Luke 2:1-20

"Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

"Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him."

Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself.

May I not keep the Christmas story to myself this year, nor to my family, and my congregation. May I incarnate the love of God as I go through my day to day. May I live as if the Kingdom of God has arrived on earth, as it is in heaven. May I live fully immersed in the already/not yet reality of God with us. Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Days 5 & 4 before the Advent readings from YouVersion

Mark 9:33-37
What were you discussing on the road? Which one of us is the greatest. Whoever embraces one of these little ones embraces me, and even more, embraces God who sent me. Lord, help me keep my focus on you and off of me and my petty quarrels, even if they are only internal to me.

Matthew 4:12-17
Arrest of John the Baptist. Jesus picks up where John left off: "Change your life. God's kingdom is here."

Matthew 5:14-16
"You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this...on a lamp stand. Shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up to God..." Need to keep that last part in mind, especially as I prepare messages and things.

Isaiah 9:1-3
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows--light! Sunbursts of light!"

May we be lightbearers, even in the spirit of Romans 13, awake to what God is doing in and among us.

1 Chronicles 5-6
The family of Reuben. And Gad. And Levi. David's worship leaders.

From Gburg daily:
Micah 7:1-20
Wow. V. 1-6 could apply to these times...But I'm not giving up. I'm going to wait and see what God will do. God will listen to me, and God will make things right. Down but not out. Dark, but God is my light. I can take God's punishing rage--I know God is on my side. ...You (God) don't nurse your anger and don't stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That's what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean. You'll continue to show us the compassion you showed Abraham. Micah's name means, "Who is like the Lord?" Those like the Lord will be full of mercy, not anger; compassionate, not condemning; forgiving sin to the point of forgetfulness. No known gods of that, or any other day, were/are like that. How great is our God!

Psalm 30:1-12
I give you all the credit, God--you got me out of that mess...I yelled for help and you put me together...you gave me another chance at life when I was down & out. Sing your hearts out to God! Thank God to his face. He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime, there is only love.

When I thought I had done it and could keep doing it from myself, and I took my eye off of God, God looked the other way and I fell apart. I called out, and you came, despite my fallen pride and self-centeredness. You changed my lament into dancing, took off my mourning band and clothed me with wildflowers. I can't keep quiet about God. I can't thank God enough.

A person praying joy, the result of something God is doing or has done. Joy is what we experience when God takes over our lives, when our self-sufficiency gives out and God's all-sufficiency takes over. The experience of joy is derivative. It doesn't come from us; it comes to us. It isn't something we do; it's something God does...so we give God all the credit.

Advent 1

Looking at Romans 13:8-14 for this week, and how it flows and forms into the week's worship theme of Hope...that next year, things will be different. For those who have been hunting for a "real" job for well over a year, for those who dream of the day when they can go to the doctor and not also go a step closer to bankruptcy, for those who await pathology reports, diagnosis and treatment, for those who fear daily the bullies in workplace and school, for those who are caught in the sandwich generation, raising children and caring for elderly parents, for those who have lost a significant relationship and see no "up" sign in sight, for those whose earnings regularly run out before the end of the month, for those who wonder what they'll feed their children tonight, for those who wonder how many gunshots will ring through their neighborhood tonight, or which loved one will come down with cholera...hope that next year, things will be different.

Love is the word for a relationship between people. Christian love is the kind of love in which I'm concerned for others and do what needs to be done to make their lives complete. The Greek word is agape. It is giving-love. It's the love that the Bible is concerned with when it tells us to "love others." This is the love Paul uses as the key to making our ethical decisions. If we put this love in the driver's seat, we'll be able to make decisions that will produce a Christian life that's pleasing to God. We see this new love in Jesus. By looking at him, we can find out just how love shapes ethical decisions. Jesus, it would seem, was oblivious to rules and regulations in his decision making. His question was always, "How can I act so that this person becomes the person God wants him to be?" Eugene Peterson

Run up the huge debt of love you owe one another. Complete what the law has said all along. Don't lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Is it possible to be oblivious to God if we are living by the love ethic? I would doubt it. If we are living "in love", chances are we are awake to what God is doing. I would like to think that is so. Don't squander in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get with it! Dress yourselves in Christ (which would naturally be love), and be up and about!

So what's that have to do with Christmas, and the anticipation of the Advent season? Am I loving my daughter if I simply indulge her with all of her "must-haves" on her Christmas list? How am I preparing her to love others and receive love from others if it's so tied to material things? How do I deepen her holiday awareness? How do we focus on love made flesh, by becoming love in the flesh during this waiting time? We will find ways. We will make time. We will be changed.

The 18 year old in the video. She was 14 when she began. How do we inspire children of God, both young and old, to reach out and make a difference? I've got to start at home, in me, in my home. What needs to change so that God can move through me? Critical spirit, be gone! And be gone again...help me to see the good, all of it, long before I see the bad, long before I judge and become critical. Help me to believe the best, so that I and others might become our best. Help me love others into a new creation, even as I am being newly created day by day.

All for now...

Day 63: Revelation 20-22

The End of the New Testament Challenge. Bittersweet. Still hungry. May have to go back through the readings and do the re-reading I talked about along the way.

Angel coming from heaven. Chained up the Satan and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him. Surely we aren't there yet!

Those who'd been faithful to Christ, not worshiping the beast, lived and reigned with Christ the next 1000 years. The rest of the dead did not. The first resurrection of the dead. Most blessed, most holy. No second death for them. When the 1000 years is over, Satan goes to work again, working against God. God will win, as God always does. Satan will join the Beast and False Prophet (as if there's only one?!).

Judgment. Nothing could stand. Nothing. No one. The book of life. Judged by the way they had lived. Second death. Problem of evil is resolved as the three beasts (the anti-Trinity?) are thrown into the Lake of Fire. In the end, every form of evil is banished from history, finally and forever.

Everything new. New-created. Coming down, out of heaven, to earth. "God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people. He's their God. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good-tears gone, crying gone, pain gone--all the first order of things gone. I'm making everything new...A to Z. I give freely to the thirsty. I'll be God to them; they'll be sons and daughters to me. For the rest: feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"

"Holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God." Pristine and majestic. Orderly and precise. Gem-laden, treasure-full. Gold streets. No sign of a temple. The Lord God is the temple. No lamps, as God's glory shines. Open gates all the time. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life shall get in.

It's a new beginning filled with promise. "In our end is our beginning..." from Hymn of Promise.
In Christ we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Do we believe it, in the same way. Does God's light illuminate us from the inside out? Does God order our lives perfectly? Do we allow God to do so? Are we willing to participate in the new creation? From what part of being newly created do we pull back or resist? Formed by God. Illumined by God. Sustained by God.

Water of Life River flowing down the middle of the street. Tree of life on each side of the river, producing 12 kinds of fruit. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 months. Leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations. Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service, worshiping. God is all the light anyone needs.

John reaffirms the accuracy of his visions, and his blessed assurance that in the end of all of the struggles and battles of life, God wins. We honor God with our worship of God and only God (not angels, prophets, or earthly rulers). God. Worship God! Don't forget and don't hide it.

"Come! Whoever hears, echo, 'Come!' Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!"

"If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.

Come, Master Jesus. Come!
The grace of the Master Jesus be with all of you. Oh, Yes!

EP: "As Christians, we pray, 'Yes! Come, Master Jesus!' And when he comes, there's always an element of surprise in the often unexpected ways he comes, which puts a keen edge on our expectation. No longer do we face the future with anxiety about chronology but with eagerness about his coming. We look to the future not as some death-row prisoner counting down the days to the end but rather as eager children...full of hope...waiting for Christmas morning."

May our hope be found in the sure and certain hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Day 62: Revelation 17-19

Hopefully you noticed that we had chapter 16 down twice.

