The Journey to Fleshleshness and Seamlessness

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For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.
We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;
We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;
Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies.
For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.
2 Corinthians 4:6-11

So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged (flogged, whipped) Him.
John 19:1

For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.
For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness--in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].
Hebrews 12:6,11


When our flesh has been whipped away like our Lord’s was, we will look more like Him than we do now.


When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
John 19:23


God, from top to bottom, is seeking to weave us seamlessly into one. We are on a journey to seamlessness. If we continue to hold firmly and faithfully onto His hand with one of ours, and with the other hold firmly and faithfully onto each other, we will arrive there together.

None right. None left.

One.

Like Little Children, Touching This World

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For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.
Matthew 18:2-5

A community of spiritual children giving birth to other communities of spiritual children and becoming a network of communities of spiritual children, then joining with other networks of communities of spiritual children until those networks begin to live and move more like one childlike spiritual community - the Body of Christ around the world.

Not invisible and not silent, but nameless and faceless other than His own.

Beginning to respond to God all over the globe, beginning to live and move as one in His Spirit like a school of fish or a flock of birds.

Not identical, but one. Like little children, barely noticing the differences but revelling together in the shared wonder of the Journey.

Like little children, breathing out regret for yesterday and concern for tomorrow, and breathing in the exhilarating hope of today living fully and well in the midst of our Father's kindness.

Trusting enough in the Destination and the One who takes us There to put down our fear and become Love.

Like little children, touching this world.

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The video below, entitled Unless You Change, will bless you with its simple presentation of this Truth from Matthew 18 about becoming like little children. Sit back and enjoy.

To Our Dear Friend

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Hello, my dear friend,

I just wanted you to know how special you are in God's sight and how special you are to our family.

I wanted you to know how blessed my wife and I feel to have had our Lord bring someone like you into the lives of our children; someone whom they can and should look to as a genuine, realistic example of the Christian faith.

I wanted you to know how much I appreciate someone like you who says that they care about me and my family, and then lives out the truth of that claim in ways that touch us deeply.

I wanted you to know that you are so special in God's sight that those who can see that in you will go farther to be around you; being around you is a blessing from God, my friend.

I wanted you to know that it's not a sin to be hurt. I didn't always know that. People that have hearts that God has made especially compassionate toward others get hurt very easily. But that's not a sin.

I wanted you to know that I've learned that the sin happens when I don't go to Jesus when I've been hurt, and ask to Him heal my heart from that pain and restore my heart to the compassion that He birthed in it.

I've learned that I can tell Him anything, and He understands.

I've learned that He's gone before us and has experienced every single thing that we ever will, and yet He did so without sin.

And because of this understanding, I've learned that there is a better prayer for me to pray than "Jesus, what should I do?"

I've learned to pray, "Jesus, what did you do?"

I've learned that if I do what He did, I will get the same results.

I've learned that when I have prayed that prayer, I don't always want to do what He tells me that He did. Sometimes, I have thought the price to be too high, and sought to do it another way. It's never worked, though, and I find myself back at His feet, asking for forgiveness and another chance to do it the way He did.

I've learned that He desperately wants to give that second - and third, and fourth..... - chance.

I have learned to admire people who experience a great hurt, pause to prayerfully contemplate that experience and allow God’s Spirit to put it in its proper place, and then move on in their journey with Christ.

I have learned that people like that are like precious jewels, sparkling because they have allowed themselves to be cut by the faithful, trustworthy hand of the Master Jeweler.

I have learned that it should be my utmost priority to have a pure heart, and I have learned that I cannot accomplish this without His constant, merciful, gracious help.

I have learned that spiritual maturity does not mean achieving spiritual perfection. It means submitting to God and seeking to obey Him even when the price seems very high to do so. It means humbly acknowledging all that remains for Christ to change in my heart and life, while rejoicing in what He has already accomplished within me.

I have learned that we should want to be like weaned children toward our Heavenly Father; still completely dependent, but no longer demanding.

I wanted you to know that I have seen a glimmer of all these things in your heart and life, my friend. You inspire me and my family. We stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with you in the faith, and that will never change.

