Day 2 - Consequences for bad behaving do not negate God's good intentions
Scripture focus: This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen. The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said: "This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, to all the exiles I've taken from Jerusalem to Babylon...." Jeremiah 29:1-4 (The Message)
At our weekly NorthStar Community gatherings, our community is trying to follow the instructions found in Eugene Peterson's (also responsible for The Message translation) book - Eat This Book - a beautifully written work on the whys and how-tos of spiritual reading. Peterson exhorts each of us to not only read God's word - but to chew on it, growl over it, gnaw on it like a dog wrestles with a bone.
As I wrestle over Jeremiah 29, it strikes me as amazing that God sent a letter to his people in Babylon. These folks weren't in Babylon on vacation. They were exiled to Babylon as a consequence for bad behaving. Although the Babylonians were a wealthy nation with a healthy army, they weren't exiled in Babylon because the Babylonians were experts at taking over smaller countries - even though they were, indeed, good at it. They were exiled to Babylon because God said so.
One time I painted our son Scott's bedroom with an awesome sports theme. It required several colors and coats of paint, a wallpaper border, cool accessories, and a ton of time. It was a masterpiece (if I do say so myself). And it stayed that way for about a week. Until he and his friends bounced jelly balls off the painted and papered surfaces, leaving sticky marks from floor to ceiling. When I discovered his chicanery, I sent him to his room. Scott was exiled. I did not write him a letter, send him up cookies and milk, or bring him a good book to read. He was banished; thrown in the brig.
Scott's exile was administered by a very distraught mommy. The Jewish people were exiled by a loving God whose intentions for his people are unwavering. I read Jeremiah 29 and I picture a God who loves his children enough to discipline them, but too much to abandon them in their misery. He doesn't leave them in Babylon for 70 years guessing about God's intentions. God tells them straight up. More on God's loving intentions - even in the midst of discipline - tomorrow.
I wonder what would change in our ordinary, daily walking experience if we deliberately, repetitively, consistently went through our days looking for God's good intentions for us - Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light...do you see them? What "chance" encounter, what "serendipitous" moment, what near miss, or small victory, kind word, or "random" act of kindness will cascade down from the Father on you today?
Recommended reading: Leviticus 5 - 8
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Copyright 2008 NorthStar Community
Day 1 - The intentions of GodScripture focus: So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. James 1:16-18 (The Message)Take a moment and dream with me. What if, in the midst of our ordinary, eating, breathing, walking-around daily lives - we came to believe that God's every single solitary intention towards us was good? Not just so-so. Not apathetic acceptance. I'm talking desirable. I'm thinking about beneficial. I'm dreaming about gifts, rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light destined and intended for me. These good gifts aren't intended to deceive, manipulate or trick. These gifts are not given capriciously or with strings attached. What would our lives be like if every morning we woke up, slung our feet over the side of our bed, and hopped up, thinking, "What good gifts will God cascade down upon me today?"One Christmas when I was old enough to know better, my younger brother Bob and I came to believe that we were about to become the proud owners of a cascade of gifts. We were impatient for our reward. We wondered if perhaps Santa, in a move designed for speedy travel and efficiency, might have preemptively stowed some of our gifts in our house. He'd slip in and arrange them Christmas Eve, of course, but our chimney was small and our dreams were large - so exceptions to the sleigh method of delivery had to be made. It wasn't just that our dreams were big - so was our believing. It never occurred to us to doubt Santa's good intentions toward us. So we began a search. In our utility room (easily accessible to a clever Santa with lock picks), stood a large moving box designed to store hanging clothes. It was tall, and we were short - but sturdy. So I hoisted Bob up, grabbed him by the ankles (he was a lot skinnier back in the day), and plunged him over the side of the box to see what might rest in the dark inner belly of the beast. It was precisely at that moment that our father decided to come home through the utility room door. I knew what to do. I let go of those scrawny ankles and skedaddled. Plop dropped Bob into the bottom of the wardrobe. (He's married and has three kids today. I guess he figured out how to get himself of the box.)