Great Babylon, Mother of Whores and abominations of the earth. Woman was drunk on the blood of God's holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

Physical and spiritual affections have gone astray. Whore represents this image, slanted more toward the spiritual. John has nothing to say about sexual immorality. He's talking all spiritual. His pastoral responsibility is to prevent Christians from abandoning the arduous life of worship in favor of something that appears just as spiritual but looks a lot better and easier. He uses the image of the Great Whore to open their eyes to the differences between the worship of the Lamb and this other worship, which isn't worship at all but keeps us from true worship. Throughout biblical history, worship has always been vulnerable to infidelity. We so quickly go after other gods. We're so easily seduced into idolatry of one kind or another. And that's as much a temptation today as it was back then.

Doom to the city of darkness. Angel floods the earth with brightness.
Interesting read in the shadows of the 2008 economic meltdown.

Great whore is contrast to virgin bride. Judgment is prayed for...passionately. First time hallelujah shows up in Revelation. It protects our gratitude and relief for judgment from degenerating into gloating over the judged. Four hallelujahs snap us out of the temptation to gloat and bring us back to worship, where we are humble and adoring in the presence of God's glory. Hallelujah 1 celebrates the truth and righteousness of God's judgments of the Great Whore-every temptation to abandon God, every trap to betray Christ, every ambush to our endurance, every seduction to our faith. 2 hallelujah: breathed gratitude as the billowing smoke of the whore's incineration disperses in the air. 3rd hallelujah: Amen, Yes, by 24 elders and four creatures gathered around the throne. 4th hallelujah: thundering congregational response to the call to worship that's issued from the throne and called everyone to praise God. It announces the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. All of human history leads to this crescendo in heaven. All of our history leads there.

The sound of hallelujahs.

White horse and its rider. Faithful and true. Judges and makes war in pure righteousness. Word of God. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. The birds are invited in to feast on the flesh of the kings and captains, champions, horses and riders. The Beast and the False Prophet were thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. The rest were killed by the sword of the one on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. Significance of mouth-listen?

John's salvation vision is a meal and a war. The power of the eucharistic meal is to keep us involved in the essentials of salvation, that our salvation was made available to us by the breaking of Christ's body and the shedding of his blood. The second element is war. The image of Bridegroom married to his Bride is expanded into the Lamb Christ providing himself as the Eucharistic meal. Paradox with the warrior Christ riding into the great war, Armageddon. Salvation as a marriage feast, and as an aggressive battle and decisive defeat of evil. Salvation is neither by itself; it is both the embrace of love and the assault on evil, in polar tension, each defined by the other, each feeding on each other. Both poles must be kept in tension to keep our spiritual lives balanced. If marriage isn't balanced with war, we may be romanticizing the spiritual life. If the war metaphor isn't balanced with the marriage metaphor, we're in danger of depersonalizing the spiritual life. We're a bride embroiled in a battle against the enemies of her beloved groom. Both images are necessary for balance.

Day 61: Revelation 13-16

The Beast from the Sea

Dragon on land and Beast from the sea. Dragon turned over its power to the Beast. People worshiped the dragon, then gave their power/worship to the beast. Beast: loud mouth, boastful, blasphemous against God/Christ/Church...held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races.

"Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world's foundation in the slaughtered Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Beast." Can't really just pluck this phrase out of context, but if one would, how would this effect thoughts of the possibility of salvation for all people, for all creation? It suggests there's an "in" list, which means there must be an "out" list, regardless of what we do or believe, as it's "written from the world's foundation." May have to look back at that one...

God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.

Beast from under ground. Pointed to the first beast as the object of worship.

EP: "If the devil's design is to separate our behavior and our belief from the rule of God, politics will be a field where he deploys his troops. The beasts from the sea and the earth are images John uses to show how the satanic will covertly work in the areas of government and religion. With the sea beast, the Dragon will frighten us into disobedience ('to make war on God's holy people and conquer them; to deceive them into illusion). To intimidate and to deceive are countered by John's words to his parishoners. 'God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.' We may lose our lives by violence in this world, but death is not defeat. Death is not the worst thing that can be done to us. Exiles and martyrs were active in their suffering, witnessing the passion of Christ, seeing endurance and faith as aggressive forces in the battle that rages between God and the devil."

Anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. Without the mark, it was impossible to buy or sell anything. 666.

"John expects the deceit of the land beast to be penetrated by the hard, critical thinking of the Christian mind. The land beast is, more than anything else, religious. It has a Christlike quality; it's like a lamb but it's a parody, not a derivation of Christ. There's no part of life in which deceit is more prevalent than in religion. How do we protect ourselves from organized deceit? John says: 'Use your heads. Figure out what's going on. Most of the conspicuous religion at any time derives from the land beast. Expose these religious pretensions. They have nothing to do with God. It's a human number, a human manipulation, not divine mystery. It's religion that makes a show, that vaunts itself, that takes our eyes off the poor and suffering and holy Christ. 666 is a triple failure to be a 777, the three-times perfect, whole, divine number. The number is a riddle, but it's not rocket science. John wants us to use our heads and figure it out. For the Christian's greatest weapon against deceit is discernment." EP on the end of chapter 13.

A Perfect Offering. Only the 144,000 learned to sing the song. The first fruits, pure, perfect offering.

Angel voices: Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come. Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water! 2nd and 3rd angels proclaim judgment. "Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!"

Harvest time. Harvest earth's vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness. The giant winepress of God's wrath. A river of blood flowed out for 200 miles.

EP: "Paranatural power we're not used to, these satanic forces. The forces of salvation are always at work behind the scenes on our behalf. The beast visions penetrated the hoax of evil; the salvation visions reveal the support system that backs up the life of endurance and discernment. 3 Salvation assisting vision: Lamb leading worship, three angels preaching sermons in midheaven, Son of Man harvesting the fields. While we're doing our best to worship God and not the powers of world, to understand our faith and not be misled by the Devil's religious flimflam, and to cultivate a life of holiness in a weed-filled society, we're being helped to do each task.

"Three activities by which we survive and flourish politically: engaging in worship, listening to the proclaimed Word, and practicing holy living."

Song of Moses. Angels carried the disasters, not the other way around.

"Seven congregations barraged by violence from without and infiltrated by lies from within, John can think of nothing better than to call them to worship. His insistence on putting everything they're experiencing in the context of worship isn't the work of someone who can't bear the assaults of life and seeks an escape. No spiritual leader has been as in touch with the realities of living in a difficult world as John was. His recurrent representations of worship aren't pious, escapist fictions; they are theological convictions. The conviction is that God's action, not the world's action, is what we want to be involved in. The world isn't the context for dealing with God. God is the context for dealing with the world. And so, in a turbulent world where we're constantly getting disoriented, worship is the way we get reoriented." EP

Pouring out the seven disasters. Graphic. Can see it, smell it, touch it, maybe even taste it. Foul demons crawling out of the mouths of Dragon, Beast False Prophet. Frog-demons gathered the kings together at the place called Armageddon. Back to chaos.

"Consequences poured out on earth. Get them all the time, but we don't see. Aspect of judgment, not unlike the plagues of Egypt. Moses' task (and every spiritual leader's is) was to shape a worshiping people before the Lord. 'Free my people so that they can hold a festival for God in the wilderness.' Moses' task was to lead his people in worship. Pharoah's sin was that he prevented them. The judgment plagues are visited over this issue and this issue alone. The greatest evil that people of faith face from the outside is the obstruction of worship. The greatest evil that they face from the inside is the subversion of worship. This is what we have most to fear."

Day 60: Revelation 9-12

5th angel trumpet. Star fell from heaven, falling into the abyss. Locust/scorpians crawl out to sting any not marked with seal of God. Don't kill them; torture them, the human race, for five months. Apollyon-Destroyer. From Joel's prophecy. A life refusing the way of repentance; repentance saves us from the terrors of sin.

