that we could participate in his. God calls us to be available.

At first Mary is troubled. But she makes herself available. “I’m the Lord’s servant,” she says. “Here I am.” Wow. Buckle up, everybody. Because we’re no longer in this alone.

At every stage of our life God shows up, assuring us of his favour and his nearness. He invites us to trust him. To be available. To engage in his work among our colleagues, our neighbours, and in the world. It’s true when we are 20; it’s just as true when we are 60 or 80 or 90.

When we trust God, he gives us courage. In fact, the Lord becomes our courage. He enables us to do things we never imagined we’d do. Like serve as an elder. Or reach out to a neighbour. Or volunteer at a shelter. Or invite someone to church. Or tell a colleague that God loves them.

The Lord is with you. You are highly favoured. Don’t be afraid.

Merry Christmas!

Denise