Gospel | Thoughts Along The Journey

A Bubbling Fountain for Thirsty Souls

Posted on January 7, 2011 by wtdavid

The Americas Area is preparing for their Area conference [Mission 11: Vision Forward] by looking at the Gospel of John. Today’s post by Myles spoke to my heart, and I asked if I could share it with the entire World Team community:

“[John 7] 37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive… – John 7:37-39

Today, I come to John 7 a very thirsty man.

As 2010 has passed, Carol and I find ourselves, in the words of Psalm 63, in a ‘dry and weary land.’ This past year swept over us as a perfect storm of arid care-giving demands:

– For 8 months, Tim, our wonderful son-in-law has been struggling deeply with a crippling neurological–and as yet undiagnosed–disease that has stripped him of his job, his dignity and his ability to walk pain free or without a walker.

– For 14 months, my 91-year old live-in Mom has been recovering slowly from a serious hip break. Now confined to a wheel chair, we are grieving with her the loss of memory, freedom and dignity.

– For 120 months, Mattie Jeanne, our delightful 10-year granddaughter, has been weathering a series of congenital malfunctions, corrective surgeries and therapies. 2010 brought several new and serious diagnoses; one of which is a rare heart issue that could be life threatening.

I am thirsty today as I prepare to go with Tim and Deb to Emory Hospital for an MRI consultation with Tim’s neurologist and his colleagues. Our weariness crashes upon us like a wave. No quick fixes or easy answers here. The desert goes on as far as the eye can see. My self-centered flesh asks, “Is it time for a ‘pity party?”

Then came the Oasis in the wasteland. As we began to pray the Gospel to ourselves this morning, the tears began to flow. Tears of grief, turn to tears of repentance and finally tears of joy. The Holy hush of the Spirit’s presence has come upon us. Jesus, once again, is allowed to take center stage. The bubbling fountain of God’s presence more than quenches our thirst.

He is the Oasis, both with and within us, for each faltering step we take through whatever desert through which we currently find ourselves journeying. He is the source of shade, shelter, food and water. His presence in us brings rest, refreshment and joy; a refreshing foretaste of the Beauty that lies at journey’s end.

The glory of the wilderness is thus: Without the parched lips and raging thirst, we would never seek the Oasis.”

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Humility, Prayer | 1 Comment »

Curing Cynicism

Posted on December 27, 2010 by wtdavid

Thanks to Noah for this week’s post on A Praying Life:

During this holiday season, Miller’s chapters on cynicism (9 and 10) are particularly apropos. Charlie Brown’s Christmas seems like naïve optimism, hopelessly out of touch amidst the hustle and bustle of earthier holiday specials that feature broken families, sparkling with conflict and laden with crass humor. It is particularly obvious during the Christmas season that, as Miller says, “Cynicism is, increasingly, the dominant spirit of our age.” Exhibitions of Dickensian families modeling the perfect relationships are no longer appealing to our culture of rubbernecking window-shoppers. That stuff is “just not realistic.” We know better. It’s not such A Wonderful Life, after all, and if you get your hopes up…

Among the materialistic cynicism, the birth of the Messiah gets too tightly swaddled the ethereal tones of Silent Night to shed light on our cynical age for what it is: the answer to Israel’s prayer for the nations. Israel was commissioned to be God’s instrument of deliverance in the world (Gen. 12:1-2; Ex. 19:5-6). They had failed repeatedly in their mission, and the world remained as hopeless. It was becoming very obvious that they were not the answer. Now, all they could do was pray. The birth of Jesus marks the dramatic reversal that answered the groaning plea of the failed people in Isaiah 26:16-9:

“As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, LORD. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life. But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.”

To many, Christian hope sounds like gooey gumdrops and candy cane dreams – the stuff of holiday cheer. But the signals of transcendence – the clues and signs of “something more”, a Providential plan and the possibilities of hope – that culture attempts to articulate during the holiday season should only serve to augment the contrast between our hopeful prayers and the world’s cynical expressions. Truly, as Miller says, “To be cynical is to be distant.” Prayer draws us near. It “engages evil” and hopes in God. It is the most realistic thing we can do.

Boy, am I a product of this generation! Miller’s “cure for cynicism” that encouraged us to “learn to hope again” was particularly poignant. I love to dream. But it feels “like so much foolishness” when tempered by the extremities of the world’s dilemma. And it doesn’t feel like it’s doing much, sometimes. I pray the news, but it happens anyway. As he says, “Prayer feels pointless, as if we are talking to the wind” with that attitude. “But Jesus is all about hope.” Could it be that “Disney is right,” as Miller claims? Yes, for the Promise Fulfilled in the Birth of Christ is the substance of my faith. It happened. The Promise was fulfilled. Prayer was answered; prayer will be answered.