6th angel trumpet. Four angels kill 1/3 of the human race. Today that would be over 2 billion people. If those not marked by the seal, number would be fewer. How many fewer? Who knows. Fire, smoke, brimstone. Those who remained "went on their merry way of life, didn't quit worshiping demons, didn't quit centering lives around lumps of gold and silver and brass and wood and stone. No change of heart. Kept on in murderous, occult, promiscuous and theiving ways.

Hardly seems just, that 1/3 would be killed and "that" would be left?! Destruction is not complete, not total.

7th angel trumpet. Rainbow over his head. 7 thunders called back. Time's up when this trumpet blows. All plans of God would be completed. "Give me the book." "Take it. Eat it. It will taste sweet like honey but will sour your stomach."

"Go and prophesy again over many peoples and nations and languages and kings."

Eating a book means you take it in. You assimilate and absorb it into the tissues of your life. Witnesses first become what they say before they say it. John is commanded to assimilate the Word of God so that when he speaks, it will be an essential part of him. Every witness experiences the polarity of sweetness and bitterness. It's sweet when received from God; it's bitter when rejected by others. Biblical witnesses are warned of this tension.

Two Witnesses. 42 months of prophecy, with super powers from these two. Beast of Abyss will rise, fight, and kill them, leaving them lying in the street. The Spirit of God will enter them after 3 1/2 days, and they'll rise again. Moses and Elijah. Giver of Law and Giver of Prophecy. They point to Christ. Must have both law and prophecy for complete witness.

Last trumpet sounds. Doors of heaven fly open. "The kingdom of the world is now, the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah. He will rule forever and ever!"

The Woman, her son and the dragon. Woman. Baby. Dragon poised to eat the baby. Flashback of Rosemary's Baby in my mind, a movie that gave me nightmares and shakes, even to today. Son born and given safety before God on his throne. Woman escaped for 1260 days. War in heaven. Good vs. evil. Angels vs. dragon. Dragon/devil/satan thrown out with all his angels, to earth, to chase the woman and seek to corrupt the children who keep God's commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.

"Kingdom" insists on a gospel that brings everything and everyone under the rule of God. Two temptations pull on Christian community. First is to retain the political dimensions of the gospel and to take up the unusual political means of force. The other is to give up the political and have a nice little fellowship, abandoning the world of government, economics, culture and society in favor of saving a few souls.

"We overestimate the politics of earthly governments and underestimate the politics of heaven. John's imagination is a rush of adrenaline to those of us with little faith. And so infused, we're fearless, unimpressed by the bluster of the Dragon. The child survives. Salvation is assured. And God's rule is intact. No matter how daunting the Dragon, the child always survives." EP

Day 59: Revelation 5-8

No one able to break open the scroll and read it. Lion became a lamb, and could open it. Worship...Revelation Song: "Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Holy, Holy is He."

"Jesus stands at the door and knocks. When we open the door, worship happens. Worship centers, gathers, reveals, sings, and affirms. Worship is a meeting at the center so that our lives are centered in God and not in ourselves. In worship, everything is arranged around God...The last word in worship is Amen, or "Oh, Yes!" It's a word of affirmation that affirms us. God says yes to us. We say yes to God..." EP

Unsealing the Scrolls. 1st: white horse & victory garland. 2nd: red horse & taking peace from the earth and setting people against one another; 3rd: black horse & set of scales determining wages/justice; 4th: colorless horse & power to destroy a fourth of the earth by war, famine, disease and wild beasts; 5th: souls of the martyrs & white robes and told to wait; 6th seal: earthquake, sun turned black, bloody moon, stars falling out of the sky--affected everyone regardless of station in life.

"The great day of wrath has come. Who can stand it?" Back to chaos. No one can stand under this. No one except the angels. Angels stand as a model for us when the world falls apart. They still worship!

Four angels plus one. "Don't hurt the earth! Don't hurt the sea! Don't hurt a tree until I've sealed the servants of God on their foreheads." So what do this say to environmental devastation? Is harming the earth and the physical creation an act against God?

144,000 who were countable. And a huge crowd too large to count. All nations, all tribes, all races, all languages. Standing around the throne. The One on the throne will pitch his tent for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb will shepherd them and bring them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every last tear from their eye.

"Who can stand in this world of evil? Followers of the lamb, of Jesus. The most frightening representations of evil (chapter 6) are set alongside the most extravagant exultations of praise (chapter 7). Perhaps praise is the greatest weapon we have in protecting ourselves agains the fear we naturally feel in the face of overwhelming evil. Just as God gives us a peace that passes understanding when we pray, perhaps he gives us a courage that passes all understanding as we praise."

7th seal. Silence in heaven for 1/2 hour. 7 trumpets, gold censor, incense for offering prayers. Smoke billows. Can you picture this? Censor filled with fire from the Altar and heaved to earth. Thunder, voices, lightning, earthquakes. Climax has been reached.

"The silence prepares the imagination to receive an incredible truth. While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayers went up from devout bands of 1st century Christians all over the Roman Empire. They were under heavy persecution, with no weapons or votes, little money and no prestige. They stayed together and strong because they prayed. Out of the silence of prayer, action developed. The angel mixed the prayers with incense, cleansing them of impurities, and combined them with fire, God's Spirit, from the altar. They he threw it down to earth. The prayers returned as a reversed thunder, with incalculable effects. Our world is shaken daily by prayer, and so is your world and mine." EP

Seven angel trumpet blasts. First: hail and fire with blood dumped on earth-a third of the trees and all grass burned up. 2nd: huge mountain on fire thrown into the sea, a third of water life died and a third of the ships sank. 3rd: star fell from heaven and wiped out 1/3 of the rivers and 1/3 of the springs-wormwood-1/3 of the water turned bitter and people died from it. 4th: 1/3 of the sun, moon and stars were blacked out, both day and night.

Eagle: "Doom! Doom! Doom to everyone left on earth! There are three more angels to blow their trumpets. Doom is on the way!"

So if I were reading the apocalypse into modern day so that I could mark the signs and do my check offs to the end times, I could easily draw the water crisis in our world to the 3rd trumpet. And, I could count it to God's sign of the times and do nothing about it. But how does that square with loving God (and potentially doing no harm to creation as noted above) or to loving neighbor as poisoned water makes people die? Scorched earth from global warming (if it is real), napalm, mining backlash...but I can "make" all of these occurrences "from God" if I don't want to assume any responsibility. And if "from God," who am I to stop it or do anything to reverse or change or slow? Wars have been and are being fought over these sorts of things. Are they of God?

Whatever the chaos or fear, do I trust God so much that I can still praise and worship God? In the midst of death, fear, suffering, estrangement, persecution, alienation, torture, more...can I still give God praise?

Day 58: Revelation 1-4

On Sunday, I shared that I expected there would be folks who did not go along for the ride on the New Testament Challenge, but who were holding out for the reading of Revelation. If you are one of those, step off. Seriously. This is a book filled with signs and wonders and it has been used to abuse people over the centuries. If you haven't settled in your spirit the linkage between God and love, and you're looking for a blueprint for the end times, go back to Sunday's reading and reread it for the next 6 days. Seriously. Be a responsible reader of God's Word and don't seek to use it to manipulate God or others. Love them both instead and approach the world with an attitude of worship of God--it's affect your view...and it will result in both urgency and joy. Here we go...

A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah...written to the seven churches in Asia...so to churches, not to individuals, not to the whole world...to churches, to followers of Jesus Christ...

Made us a Kingdom, Priests for his Father forever...people from all nations and all times will see him. So from above and below the earth...living and dead...all will see him.

