Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

Brilliant green. Made of the stuff of Behemoth spinning galaxies Growing stars in the endless night. Soft and thin and beautiful Shot through with green veins like a hand Marking time with the passing of the seasons. You grow from a shoot In the warm spring sun And decorate the tree With the bright color of spring. Maturing into a well-designed mechanism: You feed your giant tree With sweet sugar And life-giving energy. Made from the warm sun. In the process of photosynthesis – A marvel of science Replicated by man So that it provides energy for our great cities. Birds nest in your foliage, Squirrels gather their food. You provide shade In the heat of the African sun. And as time passes slowly You begin to shed your deep green And burn alive with beautiful red That fills my eyes As it brings peace to my soul. The fall comes Cool breezes breaking the stifling heat of summer. And you blow in the soft breezes ...

Beauty gives life. Notice for yourself, the beauty around you this season. For me, doing this requires a certain state of mind. That state of being is cultivated in my alone times. When I take these times, away from the hustle and bustle of my busy life, it keeps me in a place where I am more apt to notice the beauty around me in the world. I heard that when you decorate for Christmas, it is best to use live and natural decorations as it adds to the peace you feel. Something about man is made to be refreshed by beauty as it occurs in nature. So for my survival guide for the holidays, I would say to do the following: 1. Take time to yourself away from all distractions. 2. Decorate with organic natural decorations. 3. Spend time with other people who are apt to notice the beauty around them.

I long to see my savior.  I long to see him coming on the clouds and standing there in front of me.  I will kiss his feet and touch his face and say, Rabbi, you have been my teacher, my friend, my confidant.  I love you and all that you do.  You have inspired me to better myself, to better the world, to help my fellow man.  I could not exist without you and you have given me everything I have. You have given me a good job, a beautiful wife, feet that know the good of walking the path you laid out for me, even the thorn of suffering in my side that has grown me and perfected me. Take this soul and make it sing, Son of Yahweh. "Take this mouth, so quick to criticize. Take this mouth, and give it a kiss." I am waiting for the dawn after the long night.  Anticipation gives life to me.  I am ready to do anything you ask of me.  No man can take this from me.  You have my heart and all of me.

I was baptized on Sunday, the first day of the advent season.  I gave the following testimony: God found me after a long illness in my early twenties.  Over the next decade, God led me to Jesus.  He blessed me with a beautiful wife, a house, and a good career.  He blessed me with a good group of men to stand beside me through thick and thin.  There have been trials, but always he was there, growing me, pruning me, perfecting me. I was baptized as an infant and have been going to Vineyard since 1997 and I have decided it is time to make a public declaration of my faith.  I want to be God’s hands and feet upon the Earth.  To bring hope to the suffering, relief to the poor, to bring his good news to all who will hear it and to bring his kingdom to Earth now.  After getting baptized I stepped out of the water and a group of friends and family surrounded me and prayed for me.  My wife, Aynsley, got down on her knees and held my bare feet, pray...

"It is easier to talk about a person than to help a person. It's easier to debate homosexuality than to be a friend to a gay person. It's easier to discuss divorce than to help the divorced. It's easier to argue abortion, than to support an orphanage. It's easier to complain about the welfare system than to help the poor." - Max Lucado

He is the thunder in the storm, The roar after a crack of lightning Burns through the sky and hits the ground. He is the silence in the womb, The sweet quiet noiseless depths That lie at the bottom of the ocean Rushing in like a heavy silent wind That is so poignant, it is heavy. He is the bird in winter Singing out of his longing For warmer days; Singing out of his desire To connect with you, To hold you - To comfort you. He is wisdom In human form Stumping the educated, Raising the fool into honored places This is scandal: he raises the lowly And strikes down the proud. He is the sweet clean water Flowing through a child’s hands In the park on Sunday Under the warm sun amidst the calls Of the children playing nearby. 40 days and 40 nights I wept for him That he would come and fill me Make me the man that I should be Give me peace and understanding And bring life To my weary soul. He burns hot in the great ...