I wanted you to know that God has placed each of us specifically where we are for a specific purpose. There are needs around us that we were born to meet.

I wanted you to know that there is a hole, a lack, a need - in your family, your school, your job and in the Church - that you have been born to fulfill, my friend. It will be painful to do so at times, but with Him, you can do anything.

On the days when you feel that the price is too high, remember that you have desired in your heart to be used by Him in a mighty way. Remember that His maturity calls us to love in ways so sacrificial and inconvenient and painful that we never imagined them. Remember that Jesus told Peter, When you were young you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted to go. But when you become mature, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and lead you places that you don’t want to go.
John 21:18

Jesus told His disciples, “Get in the boat. We’re going to the other side.”

Then there came a storm so big that all of the disciples thought they were going to die. They forgot that Jesus said, “We’re going to the other side.” They didn’t notice that, because He had heard this from God, He was at peace. They didn’t notice that His peace was so great that He was asleep in the back of the boat while they were desperately trying to save their own lives.

But when they went to Him and awoke Him and asked Him for help, they realized it all. When they purposed to stretch out their hands toward Jesus, to let Him dress them with the storm in which they found themselves, to follow Him to a place where they did not want to go, they finally beheld the magnitude of the peace that He had.

It was a peace from God that could still a storm.

I wanted to remind you on this day, this hour, this season, and at the moment of this hurt that you‘ve experienced, that we have that peace available to us right now.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

I am thankful for you this day, my friend. My family may not have known it, but there was a hole, a lack, a need in our lives. It was a hole, a lack, a need that was shaped just like you.

We are thankful for you. You are an answer to prayer. You are a gift to us from God.

A Relationship With Them

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In my dream, I was standing in the expansive lobby of an enormous office building in a major U.S. city.

It was night time, and the office building was closed and deserted except for a small group of people standing in the darkened lobby, of whom I was one.

There were no street lights outside the building, and there was a very pale, barely visible blue light on the inside of the building. The building's windows which were facing the street were 20-30 feet wide and 30-40 feet tall. In the middle of this span of windows was one that would slide open to a width of 10-15 feet to provide the entrance to the building. It was closed and secured.

Although I could not see them, I heard a small group of people around me talking about something. Somehow, I knew that they were professing Christians. As I listened to them speak, I sensed a fearful, strident tone to their voices. They were speaking over one another and the focus of their conversation, I realized, was a small group of men who were standing in the darkness just outside of the front windows of the building.

There were 8 or 9 men, shadowy figures milling about nervously near the secured front entrance. I heard the people with me say that these men were "menacing," and they wanted to do something about them.

At that moment, I looked down and saw a sledgehammer in my hands. It was different, though, in that the sledgehammer was made completely out of wood. The head was wood as well as the handle.

Now stirred up and apprehensive from having listened to the incessant speaking of the small group of people with whom I was standing, I joined them as we - with hearts pounding - proceeded to slowly cross the lobby of the building and approach the sliding front door. We were "going to do something about these men."

Suddenly, as we were approaching the sliding front door, it unexpectedly opened to a width of just 4 or 5 feet. The group of people with whom I was advancing froze in fear, not knowing what would happen next, and fearing what the men outside might do now that the door was open.

As we stood staring at the men outside, they hesistantly - one by one - slowly and fearfully approached the small opening in the sliding door and gently tossed a bouquet of roses on the floor of the lobby, just inside the opening of the door. One by one they came, dropped their flowers on the floor, and then retreated back to the dimness.

That was my dream.

I asked our Lord what the dream meant, and this is what He told me:

The lobby of the office building was the Church at large. The people there with me were, as I had suspected, those who professed to be Christians.

Our Lord drew my attention to the great darkness outside of the building (the Church), and to the fact that the light (the dim blue light) inside of the building (Church) was barely more light than the darkness outside of it.

He then spoke of the sledgehammer - made completely out of wood - that I had seen in my hands. "There were other weapons in the hands of those with you that you did not see in the dream," He said. "These weapons were made of hay and stubble." I knew that our Lord was referring to 1 Corinthians 3:10(b)-13, which says:

But each one should be careful how he builds.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

I asked our Lord, "But who were the men that we feared so much in the dream, and why were they tossing bouquets of roses on the floor for us?"