We assume the beginning was good...and that the end will be good, too, a new creation. A to Z. The middle can be challenging, and the middle is where we live. Along the way there are disappointments, contradictions, not-to-be-explained absurdities, bewildering paradoxes...each one reversing our hoped for expectations.

Last things. Eschatology. Pastoral...shows us how the ending affects the present in ways that the truth of the gospel can be put to use "in the middle," in the now, in the present.

Sunday I was in the Spirit praying...write this down...send it to the seven churches...I turned and saw the voice.

Fiery furnace...purifying, penetrating, transforming. The holiness of Christ gets inside us, and it changes us. Christ looks into us. That's the hope of our exposure to him in the pages of Revelation. It is a transforming hope that keeps us from shielding our eyes and looking away.

Don't fear. I've got the keys to unlock everything: death, hell, more. Start writing.

Ephesus. Hard work, endurance, tenacity, purity, courage, but you've walked away from your first love. Turn back and remember. Let your light shine. You do hate what I hate. That's good. Listen. I'm spreading a banquet. Both blessing and curse. You did well here. Could have done better here...you agree with me here. Come and eat. Not banished. LOVE.

Smyrna. Pain, poverty and wealth. Deception in the ranks. Don't fear. Don't quit. Don't stop believing. Listen. You are safe from devil-death. SUFFER

Pergamum. You didn't deny my name even under pressure. You did give in to some of my enemies. I'm coming soon. Listen. I'll give sacred food, a clear, smooth stone, and a new name. TELL THE TRUTH.

Thyatira. Love, faith, service, persistence. Deceived by Jezebel--idols. Appearances don't impress me; I can see right through. Hold onto the truth until I get there, and you'll rule the nations. Listen. BE HOLY.

Sardis. You're busy on the outside but you've got nothing on the inside. You're doing your work, not God's work-nothing is God's work. You're wallowing in the muck of the world's ways. A few of you do get it-they'll come with me. The rest of you ought to wake up and listen. BE AUTHENTIC.

Philadelphia. I've opened a door no one can shut. I'll strip off pretensions and expose pretenders. You kept my word in passionate patience. You'll be safe in the time of testing. Hold on tight. You'll be a pillar in the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, and my New Name. Listen. BE IN MISSION.

Laodicea. You're lukewarm, right in the middle, and this isn't Goldilocks; it's not a good thing. Stale. Stagnant. Bragging, unaware of your actual state. Half-naked. Get dressed by me. Get some eye medicine so you can really see. "The people I love I call to account-prod and correct and guide so they'll live at their best. Get up. Run after God! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come in and be with you." Listen. WORSHIP.

Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.

"Prayer is the desire to listen to Christ firsthand, to speak to him firsthand, and then setting aside the time to do it. Prayer issues from the conviction that the living Christ is immensely important to me and that what goes on between us demands my exclusive attention. Christ knocks, hoping you will open the door and invite him to share his life with you, and your life with him. Prayer is the shared meal where that happens. If we fail to recognize that and don't open the door, we leave him standing outside, hungering for fellowship with us." EP

"The church is the place we come to find out what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. It is a place for correction and a place for hearing the promises of God. It's a place of motivation. We need affirmation, correction and motivation. Trained in the all cap/bold letters above. Church is the community who explicitly and consciously submit themselves to the direction and training of the Holy Spirit so that excellence is pursued in these seven areas. Strengths are recognized and developed; weaknesses are exposed and corrected. We get encouragement (no one is all bad); we get correction (no one is all good); we get motivation, acquiring the energy to endure the pain of growth to the joy of maturity.

"John neither complains about his churches nor glorifies them. He accepts them as facts. They are God's means for calling people together so they can realize who their Lord is and who they are, and develop the relationships that are coherent with those identities. Churches are messy family rooms. Things are out of order, but that's what happens when spaces are lived in. There's no evidence that churches were better or worse then, or today. Churches will be an embarrassment to the hard to please, and an affront to the holier than thou. They are a place where the light of Christ shows, but they are not the light themselves. A corrupt church still functions as a church."

What are some of your disappointments with the church at large? With your own church in particular? What are your disappointments with yourself as an individual member? How do you see the patient yet persistent grace of God at work in these areas?

A door into heaven opens. Deep worship. One throne circled by 24. 7 torches. Four animals: lion, ox, human face, eagle. Each winged with six wings. All eyes. Holy, Holy, Holy...Isaiah 6 all over again. Animals gave glory, Elders fell on their faces. Deep worship. Deep worship created by God, for God.

Day 57: 2 John 1; 3 John 1; Jude

2 John

"Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father."

Diligent in living out the truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. "Love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard and nothing has changed."

1 & 2 John are the only places in the Bible where the term "antichrist" occurs. It is a plural term: they are all over the place. Referred to those who remove humanity from Jesus, denying anything human in him at all and representing him as a purely divine figure. Denied the incarnation. The only Jesus John knew was a God in the flesh Jesus.

Loving in a dehumanized way means loving in a way that has nothing to do with meeting the real needs of people in our communities. We become lovers of ideas and feelings, lovers of ecstasy and novelty. But not lovers of God who revealed himself in human flesh and blood. Allows selective love of humans, too. Community is lived out in the midst of sin and antichrists. Antichrists as the persons who tell us Jesus wasn't human as we are. Hold to the teaching of Christ, and to the humanity of Jesus.

3 John

When you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible. Don't go along with the one who won't offer hospitality. Model the good. Do God's work.

Jude

Our spiritual communities are as susceptible to disease as our physical bodies. Easier to detect what's wrong with our bodies than our worship and witness. Jude's letter is a diagnosis to an early Christian community. The primary Christian posture is , in Jude's words, "keeping your arms wide open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ."

"Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!"

Some people have infiltrated our faith who are shameless scoundrels. They want to replace the grace of God with sheer license--they want to do away with Jesus Christ.

v. 5-7 mini salvation/deliverance narrative.

God will take care of you!

These people sneer at anything they can't understand, and so they participate in their own destruction. Warts on your love feast.

Grumpers, belly-achers, grabbers for the last piece of pie, big talkers, saying what they think will get them ahead. Self-focused, they are the ones who split churches.

"Build yourselves up by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!"

Battle for life against death; for love against hate; for purity against perversion; for heaven against hell. No neutral ground. In the midst of the battle, God is saving; God is rescuing; God is blessing; God is providing; God is judging; God is healing; God is enlightening.

God is fighting for us and against everything that stands against us. Do you believe that?

Day 56: 1 John 1-5

1 John 1-5

From the introduction: "The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not, the mess people make of their lives can be traced to failure or stupidity or meanness in one of these areas. The basic and biblical conviction is that the two subjects are intricately related. If we want to deal with God the right way, we have to learn to love the right way. If we want to love the right way, we have to deal with God the right way. God and love can't be separated.

"John's three letters give great guidance. Jesus is the focus and provides the full and true understanding of God, the mature working out of love. There are always people around who don't want to be pinned down to the God Jesus reveals, to the love Jesus reveals. They want to make up their own idea of God, own style of love. John's community was disrupted by these kinds of people. He's working to regain the original and organic unity of God and love that comes to focus and becomes available to us in Jesus Christ." The intro is worth the price of admission...

"The infinite Life of God took shape before us...We want you to experience it, to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy! God is light, pure light, and there's not a trace of darkness in him." We ought to be living what we claim.

The community who received this letter was lying, hating, refusing to love, and deceiving themselves. Their problems weren't rare; nor are they rare for faith communities. People who gather in Jesus' name don't always get along with each other. We ought to be optimistic...about the Spirit of God and about the sinners who make up the church. Don't join us if you expect to be part of a happy, harmonious gathering of put together people. If you stay...long enough, you might witness a miracle--the transformation from a bickering, berating, bullying community into the body of Christ.

