Easter Sunrise

I went to a sunrise Easter service out at a ranch that belongs to some members of our church. The house is situated near the edge of high ridge overlooking a valley or maybe it is a canyon. Down in the distance, you can see deer browsing in the grass or wild hogs rooting around. From the back yard where we sat, the sun was coming up directly before us. A large wooden cross was in the middle of the yard. The pastor stood near it.

The ranch owners’ grown daughter told us a story about how she had a plan when she was nine years old, to go to town. It was cold, and she was angry and barefooted, but she was determined to get to town to find her mother, who had left her with her older sister for a few minutes to run an errand. Her plan was thwarted, of course, before she got very far down the road; someone called police, and they came and got her before something awful could happen to her. God has a plan, she said. His plan is dependable, unlike hers, based on love.

We sang a few songs and we had communion. Birdsong filled the air. It was cold, but the March wind was fairly still. I was happy to be there with all those people I love, praising God for his amazing love and his plan, based on love.

His plan is surprising in its simplicity. I used to think I had to work my way to him, that I couldn’t deserve his love. But I was surprised to learn that his love is free; I don’t have to work for it or deserve it. It is a gift. This is the surprise of Easter. He is risen, and he lives, not as a worldly king, but as the son of God, the one who leads us freely to his father through love. I want to live my life in the surprise of Easter.

Easter Sunrise

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2008/03/easter-sunrise.html

E-Mail: Ecclesiastes

This is an interesting e-mail exchange I had with my friend Maxey after my two entries about Ecclesiastes, “Ecclesiastes: Futility” and “Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose.”


Maxey wrote:

Your information about Ecclesiastes was very good. As a matter of fact, I read the book first period, while my freshman students were watching THE ODYSSEY. I have always enjoyed Chapter 3:1-8. I guess we do live in a world of checks and balances, the good and the bad, the positives and the negatives---hopefully with more good people than bad ones.

We must realize that all of us must accept the truth, fear the Lord, and be accountable for our actions. It's too bad that we must FEAR so often in order to act properly.

Will you please explain Chapter 10:19 (A feast...)? I don't understand the part about the money.


Judy wrote:

I looked up Ecclesiastes 10:19 in several different translations, and here is the one that seems most likely to me--it's the NIV Readers version:

People laugh at a dinner party.
And wine makes life happy.
People think money can buy everything.

So it's probably not that money actually is the answer to everything, but that people think it is. What do you think?


Maxey wrote:

I understand now. The verse deals with man's thoughts, not God's. We often resort to food, alcohol, and the lust for money as an escape and alleviation for mundane problems. Instead, all we have to do is follow God and His ways, for He is the answer to everything. Sounds simple, doesn't it?


Judy wrote:

Yes, it does sound pretty simple. If only we could wrap our minds around this simple truth!

E-Mail: Ecclesiastes

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/e-mail-ecclesiastes.html

Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose

The second week of the study of Ecclesiastes in the Disciple Bible Study is different from the first. I feel much more comfortable with it. This week, we are asked to read it through the viewpoint of hope and love—through sure knowledge of the grace of God and faith in him through Jesus.

The assignment says this:

As we discovered last week, many people see only futility, even despair, in Ecclesiastes. Now, look for the good things in life. Look for the joys, modest though they may be.

The human condition statement in the lesson describes us accurately, as they do in all the lessons:

Only five more days till the weekend. Only eleven more months till vacation. Only twenty more years till retirement. We’re preparing. One of these days, we’ll be able to enjoy life.

The writer of Ecclesiastes began to see life as meaningless, because it will just end in death. He hit an existential void of sorts, letting himself get weighed down by Satan’s messages of cynicism, depression, heaviness of heart. He tried all kinds of things to see if he could find meaning and purpose to satisfy his heart—huge projects, wealth, possessions, women, pleasure, work. But it all ends in death, no matter what.

He realized that happiness is found only in knowing and loving God. Some of his important conclusions are these:

God has put eternity—a sense of it—in people’s hearts, so they are capable of knowing God. People can comprehend that even though human endeavors all eventually end, what God does lasts forever.

There is too much evil and oppression in the world. Even so, there is strength in our connection with others; “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

It is important to stand in awe of God, to seek wisdom, to avoid love of wealth. Joy comes from following him.

Whatever you do, he says, do it with all your heart.

Share with other people; “cast your bread upon the waters.” It will come back to you, multiplied.

Remember God all your life.

Just because God often connects things for me, I looked up today’s (Dec. 2) My Utmost for His Highest entry by Oswald Chambers, and sure enough, it ties in. Ecclesiastes is timely:

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that hits you is the pointlessness of the things you have to do. The next thought that strikes you is that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives may leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary— that through your own human effort and devotion you can attain God’s standard for your life. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.

Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/ecclesiastes-meaning-and-purpose.html

Bush Fish . . .

I believe the focus here might be a bit skewed. Who saves?

In his book Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne points out this car sign. He comments, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

He says, “It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag. No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays. It’s difficult to know where Christianity ends and America begins."

Bush Fish . . .

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/bush-fish.html

Difficult Words of Jesus

My blog-o-friend TS wrote that he was reading his Bible—the sixth chapter of John--on the bus recently when he began to question “whether Jesus actually spoke the exact words quoted in John or not.” He says, “This posed a problem, because I believe any real Christian has to believe in the inerrancy of scripture simply because it can't be inspired if it's not accurate. And if it's not inspired, then why are you believing it?”

Through Jesus, God was trying to establish a “new covenant”—a new way of understanding the people-God relationship—a new way of relating. He wants us to be totally committed to him, to be filled with delight in him, to be open to all the riches of his love. He offers a relationship grounded in personal, passionate oneness with him; in fact, he longs for such a relationship with us. We long for it, too, whether we realize it or not, and we have a large, empty space that can be filled only by God.

In the Bible are many images of physical closeness. These illustrate, I believe, how close we can be to God. After I had read these things about 98 times, prayed a lot, and puzzled until my puzzler was sore, I realized that God was trying to show people through these images--especially in images of eating and drinking—how complete oneness with him can be.

In Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel had a vision in which God told him to eat a scroll. He did, and it tasted “as sweet as honey,” and it filled his stomach, so that then, he could go out and talk to the people about God.

The Lord’s Supper is a time of eating the bread (Christ’s body broken for you) and drinking the wine (his blood shed for you). It's a time when we remember him and open our hearts to him.

Jesus offered a Samaritan woman living water in John 4:8-26 . We can find many other “living water” references.

In the part TS was reading, John 6, Jesus said he is the living bread—the bread that gives eternal life. He said, “I am the bread of life. . . . if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then he said, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” Some people were horrified because they thought he was talking about cannibalism.

I don’t think that is what he meant at all.

If you think about it, when you eat something, it becomes so much part of you that you can no longer separate it from yourself—it nourishes you, gives you strength, keeps you alive. In a very real sense, what you eat and drink creates you, giving you life. In a physical way, your body cannot live without food and drink. In a spiritual way, you cannot live without “eating” the bread of life—Jesus Christ—taking him into yourself completely so that he is part of you.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” (John 6:57).

Difficult Words of Jesus

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/10/difficult-words-of-jesus.html