Claimed, gathered and sent

As we near the end of Lent moving toward the cross and resurrection, the need of forgiveness commands our attention. This post from Scot McKnight says it well. March 30, 2007 Friday is for Friends Filed under: Books: Remarks and Reviews — Scot McKnight @ 2:30 am Any study of the disciplines that shape Christian community eventually comes face to face with forgiveness, and Darryl Tippens, Pilgrim Heart , turns to this theme in chp. 9. I remind readers that we touched on forgiveness and memory when we looked for weeks at Miroslav Volf’s The End of Memory ; Tippens gets us there once again. The theme must remain central to any understanding of the The chp is called “Forgiving: The Love that Travels Farther.” We are back to the same question: How might we learn to forgive more? Are we ready to be the genesis of forgiveness in our world? Tippens opens up with stories of those who were about to die, at the hands treachery, but who publicly declared their forgiveness of perpe...

In the blog JesusCreed, Scot McKnight posted this about women in ministry: March 29, 2007 Women in Ministry: First Mary Filed under: Women and Ministry , Mary — Scot McKnight @ 2:30 am The most neglected texts about women in ministry in the entire Bible are texts about Mary, and because our class has been looking at Mary of late, I thought I’d make a few suggestions about Mary and Ministry for women. It won’t do to dismiss these points as nothing more than what only the mother of Jesus could do. (read more…) I’ll suggest that Mary was first in many ways. 1. Mary was the first to know about arrival of the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of the Most High God (Luke 1:26-38). 2. Mary was the first to surrender to God’s new redemptive plan in Jesus (Luke 1:38). One could say she was the “first disciple” from this. 3. Mary became — however you care to say it — the first witness to Jesus Christ. Only she was there at the very beginning, so only she was able to te...

Is any work done for Christ's glory insignificant? Check out this article. The following article is located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/workplace/articles/attitude/praisegruntwork.html In Praise of Grunt Work By Robert Darden A great storm mercilessly lashes a small island. The clouds pass, and a father and his son walk down to the beach where the sea's surge has washed tens of thousands of starfish onto the beach, all dying in the sun. The little boy frantically begins throwing them back into the sea, and the man puts a gentle hand on the boy's heaving shoulders. "Son, there are too many. You can't make any difference." The boy pauses to consider a starfish in his hand. "It makes a difference to this one," he says. And he tosses it back into the sea. The unsinkable Titanic breaks apart and a thousand souls perish because of a six-foot gash. The small bolts securing the massive steel plates are inferior material carel...

How apropos as we travel through to the end of Lent to the cross and the grave. March 29, 2007 The Call to Die Jesus's summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only we who are dead to our own will can follow Christ. In fact every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life. The call to discipleship, the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, means both death and life. The call of Christ, his baptism, sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day we encounter new temptations, and every day we must suffer anew for Jesus Christ's sake. The wounds and scars we receive in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of our Lord. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - from A Testament to Freedom 314 from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 20...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer presented us with quite a challenge. Consider this... BONHOEFFER for MONDAY March 26, 2007 Serious Discipleship If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering. The psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected...and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only those thus totally committed in discipleship can experi...

Henri Nouwen made an interesting observation about hiddenness. See what you think. Friendship in the Twilight Zones of Our Heart There is a twilight zone in our own hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know quite a lot about ourselves - our gifts and weaknesses, our ambitions and aspirations, our motives and drives - large parts of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness. This is a very good thing. We always will remain partially hidden to ourselves. Other people, especially those who love us, can often see our twilight zones better than we ourselves can. The way we are seen and understood by others is different from the way we see and understand ourselves. We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends. That's a grace, a grace that calls us not only to humility but also to a deep trust in those who love us. It is in the twilight zones of our hearts where true friendships are born.

Take a look at this. It brought me up short and reminded me what my attitude should be. Work Is a Sacred Trust by Nancy Ortberg March 22, 2007 | The summer I was 15, I locked myself in the bathroom. Not for the typical reasons. There was no fight with my parents or disappointing love interest. I wasn’t trying to hide tears or cool down a temper. I had just received my first paycheck. It wasn’t just the paycheck I loved. That was just symbolic. It was work I loved. I loved the feeling of doing something that mattered, something that helped other people, something that I could accomplish. Growing up, I awoke each morning to the smell of coffee and the sight of my dad in his crisp white shirt and tie, sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper. His aftershave gently filled the room and there was a sense of anticipation in him as he readied to start the work day. My dad loved what he did, and he was good at it. That was a dynamic combination. Every morning my mothe...