God would rather we name and claim our sinfulness than lie about it. We are freed when we tell the truth.

"I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin...when you sin, Jesus can help--he's solved that problem for the whole world."

If you know God the right way, you'll keep his commandments. Keep God's word. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Oldest commandment in the book. Can't hate anyone if you believe in God. Have to love and not block the light from others. We can understand ourselves in community only when we understand ourselves as beings created in the image of God who is love and demonstrates his love toward us in sacrificial ways. A task of this community is to maintain a lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of the larger family of God and its various individual families.

Your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name. Don't forget that. Ever. Don't love the world's ways, the world's goods...don't let the world squeeze out your love for God. Do what God wants.

Antichrist is coming--they're all over the place. The truth doesn't breed lies. Antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son. Christ's anointing is imbedded deep within you--don't let it go and don't forget it! Live deeply in what you were taught. Live deeply in Christ.

We are children of God--that's love! The world doesn't get it. When we see Christ revealed, we'll be like him. No one who lives deeply in life makes a practice of sin. It's the person who acts right who is right. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.

Sin: a refused relationship with God that spills over into a wrong relationship with others. If I say sin is no big deal for me, I'm also saying relationships are no big deal, as sin is a de-relational act. Love is no big deal if sin isn't.

We should love each other. Christ sacrificed his love for us, so we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. Don't make God's love disappear. Don't just talk about it; practice real love. God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

Don't believe everything you hear; carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. The Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. Can't know God if you don't love.

The love we experience in community is based upon our experience of God's forgiveness. Can't be done for us through education or government or business. Only through love can this kind of community be formed...only through Christ. Forgiveness, motivated by love, is in the center of Jesus Christ. Sin that's confessed and forgiven frees us to develop relationship of love not only with God but with one another.

If we love one another, God's love dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us--perfect love.

Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. God is love. Let love have free reign. There's no fear in love. Fear of death, fear of judgment...happens in those not yet fully formed in love.

Our love is always a response to God's loving us first. All love.

Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

When we keep God's commandments and they are no longer troublesome, we can be certain we love God.

Faith is a conquering power that brings the world to its knees. Spirit. Baptism. Crucifixion. God gave us eternal life; the life is in Christ. Any questions?

Believe in God's Son beyond a shadow of a doubt. Know that you have eternal life.

Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles of God and true life. Watch out for idolatry. Idols introduced in the very last line. An idol is god with all the God taken out of it. God depersonalized, derelationalized, a god we can manipulate for our selfish ends, enlist for our pet causes, fantasize about without having to give or receive love from God or anyone else. Idolatry in the present religious world is more subtle and seductive than it was in the world of the first century.

Don't read Revelation. Read first John again. And again. And again. Especially if you haven't read anything else.

Day 55: John 19-20; 2 Peter 1-3

John 19-20

"I present him to you, but I do not find him guilty of any crime....Here he is: the Man."

"Crucify! Crucify!"

"You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him."

What makes that situation different from crowds whooping up from whomever their "authority"is, and something terrible happens, and the "authority" backs off...I didn't do it? The "will" of the people, of the mob as it were, triumphs and effectively covers up the manipulators of power and opinion/thought line.

"Authority" even tried to get out of it: I can pardon you or crucify you. What's your answer? Question, no doubt spoken with some desperation.

"You haven't any authority over me except what's been given you from heaven." My betrayer is in bigger trouble than you. Pilate wants to pardon him: "He tried his best, but the Jews shouted him down." One of the statements/phrases that makes it "ok" to persecute Jews. tongue in cheek. But they kill the "King of the Jews," ostensibly the king of the gathered, screaming people.

John's gospel, like Luke's, "crucified with two others."

Even on the cross, Jesus fulfilling scripture, as if following a script.

"The eyewitness to these things has presented an accurate report. He saw it himself and is telling the truth so that you, also, will believe."

75 pounds of spices for body preparation.

Mary Magdalene, Peter, John. "Woman, why do you weep?" 2 angels and Jesus at the tomb. "Mary." Recognizes Jesus as she is named by him.

Go to my brothers and tell them.

Jesus shows up in the locked room. "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit."

"Breathed into them." Same as when the Lord breathed life into Adam, who at once became a "living soul." The same Spirit that moved over the chaos of creation moves over the chaos of our lives, bringing form out of formlessness and fullness out of emptiness, resulting in new creation.

"If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?"

"Don't be unbelieving. Believe...So you believe because you see with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing."

"Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it."

"God revealed himself in Jesus, but the revelation rarely conforms to our expectations. We have such stereotyped ideas of what God does and how God does it that we frequently misread the signposts." EP

2 Peter 1-3

"To you whose experience of God is as life-changing as ours..."

Peter, chief apostle in the NT, always listed first. It wasn't Peter's character that qualified him, but his calling. First called to be a disciple, then an apostle ("sent out"). Sent by Christ to proclaim Christ. Nothing original in his message...all from/of Christ.

"Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God." Everything we do that pleases God is gift; oh, how we can take credit for that!

Build on what you've been given with: good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, generous love, all fitting together and developing each other. Should be active and maturing in your life.

Confirm God's invitation to you.

God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. "No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion." Prophecy vs. apocalyptic.

Lying prophets among you. Lying religious teachers. Pit you against one another. Crowd of mixed up followers who don't know right from wrong. Give the way of truth a bad name; only out for themselves. Jailed the rebels in hell until judgment day.

God knows how to rescue the godly and how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire. There will be an end to evil. There will be a day when the patience of God is exhausted and God's judgment will begin. Especially teachers. "In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end. Their evil will boomerang on them....their specialty is greed and they're experts in it."

Hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention. Keep in mind what the prophets said, and the command of Jesus.

With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. Giving everyone space and time to change.

"Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival."

Be found living at your best in purity and peace. Salvation. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers.

How shall we live? We must do our best waiting and our best living. Not be impatient or get distracted and forget God. Live a holy life.

Day 54: John 17-18; 1 Peter 3-5

Yesterday was a long day! Really long, as it seems like multiple days since I've been here...onward...

John 17-18

Jesus' Prayer for his followers.

"I spelled out your character in detail to the men and women you gave me. They know that everything is from you. They believed you sent me. I pray for them...for those you gave me (not the God-rejecting world). Everything mine is yours, yours mine. Guard them as they pursue this life you've given me as a gift. So they can be one heart, one mind, as we are one heart and mind. My joy completed in them. Guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. In the same way you gave me a mission in the world, I'm giving them one. Praying for them and for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. Goal: one heart and one mind, with us. Mature in this oneness. I have made your very being known to them--who you are and what you do--and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them."

Continue to follow Jesus when we can't see him. As Jesus prayed (Ch. 17), he gathered the disciples up into the life they had lived together and fused it into the life the disciples would continue to live, praying his life and work and their life and work into an identity. It was going to be the same whether people saw and heard Jesus or would see and hear the disciples living it. Jesus spent his last night preparing for the transition from Jesus present to Jesus absent.

Seized in the garden at night. Went to a familiar place, which Judas also knew. "Who are you after?" That's me; let the others go. Simon and another disciple followed, and the other disciple got in because he was known by the chief priest? Don't remember that being there. Other disciple got Peter in.

Annas...same as Annas and Sapphira in Acts 5? Peter denies Jesus. Rooster crows.

I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice."

1 Peter 3-5

Inner disposition of wives is what matters. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. (Husbands) Honor your wives, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals, so that your prayers don't run aground.

Be agreeable, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, humble...all of you. No exceptions, no retaliation, no sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless. That's your job. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Say nothing evil or hurtful; snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace with all you're worth.

