• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

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”

Filed under: Gospel, Reflection | Leave a comment »

Classic Reflections

Posted on December 15, 2010 by wtdavid

From time to time during Advent, I like to read some of the ancient texts which reflect on Christ’s coming.  Here is one from the 5th century that might cause you to marvel again that the Word became flesh for us:

 “Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. … Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the Gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fullness of time … has taken on him the nature of [humanity], thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that which he had conquered. And in this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wondrous principles of fairness; for the Almighty Lord enters the lists with his savage foe not in his own majesty but in our humility, opposing him with the same form and the same nature, which shares indeed our mortality, though it is free from all sin.”

If there is an ancient text that you find helpful in preparing your heart this season, why not share it with us.  Feel free to post it as a comment.

Filed under: Community, Gospel | 1 Comment »

Advent: Preparation Time

Posted on December 14, 2010 by wtdavid

Advent is a time for us to “prepare” our hearts to celebrate the amazing event of the incarnation; an event we would not have anticipated or guessed in some respects. 

Watch this short video (for December 14th) from the UK Christian website, Damaris, which seeks to ready our hearts to consider once again the wonder of our God becoming human:

http://www.damaris.org/christmascountdown/

I am amazed to see how many people around me, here in Europe, can so easily “miss” Jesus as they are preparing for the festivities of this holiday season, just as those in Jesus’ day missed the Messiah.  If I am honest, I can find myself as well swept up by all the activity and “miss” Jesus and the “kind of Messiah God planned to give to the world.”  I can miss taking the long view and forget that the small child in the manger would one day cry out, “It is finished,” giving up His life as an exchange for my freedom, my redemption.

“Time to prepare.”  I need that time at this “time” of the year.  May our preparation time lead us to the manger, to the cross and to the empty tomb.

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Listening to God

Posted on December 13, 2010 by wtdavid

Thanks to John W. for this week’s post on A Praying Life:

I have appreciated Paul Miller’s “A Praying Life”.  Some of the old classics honestly left me cold or overwhelmed.  This is a wonderful book steeped in the experience of a man who learned to walk prayerfully with God as (with his wife Jill) as he raised his autistic daughter. This is one of the most refreshing books on prayer I have read, which shows that at the heart of prayer is a unique attitude of sincere trust in God without skepticism and with a conscious connection with God in a “distracting world”.

It is not expressly a how-to book, or a doctrinal lesson on prayer.  It is a biography of a praying life!  And yet, the doctrine is there, and the how to of prayer is there too; but not in dogma; rather by example.

I found chapter 10 is one of the gems of this book. A certain kind of “listening to God” has recently become a bit of a fad in some circles. Of course, we must listen to God; but Paul Miller shows us two fundamental extremes or errors to avoid:

On the one hand, listening to God becomes a legalistic exercise in obedience to the letter, without allowing the Spirit of God to direct or change the heart.

On the other hand, listening to God becomes a subjective experience and feeling which too easily runs amok (unguarded by Scripture), and baptizes our selfish desires with religious language.

Paul Miller strikes the balance.

Filed under: Prayer, Reflection | 4 Comments »

Gathering Together in 2011

Posted on December 10, 2010 by wtdavid

In less than 30 days, we will enter into 2011 during which we as a World Team community will host five Area conferences.  These conferences are meant to be a forum for ongoing prayer and discussion as to how God desires that we as a community work out our global vision of “innovative teams multiplying disciples and communities of believers, bringing the Gospel within reach of lost people everywhere we go.”

Each conference will be structured around three core elements:

  • Concerted time given to prayer
  • Significant interaction and discussion about how our church planting vision will be implemented in one’s Area
  • Opportunities to deepen community with others in one’s Area.

 The logo above of “Mission¹¹: Vision Forward” is a way to try and capture what we pray, by God’s graceful activity, will happen during our time together.  You may have already seen it in some of the correspondence sent out by Area coordinators of this conference.

When you hear the statement: Mission¹¹: Vision Forward, what comes to your mind and heart? 

Why not ask someone else from where you serve the same question and post both their and your responses to the TATJ blog.

Filed under: Community, Prayer | Leave a comment »

Savoring the beauty of God

Posted on December 9, 2010 by wtdavid

While reading this week, I came across this quote from Jonathan Edwards: “The first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration, is to give the heart a divine taste or sense; to cause it to have a relish of the loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the divine nature.”

It really seemed to capture the thought that God desires both our mind and our heart; that He desires the engagement of our mind in thinking about Him, which leads to a greater heart passion for Him, and in turn would drive us to want to know Him more by thinking more deeply about Him. 

One writer put it this way: “A person must not only see the effects of God’s work in the world but also savor the beauty of God’s nature in the gospel, and in all that he has made, and in all that he does.”

Let us not grow “weary” in our pursuit of Him.

Filed under: Thinking, Worship | Leave a comment »

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