in His hands

Do you remember the children's song.... "He's got the whole world in His hands?"

The simplicity of the melody and text tries to overcome a complex and often troubling reality of how to reconcile a troubling and suffering world with a loving God. This is the question that many wrestle with. If God is good, loving, etc., then why... fill in the blank.

Such a study is entitled Theodicy. And while it is a very large concept and a deep question to discuss, we want to step into this conversation this Sunday at Tabernacle UMC. As part of our 'Questions' series, we are seeking to find an answer to our question of, "why is there suffering in the world?"

The hymn writer reminds us that, 'this is my Father's world.' Join us as we seek truth together.

prayer

Why do prayers go unanswered?

How do we reconcile the relationship of how prayers are answered and God seems silent at others?

This and more questions concerning prayer will be discussed this Sunday at Tabernacle UMC. Join us.

Something to think about this week in preparing your heart....

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

World War II Admiral, Chester Nimitz

new year.

This time of year we look ahead. We hope, we dream, we vision. If you still make 'resolutions', let me encourage you to not think of what you want to do in 2012, but to think of who you want to be in 2013. Begin with the end in mind, and this will shape how you can proceed in how to make it happen.

Here are a few thoughts on Vision from an earlier post:

Andy Stanley says,

"When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near. I don’t want to be an expert about the last 15 years of ministry. We can’t be satisfied with the status quo even when it is good. If the vision doesn’t drive it, then the past does. When the past drives your ministry, it will lead to irrelevance and will lead to an end. Success breeds complacency, Complacency breeds failure."

It is challenging to see past next weekend. When we get caught in the daily routine of life the temptation is to become too microscopic in our vision and we analyze every detail. This is not bad, but the temptation is there to lose the bigger picture. The opposite could happen when we see to telescopically. Our vision is too big that the details never get taken care of. Either way, in all of these things is the idea that it is thinking forward that allows for us to grow. We can not move in a healthy direction if we continually look backwards.

Have you thought beyond next weekend? Do you still dream? Allow for God to give you your 'life picture' and where you would desire to see yourself in the future.

Christmas & Incarnation

"When God's Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily took on, out of pure grace, our being, our nature, ourselves. This was the eternal counsel of the triune God. Now we are in him. Where he is, there we are too, in the incarnation, on the cross, and in his resurrection. We belong to him because we are in him. That is why the Scriptures call us the Body of Christ."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In light of this statement, remember that as Paul stated - truly God is the one IN whom we live, move, and have our being.

Merry Christmas! Christ has come to us. Christ will come again.

a step back this Christmas

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. . We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide years that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”

Oscar Romero cited in Victor Hunter, Desert Hearts and Healing Fountains, Chalice Press, 2003.

Thanks to Dr. Ben Hartley from Palmer Theological Seminary for sharing this with me.

what child is this?

If this is the season in which we celebrate that God comes to us, then we must take some time to reflect upon the nature of such a revelation. Who is this one then that comes with the ultimate purpose to save? What was it like for him to become one of us in order to redeem us?

Philippians 2: 5 -8

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

The omnipotent became fragile; the omniscient one didn’t even know the ‘day or the hour’; the omnipresent one became a temporal being in history, time, space, and in a human body. This is living and stepping into mystery.

Dietrich Bonheoffer says, “The child in the manger is none other than God himself. Nothing greater can be said: God became a child. In the Jesus child of Mary lives the almighty God. Wait a minute! Don’t speak; stop thinking! Stand still before this statement! God became a child! Here he is, poor like us, miserable and helpless like us, a person of flesh and blood like us, our brother. And yet he is God; he is might. Where is the divinity, where is the might of the child? In the divine love in which he became like us.”

Indeed, God knows what it is like to go through struggle, pain, separation, and hurt. He feels our joys and sorrows for He became one of us in order to save us. There is no greater story of hope for us than this. Live in this reality, that God decided to save us by entering our world. Tell God what you feel and what you are thinking, for He not only knows, He understands. This is the message of Christmas.

Only at Christmas Time

Here are some lyrics from one of my favorite musicians, Sufjan Stevens.

Only at Christmas time

Only a tree to climb

Only at Christmas time

If you can read the sign

Only at Christmas time

Everything lost will find

Only at Christmas time

We remember that, 'cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree'. There is no Calvary without Bethlehem. Merry Christmas.