What if God was one of us?

I find interesting theology in strange places sometimes. I recently heard this song again.  I thought - It's about as much a Christmas song as I can think of.

If God had a name, what would it be

And would you call it to his face

If you were faced with him in all his glory

What would you ask if you had just one question

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like

And would you want to see

If seeing meant that you would have to believe

In things like heaven and in jesus and the saints and all the prophets

And yeah yeah god is great yeah yeah god is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

He's trying to make his way home

Back up to heaven all alone

Nobody calling on the phone

Except for the pope maybe in rome

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

Just trying to make his way home

Like a holy rolling stone

Back up to heaven all alone

Just trying to make his way home

Nobody calling on the phone

Except for the pope maybe in Rome

(what if God was one of us – Joan Osborne)

The theology of this song is actually not as bad as some might think. Now before some of you run out and buy rope, hear me out. It raises some pretty valid and important questions for us. Questions that the world is trying to answer – and others claim to know those answers.

The questions:

If God had a name, what would it be, and would you call it to his face?

Scripture tells us in Matt 25 that there will be a day, when you and I – along with all the nations of the earth– will stand before His glorious throne.

Old Testament names of God:

El, Elohim, El Shadddai, Adonai, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh (provider), Jehovah Rophe (healer), Jehovah- Nissi (our banner), Jehovah-M’Kaddesh (Who Santifies) Jehovah-Shalom (peace). Shepherd, judge, Father, First and Last Immanuel,

New Testament: Kurios (Lord), Christos, (the Christ), Theos (God), Word (Logos), Almighty, I am, Messiah, Alpha and Omega, Father, Son, Holy Spirit

This is not a complete list. One list I saw documented 99 names of God!  All these names! What is God’s name? It’s what caused the Hebrews to use the name YHWH and refuse to use the vowels, for God’s name couldn’t even be written.  Many names used, yet God in the OT and Jesus in the NT reaffirms “The Lord your God is One Lord”

God’s name was often because a direct divine encounter and experience – where God met a dire need or revealed Himself in a powerful way.

When you encounter God, what will be His name: Saviour, healer, provider, Lord, Prince of Peace, LORD, Holy, Lamb of God, and Father?  What do you need God's name to be? Forgiver, purifier, hope, help, healer, friend?

What a great question. If God had a name, would you call it to his face?

Many will call God a name to his face, (LORD LORD) and he will say depart from me I never knew you. Others will be mystified when God says to them ‘well done my faithful servant.” Many of the names that God will be called on that day, He will not recognize as His own.

He is One Lord, One God – Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord, Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed redeemer, Living word.

If you were faced with him in all his glory, what would you ask him if you had just one question?

For Nicodemus, when he hears Jesus proclaim “You must be born again, His question was, “How is this possible?”

For John the Baptist, when he was waiting for his execution asked “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?

For the Pharisee, they asked “Who is this man think he is, God?”

For the People “who is this guy that even the demons listen?”

For the High Council (they had two) “Tell us, are you the Messiah?” “So, you’re claiming to be the Son of God?”

The Rich young rule “What must I do to be saved?”

The man with Leprosy “Are you willing to heal me”

In the story of the sheep and Goats, the question was

Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality?

For Pilate – his question “What is truth?”

Satan even had a question of sorts. “If you’re the Son of God – prove it” – it’s more of challenge statement than a question.

Jesus posed a number of his own questions, but the one we all must answer is “Who do you say I am?”

Again, as with the name of God the “one” question is driven so much by personal experience and need. As you look deep into your life – what might your question be? It maybe so personal that you simply cannot say it out loud – Maybe your question is why…. or how? It maybe in our pain that we too ask “When did we see you…I need to see you…

God is not afraid of our questions. He already knows what they are, and that we don’t have all the answers – I am full of questions – in my own journey some of those are deep, personal questions such as,
“Do you know me?” – “Can you love me?” -- Can you forgive me” ‘Will you save me – from myself.

If God had a face what would it look like and would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets.

What an intense question. We know that Moses couldn’t even look on God’s face – he only saw His back and his face shone so much it scared the people and he had to cover it up.  When God passed the cave that Elijah was hiding in, he came as a gentle whisper, yet Elijah could not look and wrapped his face in his cloak.  When humanity finally saw the face of God, it came in the form of baby and that face would be beaten, bloodied, pierced with a crown of thrones because people did not see what they wanted to see. They couldn’t believe or accept that this could be the face of God. 

