A Pastor in The Northwest

In his Rule for monastic communities, Benedict of Nursia wrote,  “Such a follower of Christ lives in reverence of him and does not take the credit for a good life but, believing that all the good we do comes from the Lord, gives him credit and thanksgiving for what his gift brings about in our hearts. In that spirit, our prayer from the psalm should be: Not to us, O Lord, not to us give the glory but to your own name.  God deserves all the credit for anything good we enjoy. Our role? Simply gratitude. Lord, remind me often to whom the credit goes! Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

 In one of the devotional resources I read today, I loved this statement: The words often on Jesus’ lips in His last days express vividly the idea, “going to the Father.” We, too, who are Christ’s people, have vision of something beyond the difficulties and disappointments of this life. We are journeying towards fulfillment, completion, expansion of life. We, too, are “going to the Father.” Much is dim concerning our home-country, but two things are clear. It is home, “the Father’s House.” It is the nearer presence of the Lord. We are all wayfarers, but the believer knows it and accepts it. He is a traveller, not a settler. Cowman, L. B. (1925). Streams in the Desert (pp. 305–306). The Oriental Missionary Society. A traveler, not a settler.  Wow. That greatly affects how we view our moments, hours, and years here on Earth right? This reminds me of a quote I've read and heard often from the late CS Lewis: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, th

One of my favorite prayers in Scripture comes from Lamentations 3, which is quite difficult to read. The writer is going through incredible challenges and yet, in the middle of the chapter, he writes: 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Whoa. No matter what difficulties we face, God's unfailing love is ours! Paul David Tripp writes, "God's steadfast, faithful, and never-failing love has been placed on you even though you never could have done anything to earn or deserve it." Dear Lord,  F or Your never-failing love and new morning mercies, we thank you! Good song about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoezWBPGRAc   Photo by Derick McKinney on Unsplash

When followers of Jesus affirm "Jesus is Lord", that reality is life-altering! He alone calls the shots. His agenda is our agenda, and, well, in the face of any world power or leader, Jesus and his power is always greater, and allegiance to Him only is the way forward. In NT Wright and Michael Bird's book Jesus and the Powers , I read this powerful assessment,  "Even to whisper ‘Jesus is Lord’, then, carried with it an air of challenge, that perhaps Caesar’s lordship, with its pretention to divine status and unrivalled supremacy, spoke not to invincibility but to idolatry. This is precisely why the pagan philosopher Celsius accused the Christians of being guilty of ‘religious rantings’ or ‘seditious sayings’ by devoting themselves exclusively to Jesus and refusing to honour local and imperial deities.51 If so, then, it means that Paul was not a travelling evangelist offering people a new religious experience, but an ambassador for a king-in-waiting, establishing cell

Everyone must 'bear their own cross' We've heard this before, right? Maybe these days, in our current cultural moment, this phrase is lost or misunderstood. It comes from Jesus' statement recorded by Luke in Luke 9:23 (ESV): And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Initially, this sounds quite troubling right? A cross, well, that was a one-way trip to one's death - a horrible death to be exact. Then there's the carrying - a burden to be handled daily. Ugh. However, if we hear this from a first-century perspective, we might find some hope in that statement. Certainly, there is a metaphor in Jesus' words, yet, for Him, this was an actual reality. The Greek word for 'deny' means a refusing to follow or consent - basically, our way will lead to our demise but Jesus' ways, lead to life! Then, the daily carrying of a cross would invoke the vivid picture of someone fully losi

For a good portion of my life, I've been in a hurry. Hurry to get work done so I can play. Hurry to find the right person to marry to get that settled. Hurry to find success in my career. Hurry to accomplish and conquer and achieve.  This led to many, many mistakes, heartaches, and even migraines. Ugh. However, now that I've hit my 50s, I've come to recognize the immense power of slowing down, downshifting, and allowing other people to thrive and achieve. I've learned the genius of Sabbath rest, of quiet silence, and of contemplative prayer and fasting.  In the Scriptures, many seasons of waiting, rest, and the silence of God occur. At times God is on the move and He uses humans to do great things, but more often than I realized, He uses the downtime to shape, mold and build up our faith muscles.  God might lead us into major activity or lead us beside still waters (Ps 23). Moses had years of no recorded leading or communication by God. Abraham had to navigate vague dir