Oh how I wish we could all believe God's stated intentions towards us with as much fervor as Bob and I believed in Santa. What kind of world would we create for ourselves and others if we spent each day peeking into the crevices of our lives, looking for those good gifts we know that God has planned for us on this day? Would we be willing to be dangled by our feet to catch a glimpse? Would we be willing to take some risks, dare to go where God might send us, care about what he cares about, and love those he loves? People who wake up expecting God to give them the moon often end up the proud possessors of not only the moon but a constellation of stars too. Be one of those guys.Recommended reading: Leviticus 1 - 4
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Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
Day 28 – The Bride of ChristScripture focus: "I'm telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self." John 5:47-51 The Message"You can't hear God speak to someone else, you can hear him only if you are being addressed." Ludwig Wittgenstein
As we continue to devote ourselves to the recovery of our life – there's one final thing I need to share with you.
No one can chew our food for us.
I often receive lots of feedback and suggestions – all of which I love and appreciate – eventually. Once in a while, someone in our community will urge me to help us dig deeper into the word of God. This is a great suggestion and I'd love to follow it. But a weird thing happens in my brain anytime that word of encouragement is offered. The voice of Jack Nicolson comes blaring through my head, and a scene out of the movie A Few Good Men resonates through my brainwaves.
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" – he hollers to Tom Cruise. Of course, we soon discover that indeed, yes, Tom Cruise can handle the truth. I believe we, too, can handle the truth. But I do not think it is possible for anyone to spoon feed it to us. Here's what I'm thinking. I believe with all my heart that we must learn how to "eat this book" by digging deeper into God's word. But no one can handle this truth for us. This isn't something we will find in a Sunday sermon, or even a small group bible study. This kind of growling and chewing, gnawing and digesting is in many ways is a very private act – between God and the man or woman willing to approach the throne of grace with confidence. My most intimate conversations with my husband don't happen around the dinner table or at parties. They happen in the dark of night, as we end our day, or begin our morning – just the two of us.
So it is with God and each of us.
No one can chew our food for us. Once we have a tasty meal, we might discuss the cuisine with those we live in community with for further clarification, or simply to share the new thing we've heard. But true intimacy with God is not a team sport. It's a marriage. It's personal. However, it will not remain private. As we deepen our commitment to God, this internal connection will leak out into our outside world. And it will be by our fruits that the world will recognize our disciples. May our private meditations leak out in lovely ways as we grow together in our true, God-created identities….
Recommended reading: Psalm 39-41- click on the word comments and join our conversation
Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
Day 27 – God said it, what do we do with it?
Scripture focus: "God said…" [eight times in Genesis] "For he spoke, and it came to be…" Psalm 33:9
"Spiritual theology, using Scripture as text, does not present us with a moral code and tell us 'Live up to this'; nor does it set out a system of doctrine and say, 'Think like this and you will live well.' The biblical way is to tell a story and in the telling invite" 'Live into this – this is what it looks like to be human in this God-made and God-ruled world; this is what is involved in becoming and maturing as a human being.' We do violence to the biblical revelation when we 'use' it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives. That always results in a kind of 'decorator spirituality' – God as enhancement. Christians are not interested in that; we are after something far bigger. When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves." Eat this Book, by Eugene Peterson, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006, pp.43 and 44
Our body and soul – disconnected from the spirit; our world and all that breathes within it without conscious connection to God will fight this message of context.
The present is so relentlessly real.
But if we're going to recover our lives, we must ask God to overcome the demons that come to kill, steal and destroy.
As we allow him to do his thing in that realm, we must wrestle too. We must chew, growl, and gnaw on the word of God.
May this be the year we all gain a taste for his book.
Recommended reading: Psalm 36-38- click on the word comments and join our conversation
Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
Day 26 – A season for this, a season for that..
Scripture focus: I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Ecclesiastes 3:10-14 The Message
A poem by Wendell Berry (Collected Poems San Francisco: North Point, 1985, pp. 190-191)
I am trying to teach my mind To bear the long, slow growth
Of the fields, and to sing
Of its passing while it waits.
The farm must be made a form,
Endlessly bringing together
Heaven and earth, light
And rain building, dissolving,
Building back again
The shapes and actions of the ground.