When Philip asked Jesus to show him the face of the father Jesus replied “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time – anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father?”

Would you want to see if seeing meant you had to believe in things like heaven and Jesus and saints and prophets –

 Wow. I think perhaps this is more profound and relevant than we want to believe. What is the cost of ‘seeing’, again, we’re back to the Rich young ruler and his unwillingness to pay the cost of belief? This is the barrier for so many – they might like the idea of God – even of going to heaven – what they don’t like is the call to discipleship, holiness, purity, righteousness, forgiveness, generosity, sacrifice that comes with it.

What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home, back up to heaven all alone?

The NLT says in Jn 1:14 “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only son”.

Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ…

Philippians 2:7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness

Well, is that ‘slobby’ enough for us? When this song come out, I remember some of the controversies around it -- this line drove ‘us’ Christian crazy… it reduced God, in that insinuated that the God she was talking about was god is us – Perhaps, but maybe its not that simple.

Martin Bruber, a controversial Jewish Philosopher in Germany at the time of Hitler proposed the idea of the “I-Thou” encounter. It goes something like this.

A person sitting next to a complete stranger on a park bench enters into an "I-Thou" encounter with the stranger merely by the recognition that each has being. . This recognition of “I” and then “thou” opens the pathway to the discover of God. It’s more complex then this, but, it’s the jist.

Detrick Bonhoeffer, a contemporary and Christian Theologian turns this “I-Thou” encounter around. He said that rather than us encountering God through the other, we encounter the other, through God, more specifically, Christ.

It’s an important distinction. Joan Osborne (song author)– long with Martin Bruber suggest we encounter the divine through the imperfect meditorial and broken relation of humanity – this is like trying see an image through shattered glass – we’re going to catch some glimpses, certainly we’re going see images of the Divine of God, but its fractured and distorted.

For Bonhoeffer, we are to see humanity, through the perfect image of Christ. This means that our image of the other, as seen through the perfection of Christ, is restorative, we are able to see the other as being created in the image of God – rather than God being created in the image of ourselves.

When we taken on Jesus, our vision changes “Be now my Vision, O Lord of my heart…” – How we see the ‘slob like one us’ is altered dramatically. You see, Jesus in fact did not become a ‘slob’ like one us. He didn’t come to ‘come down to our level’. He came in order to raises us up to God’s original design and purpose. The ‘slob’ part came through sin – Jesus came to show us who we really are, who we were created to be – Sons and daughters of God, created in his image. He came to reveal to us ‘who we will be’ (1 John 3:2)

Her questions are not completely crazy or unbiblical – Jesus says things like

“Love your neigbour as yourself….”

“Whenever you have done this on the least of these my brother or sisters you have done this unto me”

“You are children of God…”

We, ARE “like” God – for God himself created us that we. We are like God because we have been created in His image “Let us make man in our Image.” I am like my earthly father, but that doesn’t mean I am my father. We are made by our Father in Heaven, it doesn't mean we are Him. It would seem that there is divinity within the slob sitting next to you on the bus – or in the face that reflects back to you in the mirror. You are special – he/she is special in all creation in that.

(Rom 8: 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The whole point of Christ, cross, salvation, God’s desire that none would perish, but all would have eternal life is because in you, in me, in the persons we are called to support, is the image – a spark of the divine. Theologians and song writers are divided about what this spark means or is, -- but, its there – it maybe only as the gospel writers Matthew describes “a smolder wick” – that awaits the ignition of the Holy Spirit’s breath, but it’s there. All of us are making our way home – with each breath and heart beat, we draw closer – the tragedy is not all will make it home – The difficult reality is although many are making their way home, only few will find the door.

That’s what makes seeing the other through Christ so important. – We see in the other what the rest of the world does not, cannot see – it changes our perspective on what’s important, and what is valuable and how we engage in and with life itself.

Back to heaven all alone – So many, too many in this world feel, believe they are, really are, alone. We can change that, we need to change that. It is the calling of all those who would be followers of Christ to find the lonely one and help them find their way home.

Can we see the divinity in the other? Not that we see God through them, but that we see them through God – that can we see that God’s spark in them.

Nobody calling on the phone, Except for the pope maybe in Rome

How much talking to God do we really do? Let’s exclude, talking about God, and listening about God– let’s remove the singing and worship parts, Let’s set aside the 1 hour we might attend on Sunday - How much time do we actually spend talking with God. Most often the kind of phone calls He gets is our crisis ones. Even in those we spend much more time talking than listening.