"The danger of living on the defensive is that we can become belligerent. If we think of ourselves as constantly threatened by others, we can very easily come to think of people as our enemies and feel anger toward them. The church has always had such angry people, writing their tracts and preaching their sermons against an unfriendly world....no cutting off ears, no swinging swords, no anger. Instead, when you do give a defense, do it with the utmost courtesy." EP

Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none will stick. They'll end up realizing they're the ones who need a bath.

Learn to think like Jesus. Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically everything.

Peter's curriculum is prayer, love, hospitality, stewardship, and service.

Spiritual refining process.

Care for God's flock with the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to; because you want to please God. Be content with who you are; don't put on airs. God's strong hand is on you; he'll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

"Humility as the most important quality for good leaders. Nothing to do with weakness. When we humble ourselves, we operate from a position of strength. We know that we're loved by God and that God calls us to love others. We also know that other people are loved by God and are therefore objects of our concern. When we become leaders, it is simply to lead people to God and to share his love with them. Humble people are confident people, for they know that God is the rock under their feet. Humble people are knowledgeable people, for they know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Humble people are strong people, for they do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Humble people are leaders. But it's the way they lead that distinguishes them. Instead of leading like a hard-driving cowboy prodding cattle, they lead like a gentle shepherd tending his sheep." EP

Keep a firm grip on your faith. God gets the last word.

Peace to you, to all who walk in Christ's ways.

Day 53: John 15-16; 1 Peter 1-2

John 15-16

The Vine and the Branches. Fruit bearing. Am I? Are you? "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you...You can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me." Does that mean good deeds can't be done? Or does it mean that we may be joined to the vine even before we know it (prevenient grace-that going before action and grace of God in our lives)? When we're joined (presumed consciously), the harvest will be abundant. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood (free will to separate?). When you produce grapes, you mature as my disciples.

Jesus: "I kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love." You do that, too, so that my joy might be your joy. Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.

Suffering and dying as a choice.

You didn't choose me; I chose you. I put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil (living water that never runs out). Endless, endless, endless.

Love one another.

"If you find the godless world hating you, remember it got its start from hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and not the world's, the world is going to hate you."

What does it look like to live opposed to the world--to its power brokers, to its dominant ideology, dominant systems? Who is dominant? What do they look like? How am I in a dominant role? If I am in a dominant role, is it possible for me to take a step toward God's side? Not by my strength, but in the strength of the one who gives me strength. Do I have the will to make that choice, to use my free will in that direction?

If you choose God's way, you will get beaten. I will get beaten. There is no excuse, as Jesus spoke in plain language. Have I seen God signs and hated God anyway? Turned from God as if God didn't exist?

Friend. Spirit of Truth. Issues from the Father. He'll confirm everything about me. You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence...

You're going to get in big trouble if you really follow Jesus, if you do what he did, say what he said, stand against power as he did. Those who slam you for these things will think they are doing God a favor.

"You are called to live a prophetic lifestyle, and to call others to that prophetic lifestyle. That is who I have always known you to be." Thanks, Meb. I need to be reminded.

It's better for you that I leave; otherwise the Friend won't come. If I go, I'll send him to you...so let me go!

"When he comes, he'll expose the error of the godless world's view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He'll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted. I've got more to tell you, but you can't handle them now." The Friend will take them on with you.

"You're going to be in deep mourning while this godless world throws a party. You'll be sad, very sad, but your sadness will develop into gladness."

"Ask the Father for whatever is in keeping with the things I have revealed to you. Ask in my name, according to my will, and he'll most certainly give it to you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks."

"Then you can make your requests directly to the Father in relation to this life I've revealed to you. I won't continue making requests of the Father on your behalf. I won't need to. Because you've gone out on a limb, committed yourselves to love and trust in me, believing I came directly from the Father, the Father loves you directly."

15 times Jesus says I'm leaving you and going to the Father. He also says he is sending the Friend, the Holy Spirit-26 times. The leaving isn't abandonment; He isn't cutting off communication. He isn't leaving them to themselves. The Holy Spirit will do in them what Jesus did among them. God's way of being present with us will make their life and work continuous with Jesus' life and work. Everything Jesus said and did among them is to be continued in what they say and do. And in what we say and do.

Disciples think they've finally got it, and Jesus tells them they are about to make a break for it, to abandon him...

1 Peter 1-2

"You are the Messiah, the Christ." Letters show qualities of Jesus Christ shaped in Peter: a readiness to embrace suffering rather than prestige, a wisdom developed from experience and not imposed from a book, a humility that lacked nothing in vigor or imagination. Peter wasn't a bully, but a boldly confident and humbly self-effacing servant of Jesus Christ. He gave witness to "a brand new life, with everything to live for."

Exiles scattered to the four winds-not one is missing, not one forgotten. God has his eye on each one of you--hallelujah!

Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven--and the future starts now...the day is coming when you will have it all-life healed and whole.

It's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. You never say him, yet you love and trust him, and you've kept on believing: total salvation.

Your life is a deep journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. The Word has conceived new life in you. Clean house. Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God...drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.

The Living Stone, the source of life. To you who trust him, he's a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him, they'll trip because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for this high calling of priestly work, chosen to be holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night and day difference he made for you--from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives.
"Make the master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God's emissaries for keeping order. It is God's will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think they're a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government."

Be good servants to both good and bad masters. Put up with it for God's sake when you are treated badly for no good reason. Brook's experience at Weiland's reflects some of this last paragraph. How may I help him to see that?

Day 52: John 13-14; James 4-5

John 13-14

Jesus washes his disciple's feet. My concern is holiness not hygiene. You must do what I've done to you to one another. Master, who will betray you. What you must do, do it and get it over with.

A new command. Given after Judas leaves to betray Jesus. Interesting teaching placement, different from the other gospels where that command was shared in the context of his ministry, in response to a question. This is a direct, intentional teaching in John's gospel. Love one another. In the same way I have loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples, when they see the love you have for one another.

Really? You'll lay down your life for me!? How many times have I made the choice not to lay down my life for Jesus, choosing comfort, denying risk, remaining where I am, rather than following out into the deep?

"Plenty of room for you in my Father's house. I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. How do we know God? Through Jesus."

The way of Jesus is how we come to understand the truth of Jesus, by living Jesus in our homes and workplaces, with our friends and our families.

"To see me is to see the Father. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am now giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do."

I have witnessed the tendency to expect the above passage to be a blanket understanding that God answers all our prayers, and many even our expected way. I really appreciate Peterson's use of language to say that your request "along the lines of who I am and what I am doing and I'll do it." Gives much clearer qualification than I have previously noticed.

"If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. The Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for."

"The person who knows my commands and keeps them, that's who loves me." Message text from last Sunday in the Warehouse.

James 4-5

"Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don't have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn't yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it...You wouldn't think of asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you'd be asking for what you have no right to. You're spoiled children, each wanting your own way."

Makes me want to evaluate my prayers, between this from James and John's passage. When am I asking for things not in concert with who Jesus is? What God wants? Why on earth would I get upset when/if God doesn't deliver if I am being selfish and self-focused? Narcissistic much?

"You're cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way...God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble."

"Let God work God's will in you. Say a quiet yes to God. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet." Life's Healing Choices...Celebrate Recovery...

"You're supposed to be honoring the message, not writing graffiti all over it! God is in charge of human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?"

You know the right thing to do and don't do it, that, for you, is evil.

James refuses to let any piece of truth lay around unused. He bugs us until we pick it up and work it into our everyday lives. He tells us to apply that truth to common things, from personal lusts to professional plans. He insists that everything we do be worked into the life of faith. And in doing so, our lives will be simpler and more focused.

Harsh words for the arrogant rich. Harsh words indeed.Who dares speak these today? Paul Raushenbush. Frank Schaeffer. Rabbi Michael Lerner.