Our Lord said that the men were homosexuals, and that they were throwing bouquets on the floor because they wanted the love of the people in the Church at large. And then He spoke words that He wanted me to share with me and with everyone in that Church at large, words that broke my heart.

"They want a relationship with you, more than you want a relationship with them."

Aliens and Strangers

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It was undoubtedly the most unusual gig I have ever been involved in as a musician. Early on in my career as a cellist for the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, in order to pad my meager income, I learned to say yes to just about every opportunity for an extra job that came along. Performing for private parties, weddings, churches, and political events became a common occurrence. But this particular job was truly unique. Three other symphony musicians and I, along with two members of a local dance troupe, had developed a program geared toward introducing grade school children to the wonderful world of the performing arts. We had been well received in many local schools and our schedule was rapidly filling up with requests for our program. One such request came from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Some brilliant bureaucrat had decided that Arizona's "culturally starving" Native Americans (aside from the fact that they were also physically starving) needed to be exposed to classical music and interpretive dance. It seemed like a ridiculous idea to us but hungry musicians are not in a position to question the sanity of anyone offering a paycheck. Consequently, a few weeks later we found ourselves on an adventure that would take us to what is perhaps the most remote village in the lower 48 states, the community of Supai on the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

After an early morning car trip that included a two-hour drive over a dusty, deeply rutted, badly weathered dirt road, we reached Hualapai Hilltop, the starting point for our descent into the canyon. The only two ways into this remote area were on foot or by horseback. We chose the latter, although in a few hours I would have given anything for a chance to make another choice. Our Native American guides met us at the top of the canyon with our horses for the journey and a pack of mules to carry our suitcases, sleeping bags, and (gulp) our musical instruments. I watched in horror as these seasoned pack guides strapped my cello to the side of a mule and proceeded on down the narrow, twisting, cliff-hanging trail. Silently I prayed for the safety of my instrument and the sure-footedness of that mule. I learned later that my cello survived the trip in far better shape than I did.

Then it was our turn. Climbing onto our horses in the midst of that desolate wilderness it was easy to imagine ourselves on an Old West adventure. We were cowboys in tennis shoes, pioneers in sunglasses, intrepid explorers in baseball caps on a dangerous quest to seek out new civilizations. It didn't take long, however, for our imaginations to be quelled by our growing (or should I say groin) pain. I soon learned there is only one thing worse than a city-slicker’s rear-end on a long horseback ride. That is when the ride is decidedly downhill and with every step of the horse one’s delicate derriere slides forward into the saddle-horn. I gained an entirely new appreciation for the term "rawhide."

After three hours of riding in the hot sun through jagged rock formations and extreme wilderness, we rounded a bend in the trail and suddenly found ourselves in the Garden of Eden. Lush green trees, multi-colored wildflowers, and a thick carpet of grass lined the trail. Meandering through this paradise was a crystal clear stream of turquoise colored water. It was all stunningly beautiful. I was reminded of the meaning of the name Havasupai, "Blue-Green Water People," and I began to envy those who called this place home.

Later that evening the villagers gathered together in an ancient, rustic meeting house to hear a group of white strangers making strange sounds with their strange music boxes. Our music was politely received but I could tell these people had no comprehension of what we were doing. Classical music could not have been more out of place in that setting. I would have felt totally foolish were it not for our two dancers. They were the hit of the program. Although ballet steps were completely foreign to their culture, these isolated Native Americans understood the art of the dance.

After our program they insisted on showing us their steps. Quickly a pair of drums appeared and two elderly gentlemen began beating a simple pattern. Others began chanting a mournful melody while several children danced together across the wooden floor of their tribal meeting house. We were soon accompanying them by improvising rhythm and notes on our instruments while our two dancers tried, amidst the giggles of delighted children, to pick up on their intricate footwork. It was a magical moment I will never forget. Rhythm and dance had managed to bridge the gap between two cultures. I remember thinking on my way out of the canyon the following day (with my foam rubber mattress pad cushioning the impact between the saddle and my smarting backside), "How could anyone call these people culturally starved?" Indeed, those thought to be impoverished had fed us all!