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil

P.S. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

Second Candle of Advent: The Way

The first candle is the candle of hope which we talked about last Monday. This past Sunday many churches lit this candle to reflection on the Way.   When I hear "the way' the words that springs to mind are those of Christ
“I am the way, the truth, and the Life, if anyone comes unto the Father, he must come through me” Jn 14:6

Without question, this is the most polarizing claim in the world. Many would want to deny Christ ever made this statement. It is a most inconvenient truth. For us, as followers of Christ, the wonder of Christmas does not make sense without the truth and reality of Easter. I thought we’d reflect a few moments on this claim of Christ.

The Way:

Jesus says HE is THE WAY – a way is a road – hence ‘roadway’. He could equally have said I am the only path, or I am the one way street. It’s a claim that no other route can, or will ever, exists.

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”.

While many would fight and hate these words, what is truly remarkable, is that ‘any’ way has been provided by or to God. There is A WAY, we can know Him, we can find Him, in fact, He himself searches for us when we have lost THE WAY (the 99 and 1).

The Christmas Season is our worship and praise to God for that the gift. Christ opens the way to God, free, grace filled and accessible to all. In Christ is the greatest of inclusion strategies.

The Truth:

Jesus is not saying “I’m telling you a truth”, or even pointing to the Truth – He is declaring of Himself that He Himself is THE TRUTH. Join this with the prologue of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God”. John goes on to say “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that was made”.

Truth exists and can be known, because He exists and is knowable. Reality itself has no substance, no ability to remain in existence apart from the very TRUTH of Christ. X-files claimed – the truth is out there – with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the truth is not ‘out there’, it’s within us! God with us – Immanuel.

The Life:

Jesus says He is Zoe – It’s more than Jesus offering a life – He is offering the source of all life. It is greater than earthly temporal life, it is an eternal – never beginning, never ending in the presence of God life. In Christ is all Being. Christ is not all beings, but all beings owe their existence to Him. One of the greatest miracles and great gifts of God, that is not often considered, is the gift of self-determination, of choice, of being able to exist in oneself. But this does not mean that I exist ‘by’ my self. I did not choice to exist. I can choice to reject God and still temporally exist. I have life, which I did not will into existence, but through Christ I know have Zoe life.

It’s one of the things that I wonder if changed when Adam and Eve was removed from the Garden. Adam and Eve were not created to die – that comes later. When we receive Christ’s Being into our being, although our body self dies, our spiritual self continues. However, in the culmination of time God rejoins our spirit and body self. When we receive the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit brings Zoe life back into our bodies that where born into trespasses and sin. It why Paul can say

“Oh death where is they sting, Oh hell where is thy victory, the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is law, but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ "  1 Cor 15:55-57

If anyone comes to the Father

Whosoever will may come unto the Father. However to come to the Father means we give up the possibility that in ourselves is a way, a truth, or a life. It means we reject that these things can be found anywhere or in anyone else.  You are not required to come to the Father – but He calls, He pleads, He dies in order to woo you and I. Scripture tells us in numerous places that God considers us his bride, his lover, his children – it is His desire that all would be saved, and that none would perish.   However, for now the door is open, the way has been made clear, the invitations have been sent. It is up to each to receive and answer, each according to their own will.

Must come through me

This is where the WAY becomes very narrow. These words are either the most delightful or the most terrible. They are met with wonder and praise, or hatred and fear. Upon these words hinge every being, every life, from the greatest and most powerful, to the weakest and most vulnerable. These words make this candle we light a blazing sword that pierces the darkness – or an invader that threatens and must be attacked and if possible destroyed.  1 John tells us, greater is He that is in us, than is in the world – His Light will overcome all.

As we reflect on this Candle, let us recite the Lord’s Prayer together.

Anyway, I was just thinking…

Neil

The Candle of Hope

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of advent. The first candle is the light of prophecy and hope.
One of the most beautiful words in any language has got to be the word “hope”.

Consider the two phrases:

I have hope
I have no hope

For hope, people have endured great difficulty and unbelievable adversity – they have hung on- or they are continuing to hang on - because of a simple glimmer of light. For the lack of hope, otherwise healthy people have literally given up, withered and died.