Eugene Peterson uses this poem to launch his own poetic metaphor. He sees in the connectedness of farm life the same kind of connection that must take place within us, as we relate to God and his word. Peterson urges us to submit our lives to the text of God's word in a messy manner. Nothing can be treated out of context, or in an isolated fashion, or else the whole endeavor falls apart. There's a right time to plant and sow and fertilize. If a person mucks up the order, there's going to be trouble. God invites us into his story and dares us to dance with him. The adventure is bigger than our quirks and needs, our cultural limitations and personal ambitions. It's not neat and tidy and scientific. It's an epic story that helps account for daily life by framing it in the context of eternity. Enter into this story, and our soul is reformed. It is overtaken by the spirit of God, and instead of being a collection of emotions and temperament, it becomes our moral, spiritual, real life God-personal self. Now we're cooking. Our body still has its appetites. But spirit and soul begin to boogey together. And we can begin the process of giving ourselves permission to allow God to have his way with us – in his time.
Recommended reading: Psalm 33-35- click on the word comments and join our conversation
Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
Day 25 – New start ups Scripture focus: You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. Isaiah 58:12 The Message
We kept at it, repairing and rebuilding the wall. The whole wall was soon joined together and halfway to its intended height because the people had a heart for the work…. Nehemiah 4:6 When …[the bad guys] heard that the repairs of the walls of Jerusalem were going so well – that the breaks in the wall were being fixed – they were absolutely furious. They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could. We countered with prayer to our God and a set a round-the-clock guard against them. But soon word was going around in Judah, "The builders are pooped, the rubbish piles up; we're in over our heads, we can't build this wall. And all this time our enemies were saying, "They won't know what hit them. Before they know it we'll be at their throats, killing them right and left. That will put a stop to the work!" The Jews who were their neighbors kept reporting, "They have us surrounded; they're going to attack!" If we heard it once, we heard it ten times. Nehemiah 4:7-12 The Message Something within our spirit loves to start new things – especially when we're helping make our community livable. I like painting my house and buying new carpet to replace the well-worn berber that so many children have trod on over the years. But I love our habitat for humanity projects. I love helping to provide a home for someone who needs a little push to move from a shelter to a place that shelters AND can be called home. I love it. It is spirit-satisfying.
But it is also an invitation to fail. The body and soul grow weary in doing the next right thing. And don't think the world is standing by eagerly desiring to applaud our efforts. The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy.… In a culture grown accustomed to a "me first" mentality, the pursuit of selfless living is an anomaly.
So as we grow in our commitment to seeking out the quiet voice of the spirit, don't expect a big brass band to come alongside and cheer on our efforts. We'll need an armed guard to pass safely into the promised land – the world of living God's way.
Recommended reading: Psalm 30-32- click on the word comments and join our conversation
Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
Day 24 - Why we renovate
Scripture focus: You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. Isaiah 58:12 The Message
We kept at it, repairing and rebuilding the wall. The whole wall was soon joined together and halfway to its intended height because the people had a heart for the work…. Nehemiah 4:6Where did the people get a heart for the work? God planted that desire within them before they were born. Although we have practiced the habit of obsession over the clamoring of body (appetite) and soul (feelings and personality) – there is a still, quiet voice vying for our attention too. It is the voice of the spirit. We were created way down deep in our souls to build anew, rebuild on the rubble of our past, fix stuff, restore old treasures, rebuild and renovate. All this rebuilding is extremely focused for the purpose of making our community livable again. This is an act of community, not a self-focused call to keep remodeling our own tiny interiors.
The act of building anew is for the purpose of making our community livable. The ability to fix anything is for the purpose of making our community livable. The willingness to restore old ruins is for the purpose of making our community livable. The urge to rebuild is created within us so that we will do what it takes to make our community livable.
The need to renovate is for the purpose of making our community livable.
But for those swept away by the lust for body and soul satisfaction – disconnected from the spirit – these urgings are not so much a higher calling, as they are a competitor who must be squashed. To be continued….
Recommended reading: Psalm 27-29- click on the word comments and join our conversation
Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