Jesus starts us in the faith life, and Jesus is our goal. People who have a compelling goal don't quit. Their lives are filled with meaning and hope and energy. If they lose their goal, they get discouraged, they give up. James says, "Be patient...Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any moment."

"Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with everything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God."

Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.

Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of Jesus. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

James has incredible words...affirming the process of following, of life surrendering and life-shaping, of redemptive love for one another...giving thanks.

Day 51: John 11-12; James 1-3

John 11-12

Death of Lazarus. This is the event that really cooks Jesus' goose in John's gospel. It seals the case against him.

"This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son." Jesus' first response, even before he delays his arrival. Premeditated hesitation on his part?

Disciples argue with Jesus about the risk of going to Lazarus in Judea. Jesus assures them they'll be given new grounds for believing if they go with him. Only a couple miles from Jerusalem.

"You don't have to wait for the end. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" Do you?

Martha to Mary-"The teacher is here and is asking for you." Text doesn't record Jesus asking for Mary; what's Martha up to? Mary runs and says to Jesus the same thing Martha said: "If you'd been here he wouldn't have died." Anger wells up in Jesus. Jesus weeps on the way or at the tomb. Tears of sorrow or anger at the womens' ignorance? Wouldn't have been at Lazarus' death, as he's about to raise him...

Rolling the stone away--they did it, despite fear of stench. Isn't there a smell, literal or figurative, as the stone of denial, isolation, self-hatred, is rolled away from a life spent running from God? Can't roll the stone away from inside that place...need someone else to help you. To help me. I made a stone call last night...Perhaps sometimes we cannot make our own stone call--we need those others around us. "Unwrap him and let him loose."

Many Jews believed, but some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus. "This man keeps doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have."

Caiaphas' prophesy. Hadn't seen that before. They plotted to kill him, likely emboldened by Caiaphas' seeing.

7th sign. 1st: water into wine. This story names a bunch of people, a cast of characters. Full spectrum of human emotions through the showing of characters. Jesus remains center stage.

Anointing his feet. Reflexive time, as the description of Mary of Bethany as foot anointer opened chapter 11. Event happens in chapter 11.

You will always have the opportunity to be generous, to help those less fortunate than you, to share from your abundance...the poor with you...

Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The bile rises in my throat, tension in my back, and discomfort in my stomach, as I know what's coming next...interesting physical manifestations of anticipation...

Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds onto life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

The voice didn't come for me, but for you. Right now the world is in crisis.

As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You'll be children of the light.

Glory--the brightness of God's presence right here on our home ground-clearly has something, maybe everything, to do with his approaching death and burial. Instead of grasping more tightly to what we value, we are to hold it more loosely, letting it fall from our hands into the ground.

Jesus said all of this then went into hiding. I can only imagine how exhausted he was.

A considerable number from the ranks did believe, but because of the Pharisees, they didn't come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove, they cared more for human approval than for God's glory. Well...

"If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn't take it seriously, I don't reject him. I didn't come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I'm saying, is willfully choosing rejection."
Sounds as if we are choosing rejection ourselves; Jesus is still not rejecting. Possible? Sounds more grace filled than making accusations and destinations for folks who don't hear or believe...

James 1-3

I know before I begin that I won't have enough time to note the places where James provokes me...so may I share some reasonable nuggets anyway...

From the introduction: "When Christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. Outsiders, on observing that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business-and dishonest business at that. Insiders see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners. May of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undisclosed or undiagnosed. It's similar with sinners outside the church. So, Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced and dealt with. (When we are at our best)

Prayer is always foundational to wisdom.

Under pressure your faith life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. On-the-job smarts, hands-on expertise in life. Asking sets us on a lifetime apprenticeship with Jesus Christ in which we slowly, gradually, incrementally get the faith into our hands and fingers and become masters at the art of living.

Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but our own lust. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes from heaven, from the Father of Light. Nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.

In simple humility, let our gardener God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious Christ originated faith.

Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chooses the world's down and out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges.

Love others as you love yourself. Don't go against the rule. You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law, ignoring others. Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the rule (love) that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense.

Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Can't cut them in two; can't separate them. Combination of believing and acting. A person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works.

Teachers...none perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. A word out of your mouth can accomplish anything--or destroy it...By our speech we can ruin the whole world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right out of the pit of hell.

With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women God made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth. Don't underestimate the significance of words.

Want to be counted as wise? Do this: live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. May it be so as we meet together today...

Day 50: John 9-10

For any of you who are still looking for Hebrews 14-16, it does not exist. Typo. Forgiveness requested. If you're longing to read more, go through John a second time...

Man blind from birth: Who sinned? This man or his parents? Was commonly thought that these sorts of afflictions resulted from sin and caused such births. No one to blame; no cause-effect. What can God do with it? How can I learn to ask that question more often first? Spit paste applied to make the man see. Wash in the pool of Siloam (sent). Healed to serve--we get fixed so we can help fix others, so we may be sent on the road...I was blind and now I see. Healed man assumes the Pharisees are asking so many questions because they want to be Jesus' follower...not.

If this man didn't come from God, he wouldn't have been able to do anything. Pharisees throw him out.

Don't you recognize my voice? Do I...recognize Jesus' voice? He saw God present and at work in his life and he believed.

"I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind." "If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you're accountable for every fault and failure."

I Am--Bread of Life, World's light, gate for the sheep, Good Shepherd, Resurrection and Life, the Road, the Truth, the Life, the Real Vine.

My sheep recognize my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the destroyer or thief.

Intense fight with the Pharisees.

Day 49: John 7-8; Hebrews 11-13

John 7-8

Disciples try to push Jesus to the front, to make his deeds more known, so that he can grow in (the world's idea of) power. He didn't draw attention to himself. Teaching in the temple--I didn't make this stuff up--it comes from the One who sent me. A person making things up tries to make himself look good--someone trying to honor God sticks to the facts and doesn't tamper with reality. It's not like you're living God's law...You do circumcision to preserve one item in the law of Moses.

Where's he going that we won't be able to find him? You can't go where I'm going.

Rivers of living water flow from me, and out of anyone who believes in me this way.

We've never heard anyone speak like this man.

Woman caught in adultery. Some scholars say this passage from 8:1-11 was inserted at a later time. This can be said to discount Jesus' silence against this woman's sin (and by extension, our silence as we respond in love, not in judgment and rejection or killing). Notice the man wasn't caught "in the act." Adultery was permissible for men, but not for women. "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." One of the great mysteries is what Jesus wrote in the dirt. "Does no one condemn you?" "No one, Master." "Neither do I. Go your way. From now on, don't sin."

"All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on." Oh. How often do I question God's truth, especially offensive stuff like loving everyone, doing self-examination to keep my heart pure, forgiving endlessly, and more...how often do I question whether Jesus' word is enough. hm.hm.hm.

"Even if I (Jesus) made my judgments out of what I see and touch, they'd be true, because I wouldn't make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down: You can count on the testimony of two witnesses--that's what you've got--my word and the word of the Father."

You can't even see me; how, then, do you expect to see the Father?!...If you won't believe I am who I say I am, you're at the dead end of sins. You're missing God in your lives.

The Father doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.

"If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. They you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will set you free."

You are trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. If you were Abraham's children, you'd have been doing the things Abraham did...If God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here; I didn't come on my own. God sent me. You can't handle it. You're from your father the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a shred of truth in him. When the liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a single thing to do with me...Anyone on God's side listens to God's words. This is why you're not listening--because you're not on God's side.

Jesus incites them to the place where they are ready to stone him, but he escapes. Group was transformed into a lynch mob at his suggestions.

Hebrews 11-13

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. By faith we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.

In order for faith to be faith, it must be lived faith. Upon this foundation of faith in God, we can build a life.