The wise are dumbfounded. The simple are raised to honored places. The prostitutes, tax collectors, and yes, even murderers, are given honored places in the kingdom of God because they believed a simple truth: that Jesus could provide them with salvation. It is truly a scandal. It scandalized the pious in the little Roman province of Israel 2000 years ago...and it is still scandalous today. Go d, this amazing being, decided to live among us and sacrifice himself for us, so that we could be right with him and call him a friend. It brings him no greater joy than to turn the world on its head and to welcome the humble into eternal discourse, not as equals, but as prized students who are dearly loved. This love flows into us and you can see it in our actions as we work tirelessly to bring heaven to earth here and now. We make so many mistakes, because we are human, but one pious and humble heart can change the world with love that comes from above (a love that we cannot produce on our own,...

It is so easy to fall into the trap of saying, my faith is too weak; I just have to try harder. I was confronted with this problem when I reflected on my doubts centering on Jesus. But telling ourselves we just have to suck it up and have more faith makes the assumption that faith is something we can obtain on our own.  But if you look at the scriptures, faith is not something you can muster. Ephesians 2:8 says "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves, but it is a gift from God. And again in   Philippians 1:29, Paul says "For it has been granted to you  on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him" Faith is not from us, it is from God.  So instead of trying to muster it on our own, we need to turn our attention toward God and ask that we can have more faith. And as Jesus reminds us, the smallest amount of faith – “the size of a mustard seed” - can move mountains.

“Many of the questions we ask God can't be answered directly, not because God doesn't know the answers but because our questions don't make sense. As C.S. Lewis once pointed out, many of our questions are, from God's point of view, rather like someone asking, "Is yellow square or round?" or "How many hours are there is a mile?”  ―  N.T. Wright ,  Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense Sometimes we feel that the questions we ask are ignored by God: difficult questions such as, why is the horrible life-threatening illness affecting me, when will I have a child finally, or which mate is right for me?  Many times God answers with a whisper from the silence in our souls when we meditate.  Other times the answer comes through circumstance as unsolicited words from someone close to us, or even a stranger... that seem spot on.  But sometimes our questions are just not answered.  And it is important in these times to consider the question itself. ...

In my time here on Earth as a Christian, I have been particularly disturbed by those in the evangelical and fundamentalist communities who assert that science is at odds with Christianity.  For me, science shows the intricacy and complexity in the design of the universe as we explore and attempt to define the world around us. The more I learn from science, the more I am convinced that there is an intelligence behind the design of the universe.  From the variety and beauty of the landscape and heavens, to the amazing design and variation of plants and animals, to the finely tuned conditions of the universe that make life on Earth possible. There are the intricate dependencies of large bodies and galaxies in the universe over unfathomable distances.  There is the sheer beauty of it all.  I see in all of this, God's artistry and his hand in the mechanisms of evolution and geological time.  In fact, it seems to me that God is much more of a a brilliant artist if he ...

A warning for the church: I think this applies in America especially. "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are luke warm, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." Rev 3:15-17 We can be either cold to the gospel or on fire for it. God can do something with either of these states. But apathy is a killer, because God cannot do anything with it. So many people here are living in Apathy. It is not like this in Ghana. It seems to be a trait that is particularly pervasive in western culture. What is it going to take for America to wake up? Perhaps all this should be taken from us so we will go back to relying on faith. We are fat on fast food, easy money, and the trappings of western society. It is time for us to slim down, and if it means God is going to take this way of l...

I sat and watched the sunset from my car in the Meijer's parking lot. The sun was a beautiful ball of orange against the gradated blue sky dotted with pink back-lit clouds. I felt so small. What is man that you are mindful of him? And then the religious training kicked in and I thought, it is because he is in us in our spirits - we are made in his image after all. We are little divine beings walking around on this rock in the corner of the universe. That should be empowering and humbling at the same time. Now my reading turns to the sunset of our lives.  I am reading Max Lucado and he is talking about death.  I think it is important to consider our own human frailty... the great equalizer: we will all die sooner or later.  The pastor at a church I visited this morning joked that the death rate in America is 100%. It is an undeniable part of existence that at some point, we will cease to be.  But does the story end there?  Sometimes it is hard fo...