I have sat with people who believe they have truly lost all hope. It may have been the end of a relationship, the loss of a business or a diagnosis. The loss of hope can make people do very desperate things. I have been equally desperate trying to find and re-kindle a small glimmer of hope in their lives. In truth, the only hope that I have been able to proffer at times is that God is, Jesus loves and, although this life is temporal, heaven is eternal.

People can certainly have hope that there is hope – and will try to grasp on to it, but it is like trying to hold water in your hands. When this happens hope is confused with wishful thinking. The kind we get when a fairy godmother appears in a movie and says “I grant you three wishes” – I want a million dollars, an in shape body, and --- um all my hair.

When we wish, we generally mean “I want this thing to happen magically without any effort or adverse consequences to me.” I wish had wings and could fly…. I wish he or she liked me…I wish I didn’t have to come to work today… I wish things were different. Christmas is coming, Sear’s tells us to create our wish list!

Certainly, not all wishes are frivolous. In fact many times people’s wishes are deep and frantic. I wish I did not have this condition or disease, I wish this did not happen to me, I wish things were different – in these kinds of wishes there is often a powerlessness, a despairing – a loss of hope.

Hope is different in that even in the midst of these seemly despairing experiences – hope breaks through. Hope’s greatest power is that it is grounded and rooted in something – or rather someone. As we light this candle, it is that someone that changes a wish to a real hope.

Hebrews 11 1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.  3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible

What is it that you really hope for? The answers can be different than what I wish for?  If you asked me what I wish for I might say, “I wish for a new motorcycle, or I wish that at 50 I could be as fast and as strong as at 25.” Ask me what I hope for, and my answers are different “I hope to be loved, to love. I hope for true friends. I hope that my children will know God. I hope that I remain faithful to my wife. I hope I remain steadfast in my faith to God.” But to have that hope, it must start from someone, and that someone is God who is the very creator of the universe.

I lose my wishes, if fact if they evaporate I’m okay, but if I lose my hope – I have lost everything.  That’s makes Hebrews 11 so remarkable. Here we find the essence of this first candle.  For us as followers of God – faith and hope are infinitely bonded together. You cannot say the one without the expression of the other. As we read through this passage, replace the word faith for the word hope, but think of them inseparably joined together as the trinity itself. One without the other is incomprehensible.

It is the last words of this chapter that I find most difficult and yet hopeful.

:39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Our wishes are often in what we can see, whereas faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. I certainly do not know what it is you are facing at this moment. But I pray for you His hope. I pray that as you enter this season where we reflect on the coming of Christ as a babe into the world, that you experience as never before the incarnation of His presence in your life. May this bring a hope that surpass all wishes.

As I write this, news of our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq filters in.  These are people who are living the reality of Hebrews 11 like few of us can understand or believe we could endure.  They are truly facing extreme persecution and are threatened with extinction.  Intercede for them, pray that during these dark and difficult days - in the face of death - hope remains

Anyway, I was just thinking

Joy

One of the Christmas candles we light is Joy. We have or will sing the familiar Christmas song “Joy to the Word”. Many of us have grown up with Sunday School songs, complete with actions, “I’ve got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart, where, down in my heart – where?” and “I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like my fountain in my soul”

When you hear the word joy – what comes to mind?

One of the primary things people lament in their lives is the lack of joy. It is a common complaint of people, and is often connected to “I’m not happy”. I am deeply concerned at the number of teens and young adults that have shared with me as a Pastoral type person, significant lack of joy in their lives. The subsequent impact on their lives is profound in the feelings of purposelessness, meaninglessness and general malaise of life in general. More times that I care to remember I have received calls from people despairing of life itself.

A 2000 MIT report stated,

Major depression is recognized as the most prevalent type of mood disorder today. It is estimated that 17 percent of the U.S. population will suffer from a major depressive episode… (http://tech.mit.edu/V120/N3/dep1.3n.html)

I’m sure that these trends are no different for Canadians. And the numbers are growing. People are desperate, and are literally dying for the lack of Joy. Ironically, when they crunch the numbers for Christians – the numbers are about the same.

In the most basic terms, depression is primarily trigger by a sense of significant loss. It would seem that for all our affluence, material possessions, careers opportunities, education, and abundance of food, entertainment and leisure, access to whatever pleases the eye… we are a miserable and joyless bunch. In fact, it’s likely this blog isn’t bringing us much joy either.

