IN-spection

I asked my friend Jack to give me a word that I could use as a jump off for a blog .... Here is what he sent me:

"inspection" - I gotta take my car to the garage later today...

Now with the new one, it's a very different experience, but with our old cars, the day I dropped the car off for inspection was a nerve racking one... How much will it cost this time? Is this the end of the road?

How does (or should) inspection play a role in our walk with Christ... Does self-examination make you squirm the way car inspection day does? How do you feel knowing that God can see "under your hood" all the time?

Great questions Jack... and anyone who ever rode in the Hoopdie knows what he's talking about! How do you answer them? How do you respond to a little IN-spection in your life?

94 words later, and I don't have to write the blog.... Anybody have a word for tomorrow?

Just wondering...

about John - you know the disciple often referred to by the moniker "the one that Jesus loved."

What was he thinking as he wrote the Gospel of St. John? As he replayed the scenes of his life with Jesus and the 12 stooges (of which he was one), what was going on in his mind? His heart?

Like this for example: John and James are walking with Jesus, whispering and trying to convince Jesus that they should be seated at the right hand of the Father... "ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me," they clamor - each trying to drown out the other with their shrill petitions. All the while totally oblivious to the ten men who have walked with them these past three years.

Fast forward through Jesus' rebuke to Christ on His knee's. A towel, a basin, some water gently massaging the dirt from John's feet - no longer rebuking but modeling the compassionate, service that true leadership is to emulate.... No matter the sin, no matter how dirty their feet are (and could we throw in a quick side note that here Jesus honors and blesses "THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS !" in preparation for what lied ahead for John and the others.) Jesus reached into where John is and lovingly ministers peace and grace to him.

As John remembered these thing, did he weep at the missed opportunities? Did he rejoice at the grace given and mercy overflowing?

I can imagine a little guilt, a little shame, a little embarrassment, a little regret... a lot of gratitude. The goal/outcome of this foot washing is that John, Peter, et. al. are now compelled by the love of Christ to share the Gospel of Christ everywhere it is not, yet. To boldly go where no man has gone before with a message that no man had taken before to a people who had not heard before.

What about you? Have you thought about the lessons Jesus has tried to teach you along the way? When you do, what emotions rise up from within you? And what are you compelled to do as a result?

A Powerful Prayer!

A Powerful Prayer!: "O ingenious God...
I rejoice in your creation,
and pray that your Spirit will touch me so deeply
that I will find a sense of self
which makes me glad to be who I am
and yet restless
at being anything less
than I can become.

Make me simple enough
not to be confused by disappointments,
clear enough
not to mistake busyness from freedom,
honest enough
not to expect truth to be painless,
brave enough
not to sing all my songs in private,
compassionate enough
to get in trouble,
humble enough
to admit trouble and seek help,
joyful enough
to celebrate all of it,
myself, others and you
through Christ Jesus our Lord.

From: Guerillas of Grace, Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder

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Anti-Independence

Anti-Independence: "I know. The title is a tad odd and maybe even controversial without an explanation.

Something happened to me on July 4 (Independence Day). God spoke to me as I prepared to lead our service that day. I realized something very deeply...

I do not want to be independent! Go read the definition of that word. Frankly, as a follower of Jesus, you would be hard pressed to make a case for independence in the Bible. But, our country, our society, our surroundings seem to be in grand favor of such an ideal. God's word neither says nor implies that God helps those who help themselves. I know what people mean (I think), but the very idea of me standing strong and alone without the need or influence of others is not what I call comforting! Not in the least.

In fact, I feel totally dependent on God and others. Actually, right now, Tricia and I feel more dependent on others than we have ever felt before.

We NEED Jesus!

We NEED community and people!

And I am not ashamed to admit it.

At the very least, we long to be interdependent! Definition: When two or more things are dependent on each other. Now, that is what I am talking about! Interdependence is not Christian welfare. It is the joining of forces to defend the faith and fight the good fight.

Aspiring to independence caused Satan's fall from heaven, Adam and Eve's sin in the garden and a myriad of other messes throughout the Scriptures and in the lives of people around us. Be careful when you wish for independence!

'Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.' -Eccles. 4:12

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Ezra 3

Rebuilding the Altar

3:1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

Rebuilding the Temple

8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.