I have often thought about that unusual gig in recent years while attempting to take the message of the Gospel to a modern culture which, at times, seems to have no comprehension of what we're doing. To be sure, much of what comprises the typical church program seems to be encased within a culture that is completely foreign to many of our neighbors. Sadly it is the church that all too often has become isolated from the surrounding community. When those outside the faith visit us they feel like aliens in a foreign land. Our music, our programs, our buildings, even our language, all of which seems so normal and so comfortable to us, may in fact be alienating us from the very people we are trying to reach. I'm not advocating that the Church adopt a worldly lifestyle, just one that is more culturally relevant. And I'm certainly not saying we should allow the world's sin to infiltrate the Church. In contrast, we need to learn how to more successfully infiltrate the world.

I believe we need to spend less time criticizing the culture that surrounds us and more time trying to connect with it; less time complaining about the evils of our society and more time trying to bridge the gap that separates us from that society; less time insisting that everyone else conforms to our culture and more time trying to understand theirs. Without compromising our message, we need to learn how to dance to their music. "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." - 1Cor. 9:22.

I don't mean to be a proverbial “pain in the rear-end” nor do I wish to rub you the wrong way with this. I would, however, remind you that as Christians we are the true "aliens and strangers" in this world and we will never feel entirely at home here (see 1Pe. 1:17, 2:11-12). ...our citizenship is in heaven. - Phil 3:20. But one glorious day, after traveling for many miles through this sin-filled, temptation-laden, spiritually-starving, desolate wilderness called Earth, we will round a bend in the trail and suddenly find ourselves in a lush paradise...across a sea of crystal...in a beautiful Garden of Eden...and we will finally be home.

Until that day, anyone care to dance?

Empty Nesting

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The brethren over at Living Hope Thoughts speak very expressively and accurately about the actual experience of being a disciple of Christ while He builds His Church.

A quiet smile and appreciative nod to LHT for telling it like it is. Enjoy, all.

http://livinghopethoughts.blogspot.com/2007/04/empty-nesting.html

There You Are, Peter

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In the 1991 movie Hook, the story of Peter Pan, there is a scene that has always stuck with me because of a spiritual symbolism that I see in it.

Peter (portrayed in this film version of the tale by Robin Williams), who originally lived in Never Never Land, has grown up in the world and now forgotten both his roots and experiences in Never Never Land. He returns to Never Never Land with Tinkerbell to find his son, who has been kidnapped by an evil pirate from his youth.

When he arrives, he finds a group of boys called the Lost Boys. When Peter lived in Never Never Land as a boy, he was their leader. But now, after spending so much time in the world that it has robbed him of his memories and his birthright, they do not recognize him, nor he them.

But then one of the little Lost Boys, Pockets, approaches Peter and asks him to kneel down. When Peter does, Pockets places his hands on the sides of Peter’s face and gently stretches his face into a grin.

When he does so, all the Lost Boys gasp in recognition, and Pockets says, “There you are, Peter.”

I was praying recently with an old friend of mine, a Brother in Christ. He'd been out in the world for a while now. I’d see him every once in a while, and I came to notice over time that he had forgotten who he was. He had forgotten his birthright. Living in the world as part of the world will do that to you.

Gets to the point that, though you can love someone who is living as part of the world with all your heart, you don’t recognize them like you used to, either. You remember that there was a person by that name and with that appearance, but it’s been so long since you’ve seen them as they were that you wonder if you’d recognize them if they suddenly reappeared.

It was kind of that way for my friend and I. But then we got together to pray recently. I asked him to pray. Just felt I ought to. And he didn’t start praying right away. He waited. And then he began to pray.

The way he prayed was different, yet familiar. The way he prayed was like he used to pray when he and Jesus were close.

And, just as though my friend’s words of prayer were a revelation of him kneeling before Jesus while He placed His hands lovingly upon his cheeks and stretched them into a smile, I heard my heart gasp in recognition. “There you are, Peter.”

Peter has returned to the land of his youth.