By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought (to obey is better than sacrifice). By an act of faith...Anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that God exists and that God cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

Each of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it far off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they are transients in this world. By an act of faith. What can be said I have done "as an act of faith" and what will be said as I live out these days?

Through acts of faith they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage into advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received loved ones back from the dead....tortured, killed, brutalized, vagrants...not one got their hands on what was promised.

Do you see what this means? Strip down, start running, never quit. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Study how he did it. On the cross, Jesus connected the worst humans do to the best God does.

Stay on good terms with each other, held together with love.

Hospitality-the daily practice of keeping sacrifice local and immediate: all the food on the table is life that has been sacrificed so that others can be sustained. An ordinary meal is an extraordinary coming together of life.

Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them.

Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship--a different kind of sacrifice--

May God who puts things together make all things whole, who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, who led Jesus our Great Shepherd up and alive from the dead, now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! Oh yes, yes, yes!

Day 48: John 5-6; Hebrews 8-10

John 5-6

38 year invalid at the pool of Bethesda. "Do you want to get well?" Anything been holding you for 38 years? 38 months? 38 days? 38 minutes? Do you want to get well? Happened on the Sabbath and got Jesus in trouble with the authorities...again. "My Father is working straight through on the Sabbath. So am I." Now they were ready to kill him. Self-appointed religious police attacked Jesus on the grounds of Sabbath-breaking, instead of celebrating the healing. Murderous hostility was provoked, polar opposite of belief. By now, we ought to expect that, especially when God is at work. We ought even to expect it to come from the leadership of the religious status quo.

The Son can only do what he sees the Father doing. Father raises the dead and creates life; so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. "If you believe this an align yourself with the Father, at this very moment you have the real, lasting life and you are no longer condemned to be an outsider. You've taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living."

The time is coming when everyone, dead or alive, will hear his voice....Some of you never heard his voice, you never saw his appearance. You didn't take his message seriously.

You even miss me when you read the Bible, no matter how much you read it! "I'm not interested in crowd approval because I know you and your crowds. Love, especially God's love, isn't on your agenda. You're just jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God."

Huge crowd, attracted by miracles, followed him. Feeding of 5000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish. 12 large baskets of leftovers. "Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself. To re-center in his purpose, to fight the seductive power of admiration, to be reminded of who he was and whose he was. They wanted Jesus to free them from Roman rule. We can't make Jesus do what we think Jesus should do. We can't make him conform to our ideas of how he should rule. We can't dictate the terms of his office; we can only surrender to him.

Jesus walks on water (not Peter). "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs--and for free."

Throw in your lot with the One God has sent. Give us more clues; when we see what's up, we'll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses did what you did. Are you any different?

I am the bread of life (water of life to woman at the well). "Don't bicker among yourselves over me. You're not in charge here." The Father draws people to me-that's the only way you'll ever come...not on your own. You are drawn here...Really listening, therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally--to see it with their own eyes, hear with their own ears.

Can see in 6:53-58 where Catholic transubstantiation comes in...literal transformation of elements into body and blood...and even deciding who may receive it.

The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit word, and so it is life-making. No one is capable of coming to me on his own; you get to me only as a gift from the Father.

After this, a lot of disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. "Do you also want to leave?"

Hebrews 8-10

"This time I'm writing the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. I'll be their God, they'll be my people. They'll get to know me firsthand. Limitations to the Hebrew priest rituals, and how Jesus is/offers superior. Rituals and behavior don't get to the heart of the matter. But then the Messiah arrived...New covenant was put into action at Jesus' death, canceling old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. Salvation when Christ next appears.

God's way: we are made fit for God by the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. Sacrificial system suggested there was hostility between God and humans. Christ broke down that system of hostility. It ripped open the curtain of separation and made a new way for us to address the Holy One.

Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the Big Day approaching.

Day 47: John 3-4; Hebrews 5-7

John 3-4

Nicodemus. "Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to-to God's kingdom...unless a person submits to this original creation-the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life-it's not possible to enter God's kingdom...the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch-the Spirit-and becomes a living spirit...you have no idea where it comes from our where it's headed next..." "Instead of facing the evidence you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are as plain as the hand in front of your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?"

Give me eyes to see hands in front of my face, and to see more, to see the unseen move of the Spirit of God in my midst. I do believe it is there, that unseen hand, help me to notice its action and movement, to expect it, and to delight in it, anticipating what comes next...

"Everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life...This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed (notice the end of this portion of the sentence; it's not conditional, or based upon what follows); by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him."

Crisis: "God light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

So many crazy thoughts went through my head as I typed those verses. Crazy in the sense of, what about the folks who've been given a non-love, non-redeeming, non-reconciling picture of God by folks who claim to speak in God's name? I trust in God's mercy for both, and I wrestle against my own nature to judge, pinned to the mat.

"God himself is the truth. The One that God sent speaks God's words. He doesn't ration out the Spirit in bits and pieces...a lavish distribution of gifts. Whoever accepts and trusts gets in on everything, life complete and forever. And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." Does that last passage give me insight into my own wrestling match provoked by the former words and my internal struggle? Perhaps.

Woman at the well. Baptism scores posted to turn the people for or against Jesus or John. Pick your team. "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink and I would give you fresh, living water." Artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life. In private, Jesus reveals to the woman that he knows the truth about her. And she is convicted (and converted) by his knowing that truth. "The time is coming when what you're called won't matter and where you go to worship will not matter." Aren't we still waiting for that day?! "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth....those who are simply and honestly themselves before God in their worship." Does my worship, individual or corporate engage my spirit in the pursuit of God's truth, not my truth, not someone else's truth. Am I seeking to encounter God and willing to risk being affected by God, or do I want God to confirm what I already "know"?

"The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. " "The Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time." Samaritans and Jews didn't speak, one of the reasons the preceding story was so ridiculous. Now Jesus is saying there's a harvest there, and he's not talking about grain. He's talking about people. People there who will be willing to be touched by God's Spirit, who will accept the love of God that comes in Jesus. The woman was there witnessing, and those gathered would be part of the same harvest as the disciples' even though the disciples didn't lift a finger. Ripple effect, from unexpected places...

Prophet is not respected in his/her home town. "Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe." Man believed without any evidence of healing. Hm. No sign, nor distraction of a sign. Simply believed. I asked, God heard, done deal. Jesus' word formed the man's belief.

John's gospel is the one most laden with sign and wonder stories, a symbol of its times.

Hebrews 5-7

Priest role as described by Peterson fits a bit of how I understand my call, though I'd not have ever used that word to describe the function. Connector. Puts things together for people-things that have to do with the world, with others, with God. Kind of repairman of relationships, fixing mangled connections, shorted circuits, ill-fitting joints, help it all fit together again. Attempts to restore and heal broken relationships. Christ is the high priest who connects God and humans in living and loving relationship. I have seen the functions Peterson describes in my call, though wouldn't have used the word, priest, probably for a variety of reasons...

Milk or solid food? Should be on solids by now. Grow up in Christ. Turn your back on salvation by self-help and turn in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment.

Once we've experienced God's goodness, we don't want to re-crucify Jesus (but sometimes we do anyway). Fruit, not weeds and thistles. Harvestable fruit. God can't break God's word. Word can't change, so promise is unchangeable. Grab the promise of hope with both hands and never let go.

Tithes to the priestly tribe of Melchizedek...as they travel through the eons. "Nothing in Jesus' family tree connecting him with the Levitical priestly line?" Melchizedek line is a line of resurrection life. Former way was a system of commandments that never worked. Jesus brings us into God's presence. Jesus is the guarantee of the new covenant, of a far better way between us and God-this one works! Jesus' priesthood is permanent.

Priest in Latin means bridge-builder (pontifix). chewing, I remain...peace.