I just find it amazing that as Christian we sing about joy, preach sermons – and yet, many still feel they to manufacture a façade of joy. Cause’ that’s what were supposed to be.

So Joy is a problem – just because we light the candle and sing the songs doesn’t mean we have it – for some it even causes more damage because it creates a disharmony between what they feel inside and what they project – which just furthers the sense of depression, because everyone else looks happy – but me. And the reality of it is what you’re going through is real, it’s tough and hard – and creates a war within our soul.

So now what? Where do we go? Is there any good news? Well, perhaps.

Please let me take a rabbit trail for a moment. One of the areas of study is the effects of vibration and disharmony on bridges and buildings. These studies are related to the structures themselves, and to impact that these vibration and the subsequent harmonics that they create. Vibration and disharmony causes stress, fatigue, frustration, irritation, and eventual structural breakdown. The impact of vibrations and disharmony noises such as competing frequencies of fans that create have emotionally effect people over time – increasing stress, fatigue, frustration, irritation and depression. It grates on us.

Here’s where we join the paths. When we become spiritually out of harmony with God, vibration is created in our lives. We can try to ignore it, mask it, or deny it, but it is ever in the background. It causes a great deal more stress, frustration and breakdown than we admit. We try to medicate, mediate and meditate it, but no matter how hard we try – that disharmonious tone vibrates through our existence.

As far as I can tell there’s only one solution. Give up. Before you give up on me here, just hang in a bit longer.

The reason we feel such great loss is that often we are trying to hang onto that which we can’t keep. It’s want caused Jesus to say the words “ What good will it be for a person if they gain the whole world, but lose their soul, Or can a man give in exchange for their soul?” We are looking to the wrong things to bring joy into our lives.

Maybe the problem isn’t joy, but in what we find, or think we find our joy in? It may be that we have confounded the difference between joy – and what we believe is an inalienable right “happiness” after all its written right into the American Constitution. “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” ironically many have lost both their life and their liberty in that pursuit and are exhausted from chasing it – and it’s always just outside the reach of my fingers.
Eastern mystics do not have it all wrong. They speak of finding that inner harmony and peace with the universal ‘Om’, and encourage the participants to verbally chant ‘Om’ to find empty yourself of noise and disharmony and reach a universal harmony. We believe in something similar. However, we believe that it isn’t nothingness that we are seeking – the answer is not in the emptying, but in the filling, and the Holy Spirit within that we seek.

Change gears.

Deuteronomy 28
1-6 If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:

God's blessing inside the city,

God's blessing in the country;

God's blessing on your children,

the crops of your land,

the young of your livestock,

the calves of your herds,

the lambs of your flocks.

God's blessing on your basket and bread bowl;

God's blessing in your coming in,

God's blessing in your going out.
7 God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They'll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.
8 God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he'll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
9 God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.
10 All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe.
11-14 God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend too many nations but you yourself won't have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you'll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today. Don't swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command you today by going off following and worshiping other gods.

Now, that was the good news… here is where it gets kinda hard. Now, I add this, if you are not interested in being harmony with God than stop reading

15-19 Here's what will happen if you don't obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep all the commandments and guidelines that I'm commanding you today. All these curses will come down hard on you:

God's curse in the city,

God's curse in the country;

God's curse on your basket and bread bowl;

God's curse on your children,

the crops of your land,

the young of your livestock,

the calves of your herds,

the lambs of your flocks.

God's curse in your coming in,

God's curse in your going out.

20 God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you've been destroyed and there's nothing left of you—all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me.
21 God will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that you're going in to possess.
22 God will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and blight and jaundice on you. They'll hunt you down until they kill you.
23-24 The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab of concrete. From out of the skies God will rain ash and dust down on you until you suffocate.
43-44 The foreigner who lives among you will climb the ladder, higher and higher, while you go deeper and deeper into the hole. He'll lend to you; you won't lend to him. He'll be the head; you'll be the tail.
45-46 All these curses are going to come on you. They're going to hunt you down and get you until there's nothing left of you because you didn't obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep his commandments and guidelines that I commanded you. The curses will serve as signposts, warnings to your children ever after.
47-48 Because you didn't serve God, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart in the great abundance, you'll have to serve your enemies whom God will send against you. Life will be famine and drought, rags and wretchedness; then he'll put an iron yoke on your neck until he's destroyed you.

It would seem, for the follower of God there is a direct correlation between obeying and listening to God’s voice and – Joy.