This season provides us the perfect opportunity to draw near to God in prayer, confident that the birth of His Son was only the beginning of fulfillment. There is a happy ending to this cynical age: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Returning to this reality – the essential promise of Christmas – should be a daily discipline, so that we may remain unspotted by the world’s detached cynicism. May this be our Christmas anthem: “In keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation…” (2 Peter 3:13-14). And when I can’t say this with a straight face to my brothers and sisters for fear of sounding too hopeful, too sublime – I will remember how far I have fallen from the Truth of Christ’s birth – and return in practical, realistic, everyday prayer.

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Joyeux Noel

Posted on December 24, 2010 by wtdavid

From our family to yours, may you marvel, wonder, and worship the one true living God who came in the flesh to redeem us.

May your Christmas celebrations be full of the joy of knowing that “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”, so that one day around the throne of the Lamb people from every tribe, tongue and nation would praise and adore Him!

Joyeux Noel! Merry Christmas!

When I was a child, my great aunt used to train me down to Center City Philadelphia, to stroll through the then John Wanamaker’s department store (now Macy’s). We marveled at all the Christmas decorations, including the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the store. Then we would stand and listen to famous Wanamaker organ play Christmas carols. This year, a friend sent the following YouTube video, and those childhood memories came flooding back. Except this year, a “random act of culture” provided a small picture of God’s amazing “breakthrough” into our world, as singers “broke into” the Christmas rush to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Enjoy!

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Continuing to Cultivate Repentance

Posted on December 22, 2010 by wtdavid

Meditation on a given subject is often furthered by looking at what older writers have written. As I was thinking about “cultivating repentance”, I pulled a book of my shelf from one of those older writers and this is what I read:

“What we all desperately need to see is that the love of a holy God is manifested covenantly at the cross. In the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Father promises to receive contrite sinners on a daily, no hourly basis. The cross says: “No matter what your sins, unlimited mercy is available to those who turn to God through Jesus’ merits.”

Thus at Calvary we behold the infinite nearness and compassion of the infinitely majestic god. The Father in the gift of His Son has put Himself under eternal obligation to returning sons and daughters. Having satisfied the demands of His own holy law, the Father must open His might arms and embrace every returning son and daughter. And he must do it every day. He has promised to do it (Luke 15:11-32, 1 John 1:8-10) … but without sincere repentance there can be no face-to-face fellowship with the Father of lights …

True, we can affect a certain awe in our prayers as we tell the Lord that “we are not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies.” Yet such praying does not get the fountain clean at its deepest source. It says very little about particular sins which we commit daily and the root sins of pride, unbelief, and lust which clog up our lives …

Ask the Holy Spirit to make you willing to be searched by God (Ps. 139:23-24). Do not expect the process of searching to be always painless and pleasant. But you will begin to have the joy of a clear conscience and a deepening fellowship with Christ. As you learn to thirst after Christ and drink of Him, you will find the living waters of the Holy Spirit flowing through you (John 7:37-39). No longer will you be merely existing, you will be living and from you waters will overflow into other lives.”

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“Sweet Little Jesus Boy”

Posted on December 17, 2010 by wtdavid

Music has always been one of the languages of the soul. Listen to this song and let us reflect on the amazing grace of the One who would open our eyes and hearts to receive His love:

Sweet little Jesus boy, born in a manger

Sweet little Holy child, we didn’t know who You were

Long time ago it seems You were born

Born in a manger Lord, sweet little Jesus boy

Didn’t know You’d come to save us all

To take our sins away

Our eyes were blind we did not see

We didn’t know who You were

You have shown us how

And we are trying

Master You have shown us how

Even as You were dying

This world treats You mean Lord

Treats me mean too

But that’s how things are done down here

We didn’t know it was You

Didn’t know You’d come to save us all

To take our sins away

Our eyes were blind we did not see

We didn’t know who You were

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Classic Reflections Again

Posted on December 16, 2010 by wtdavid

I owe this classic text from John Wilson:

His Image Recovered, by Scott Cairns (from Love’s Immensity)

“So—and yes, I’m asking—what was the God to do?

What other course—His being God and All—but to renew His lately none-too-vivid Image in the aspect of mankind, so that, by His Icon thus restored, we dim occasions might once more come to know Him? And how should this be done, save by the awful advent of the very God Himself, our Lord and King and gleaming Liberator Jesus Christ?

Here, beloved numbskulls, is a little picture: You gather, one presumes, what must be done when a portrait on a panel becomes obscured—maybe even lost—to external stain.

The artist does not discard the panel, though the subject must return to sit for it again, whereupon the likeness is etched once more upon the same material. As He tells us in the Gospel, I came to seek and to save that which was lost—our faces, say.”

Read it again in light of this painting by Richard Caemmerer: “Incarnation”