It has been almost 18 years since I first found God in native American literature. Since then God steeped me in the beauty and majesty of his presence. I grew more peaceful and contented. But during these 18 years, God slowly introduced me to the story of Jesus and it wasn't until I started relying on Jesus that God changed me from an inward focused and self-centered being into a man who does His will on Earth. I can come to no other conclusion that there is power in this Christian story and, though I do not deny that God can use any religion or a lack of religion to find you, Jesus is the rabbi that actually changed me. Nothing else could. And no other faith could save my soul.

Sacred Vapor condenses It falls to earth And sweetly comes to rest On the delicate petal Of a single purple flower Growing wild in endless fields: A picture of the sacred. Great megaliths of rock Spin in endless circles Around behemoth stars Of exploding gas. Delicate shoots grow in the forest, Pushing upward out of nothing To become great cedars, Straining against a limitless blue sky. Seas crash against the shore Their violent power Melting the rocks into sand. And a young man grows fond of a young woman He woos her And the two become one, Consecrated, In an endless dance Echoed from the beginning of time. The last light falls in the evening Shadows pooling in the valleys They thicken and spread And the sun sinks softly Beyond the hills. I take these things in In between the seconds As they pass by slow In a time that lasts for an eternity And I turn my gaze to heaven Reaching outward Towards the creator ...

Pursuit I look for you in the galaxies Spinning in the endless night Above my head. I look for you in the soft Whisper of raindrops falling on the pavement Outside my window In the cool of the evening. I see you in the endless fields of grass Windblown reeds bowing To your great majesty Under an endless blue sky.  I find you in the ancient texts: Where you speak to me In stories of men and women Running headlong into you In the pages before me. You tell me of the endless river That flows from your hand It turns and twists Undulating in rapids And slowing To meander through quiet eddies Widening and flowing Into the floodplain Of my frail human soul. I see you in the eyes Of a wrinkled old man Soft and loving He bids me to come Sit with him in the quiet evening Around an ancient fire And talks to me in a hushed voice Of wonders beyond my understanding. A nomad I wander these lands Deserts of pavement and ...

"You can learn a lot about a person by the friends he selects, and nothing about God proves more suprising as his choice of companions, the hand-picked objects of his intimacy. Abraham pimped for his wife, Jacob cheated his brother, Moses murdered, David murdered and committed adultry both - yet all of these end up on God's list of favorites. Jacob got his new name "Isreal" (meaning God struggler) after an all night wrestling match with God and ever since the name for God's people has harked back to that context. God's people are, literally, "the children of struggle."  Philip Yancey

I am reading 1 Samuel on the bus on the way to work. God listened to the Israelites. When they wanted a king instead of God, he used Samuel to appoint Saul as king. Sometimes I think when praying that my petitions fall on deaf ears. But over and over again in the Old Testament god listened to the people and did what they asked, even if it was not god's  original plan. I am reminded of Jesus's story about the widow who kept going before the judge, repeatedly pleading before him and eventually he granted her desire. Jesus told this story because he knew the god of the Old Testament would listen to his people. And so he listens to us because god never changes.

I am reading a commentary on Job. It is not as much a book about suffering as it is a book about faith. Job suffers, but in his suffering he proves his faith and comes face to face with God. It makes the point that our suffering is not ordained by God and though he doesn't always release us from it, we are caught up in a bigger cosmic story of which we cannot know the reasons or the battles tha t are going for our hearts and minds. I still have trouble articulating to people who are suffering the answers to their questions about why do I suffer? Where is God? And why is he not powerful enough or willing enough to set me free? To this I can only say, Job shows us that in this state, He wants us to call out to Him with our cares, concerns, and rantings, even if we blaspheme him to his face. He wants this honest side of us because he loves us and nothing can take us from his presence, except (in Job) the pseudo-religious piety that he sees right though. We can pray to him like we conv...