We have replaced relentless pursuit of God for the relentless pursuit of happiness.

God isn’t a means to Joy – He is Joy. I think perhaps we’ve come to the belief that if we believe in God, He will give us the stuff that will make us happy. However, God Himself – His being is the source of that happiness – and we will only find true joy as we take our refuge in Him.

Deuteronomy 28 is a very hard read. We just may straight out not like it. But there it is. God doesn’t offer apologize. You see, it isn’t that God needs to be in harmony with us – but we with Him. I know we’d like it the other way around but it’s not.

Psalm 5:11 (New American Standard Bible)
11But let all who take refuge in You be glad,

Let them ever sing for joy;

And may You shelter them,

That those who love Your name may exult in You.

Psalm 16:11You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever

The restoration of our joy can only be discovered in the wild abandoned and fully giving of ourselves ourselves and get ‘in tune’ with God.

Here’s what my theory is – Depression out of a sense of loss is so significant because we are looking to other things, pursuits and relationships to fill a void, meaning and purpose that only God himself can give.

The profound sense of loss is a result of my life being out of step with God. My lack of joy is that I’ve put my hope, trust and desire for happiness in the wrong things – temporal things, things effected marred themselves by sin.

Psalm 51:

6Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,

And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

7Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8Make me to hear joy and gladness,

Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

9 )Hide Your face from my sins

And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit

True lasting and healing Joy can only come when we stop ignoring the vibrations that our disharmony with God has created. We must honestly examine those areas of our lives that are ‘out of tune’ with Him.

God is, and can be the only source of true Joy – We find total and complete joy in His existence and that ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8).

Anyway, I was just thinking,

Neil Cudney

The Father at Christmas

As a father I have been wondering what the first Christmas must have been like for God the Father. I would never presume to have any idea of how God ever feels. He is so great and His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. I do however think there is something to be learned by examining our earthly relationships. I don’t believe God was grasping for an analogy when He called Jesus His son. I think that the human relationships we have (child/parent, bride/groom) are derived from God’s relationship to Himself (persons) and to us.

It must have been very different for God to see His son born than it was for me to witness the birth of my children. For one, I met my children for the first time when they were born. Our Heavenly Father had already loved His Son for all eternity. Secondly, my child was placed in my hands. His child was carried by others. I believe that He has the whole world in His hands and I am sure that day He was cradling it.

Christ’s birth might have felt more to the Father like it is for us when we leave our child with a babysitter for the first time, or even like handing the child to a friend to hold. Those of you who are parents might understand that feeling. One of the hardest things to endure is hearing your child cry in someone else’s arms because you immediately have the instinct to take them back. I don’t buy the line, “the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”. Jesus cried as an adult (John 11), He was hungry when he fasted (Mark 11:12), so why would we think He didn’t cry as a child? He came to be one of us: to live, suffer and die as one of us. I am sure Jesus cried. That is the miracle of Christmas. That Jesus was willing to empty Himself and become one of us.

Phil 2:5b-8a
5b Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself

Jesus would have teethed. The creator of the Universe was willing to teeth. He was willing to have a snotty nose, drooling mouth and diaper rash. That is the extent He was willing to go to be with us.

As a parent it is so hard to see your small child cry. Often the worst part is that you don’t know why. Is it hunger, tiredness, discomfort, pain? Imagine the Heavenly Father hearing His infant Son cry and knowing why. Was it difficult for Him not to step in?
What about when Jesus was lonely, rejected? Was it difficult then for Him to not step in? As a parent I want to go to any length to protect my children. All three of my kids have strep throat right now and I know that I would go to great lengths if I could just make them feel better.

When my daughter (my firstborn) was one day old there was a complication that required her to need an I.V. and a feeding tube (through her nose). I still remember pushing her to the Natal ICU and feeling like I would never see her again. I was not allowed to stay and watch the needle and tube get put in place. Parents aren’t allowed to stay and watch because it is too traumatic for them. They did not want me to see my child in pain. It would have been too traumatic for me to watch. Thankfully, my daughter turned out to be fine.

Our Heavenly Father watched His son suffer more than anyone. He watched His son die for us. I don’t know if God was ever tempted to say “It is not worth it! These people are not worth it! I am stopping this right now!”. From a human perspective I am sure that is what I would be thinking.

Phil 2:8
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Praise God this Christmas that the Father and Son loved us so much. As both a father and a son I find it unfathomable.

John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Phil 2:5-11
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Merry Christmas

Mark Wallace

First Christmas In Heaven

As a member of the pastoral team I am involved in and aware of several situations of greif within the "CH family". Some are mourning for people we have had the privlage to suport. Others have experienced a loss in their family. At a funeral this week I saw this poem displayed. I thought it might be a comfort to any of us who have lost a loved one. Thank God that death is not the end of the story. Someday we will all be able to celebrate in the presence of the one who was born on Christmas day.


Mark Wallace


My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees
around the world below

With tiny lights, like Heaven's stars,
reflecting on the snow

The sight is so spectacular,
please wipe away the tear

For I am spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs
that people hold so dear

But the sounds of music can't compare
with the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you,
the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description,
to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me,
I see the pain inside your heart.

But I am not so far away,
We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones,
You know I hold you dear.

And be glad I'm spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift,
from my heavenly home above.

I sent you each a memory
of my undying love.

After all, love is a gift more precious
than pure gold.

It was always most important
the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other,
my Father said to do.

I can't count the blessing
or love he has for each of you.

So have a Merry Christmas
and Wipe away that tear

Remember, I am spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year

( by Author Unknown)

“Let this thing you have said happen to me” (Luke 1: 26-56)

There is little doubt that this is one of the most powerful prayers in all of Scripture. We have few recorded words from Mary. Most of those words are “What does this mean?” “How can this happen?” and then that great and wondrous line “With man all things are impossible, but with God all things are possible. I am a servant of the Lord God. Let this thing you have said happen to me!”. This revelation leads her to bust out in an uncontrollable and dangerous prayer. The other recurring phrase that is so admirable is “and Mary pondered all these things in her heart”.

When I reflect on my own life, I must admit much of my conversation with God revolves around “What does this mean? How can this happen”. I wish I could say it always resulted in me exclaiming with the confidence of Mary “with God all things are possible”. Situations and events come into our lives that cause us to be ‘confused and very afraid’. Standing from our side we see the impossibilities – of what can go wrong. We see the looming ‘reality’ of immanent disaster or failure. This is devastating to the soul. It threatens to extinguish hope; it imprisons joy and enshrouds us in a heavy curtain of darkness.

Mary was not a great theologian. As a young girl that was not her lot. Her lot was to be a wife and mother. Girls were thought not able to learn or participate in religious activity without their fathers or husbands. She did not have a lot of life history to draw from. It is believed that Mary would have been between 13 to 15 years of age. However, a lot of wisdom and faith poured out of that young life. What is the secret of this kind of faith and walk? It is not a secret at all. It all sits in the statement “I am a servant of the Lord, let this thing you have said happen”. This is not a statement of passive resignation, but a declaration of active yielding.
The key in our life is this posture of active yielding. We actually share something powerfully in common with Mary. We carry the presence of God within. Although she was indwelt with the incarnation of Christ, we are indwelt with the person of Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is no less significant. Here is the deal: even with the fact that Mary bore the seed of God and gave birth to the babe, she still needed the death and resurrection of Christ to be her cover as well. In that, we too are recipients of the Angel’s message “Greetings, the Lord is with you; you are very special to him”.

Mary's Song
46And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

What are you facing? What causes you to be afraid, to be confused, to question “how can this be happening”? God’s presence is as real and tangible to you as it was that day to a young frightened girl. His answer is the same to you as it was to her so long ago: “Greetings, the Lord is with you; you are very special to him”.

Let us pray, With man all things are impossible, but with God all things are possible, I am a servant of the Lord God. Let this thing you have said happen to me!”

Anyway, I was just thinking…

Neil

An Advent of Hope

Christmas is one month away. Can you believe it? I'm looking at my schedule and all the places I need to go, thing I need to do, projects that need to get finished – or started. As I'm looking at all the stuff on the 'to do' list, before I know it, December will be gone. I always have such good intentions around Christmas to get focused on the 'Reason for the Season'. When I was a Pastor in a church I attempted to get the heart and minds to slow down and allow the significance of Christmas to penetrate. That we didn't just let the speed, activities and noise of Christmas to drown out the significance. The danger I find in our practice of Christian Holidays is that we get into the routine and 'seen that, heard that, bought the card' cycle of it all. Here in the office, we're focusing on the Advent liturgy. Five Candles over the next five weeks; hope, humility, joy, peace and the final candle of Christ becoming flesh. Maybe you might want to find ways to creatively bring this into your own programs and homes over the next 5 weeks as well. I'd love to get feedback from you to share with others on how you have done this. I encourage you to add comments for others to read so together we can 'find our spiritual edge' of Christmas in our lives.

Candle (Week) One: Hope

What is it that you really hoped for – or perhaps are still hoping for? Something that you want or wanted so deeply that it caused (causes) pain within you? This is different than a wish. I wish for things, a bigger louder motorcycle, a new PS3 so I can play the latest Ratchet and Clank video games, a plasma HD T.V. and other useless stuff. I wish my kids, 19 and 20, would clean up after themselves and help pay the bills. I got lots of wishes, but my wishes are often frivolous, about me and my comfort and wants. We confuse wishes and real hope. Hope is anchored in a reality – which often we might not even see with our eyes.

"Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is the proof of what we cannot see" Heb 11:1

As a Pastor over the years, I've had the incredible privilege of walking journey's of real hope with people. Deep anguishing hopes that moved to tears and agonizing prayers. Sometimes it was for a physical healing, or restoration of a family relationship, the concern for a wayward son or daughter. A hope that one would pay almost any price to see come to pass. Many of us have had something sometime that has consumed our mind, our heart our strength that we hoped for that far surpasses the surface of wish.

Hope has been described by some as the one emotion or quality that truly makes us human. The stories that we have heard of people living in unbearable situations and yet have retained hope. Over the years I've read a number of accounts of holocaust survivors that defy description and we wonder 'how people kept hope alive'. Victor Frankel wrote a book called "Man's Search for Meaning" which tells of his own experiences. He essentially says that the guards could take everything from him, except one thing his hope, because he knew if they took that, he was dead. He saw it happen in multitudes around him. Hope is powerful it can enable people to accomplish or endure inconceivable experiences.

The people of the Old Testament hoped for centuries for the coming of their Messiah – it was a part of their prayers, practices and daily life – but although they 'hoped' for it, they totally missed it when it came - I wonder if the 'hope' had become such a part of who they where, how they identified themselves that although they longed for it, it had been so long and they had endured so much that they could not believe it when it happened – or that it would really happen to them. Not because they didn't believe in God or, that they really wanted the Messiah. They were going through the motions and the prayers, telling and re-telling the prophecies, and though they believed it…because it was part of their culture, they heard it and repeated so often, it became something was prayed, preached, sang about – but no longer really 'believed'

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is the tree of life" Proverbs 13:12

We are in a similar state I believe as Christians. We look back and seen the fulfillment of the hope of the Messiah, the death and the resurrection, but our own hope deferred is the return of Christ. We have talked about it for 2,000 years, we sing about it, preach about, and people have proclaimed it. The Church has been hoping in the returning Christ since He left. Yet at the same time we've got so used to hearing it, we almost roll our eyes when the topic comes up, or we repeat the mantra of religious tradition at the appropriate times – believing it….yet, not it at the same time – if that is possible.

It's part of the danger of our repeated liturgies every year. Like with Easter, where every year Christ dies and is raised again- we hear, sing and pray, but perhaps also struggle with the routine of it – it almost has the opposite effect – instead of filling us, inspiring hope, it can leave us empty, because we know that there must be, needs to be more.

We come back to the candle of hope as we finish our thought for the day. Wouldn't it be kinda strange if every time you had a birthday your parents and friends, made you put diapers on, and climb back into a crib? Yet we do that on a yearly bases with Christ I think it's affected our 'hope' factor. Yes Jesus was a baby, born into the world – and that is miracle of grace, but our hope isn't in returning him to the manager every year. Our hope is in a Saviour who is alive, at the right hand of the Father, and is returning. It is our about our life of hope in that intervening period. We must never lose sight of that hope, our hope, together as followers of Christ. It needs to be the focus and reason of all we do and how and why we do it. 2 Peter 3 perhaps isn't consider as a typical Christmas verse. But I want to suggest to you that it is 'the' Christmas verse, for this is our real and living hope for us, - for those that we serve. Follow that up with 1 John 3:1-3. Let that rekindle and focus your hope. May we join the 'all of creation that groan for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God?

If we can see what we are waiting for, that is not really hope. People don't hope for what they already have but we are hoping for something we don't have yet, and we are waiting for – patiently. Rom 8:24-25

Anyway, I was just thinking…

Neil