Author: Craig

Jesus sets you free.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.   John 8:31-36

Disciples of Jesus are free.

But they have got to know their desperate situation.

They have got to know what sin is up to.

Sin makes its slaves.

Sin is not just a list of bad acts; 

Its a condition of independence and separation from God.

Jesus says people are slaves to sin.

If that’s the case there is no freedom from the consequences of sin.

We are bound to the evidence of our brokenness: to our guilt, to our shame, to our fear.

Jesus says His word, his teaching, brings us into freedom.

Freedom from sin… may this be a progressive reality we experience more and more.

How?

The Son must set us free.

Knowing truth is a product of abiding in His Word.

Abiding, Waiting, listening, cherishing His Word.

Abide: that’s the word of a free person.

Abide in the word of Jesus and you will

abide in the house of God… like a child enjoy family privilege.

At home with God.

That’s the condition sin always seeks to disturb.

Listen to Jesus.

He says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31

 

God With Us

/ Craig / Leave a comment

Faith in Jesus generates hope. Hope is not a fatalistic “what happens happens” attitude. Hope looks forward and expects God who is good will show up.  Hope is with us when we look forward and wonder how one child could change the world.

Mary was pregnant. Miraculously. And here’s how they understood that bit of history:

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).  Matthew 1:22-23

Jesus is our hope. He is Immanuel. He is “God with us.”

You may wonder if you have reasons for hope.

If you have Jesus, you have at least one:

God with us.

Immanuel.

 

A Black Friday Deal

/ Craig / Leave a comment

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

3Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

my steadfast, sure love for David.”
Isaiah 55:1-3

 

God’s invitation: come and hear from Him that your soul may live.

 

In the aisle of good deals our souls do not live.

 

His Word delivered to us from His presence is life.

 

Jesus said, “A sower went out to sow his seed…”

That seed is the word of the Kingdom of God.

To see with our eyes.

 

To hear with our ears.

 

To understand… with our heart.

 

And to turn to Him… and be healed!

 

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call upon him while he is near;

7let the wicked forsake his way,

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:6-11

 

Grief ~ The gift we hesitate to open.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

I have had sadness welling up in my heart and mind since the weekend. Two UBC students died in a horrible accident on the Sea to Sky highway on Saturday. My heart goes out to their families and friends. But I confess I have had my own reluctance to fully enter into the feelings rising to the surface. You see, I have experienced great loss this year and I know there are still sensitivities and unresolved pain there for me and especially for my friends who feel the weight of their loss more dearly.

Christmas is coming.

Gifts are wrapped.

But there is a tear in the paper and I see a gift that comes with tears. Shall I open it?

Loss and grief crash through the thin veneer of invincibility we wear as a shield to our vulnerabilities and mortality. I have a smouldering anger just under the surface. The smoke stings my eyes and generates fear. Its a fear of losing again.

Christians believe God enters into our suffering, our loss, and our grief.

When Jesus came from the communion of God to enter with flesh into the relationships He had ordained for us: with God the Father, with people, with self, and with the stuff of earth, Jesus did not come with a special shield against loss and grief.

He had friends; He attached; His daily life was woven intricately with their lives with memory, with presence, and with hope for the future. They did life together. Knowing that his friend Lazarus had died and knowing that He would raise Lazarus up did not give Jesus immunity against the grief.

32Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  John 11:32-

God meets us in our grief and people can too.

Losses come. Grief is the pain telling us all is not well in the world. The smile of God seems hidden. But if we meet Him in that grief, if we wait for Him in that pain, our hope is that we will live again.

We don’t have to open this grief gift alone. Its good to reach out to friends and family, to pastors and counsellors, for company and when we are ready some insight. Opening the gift requires talking and knowing someone else is listening as a witness to our grief.

What about happiness?

I think the well of joy we long to drink from must be dug through the ground of our grief. Its too easy to settle for surface pleasantries and trivial cover-ups.

The extraordinary reality of Jesus’ identity was hidden from Mary and Martha and even the disciples until they entered into the grief with him. Jesus’ declaration, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” surely filled their hearts and minds through the years.

Oh how He loves us!

Here’s Brene Brown sharing how this story of Jesus’ grief brought life to her.

Lucky, Ping Pong, & Redeeming the Time

/ Craig / Leave a comment

Walk as children of light 9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord… Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:9-10, 14-21

“Its just Lucky!”

In University I spent lots of free time at our local BSM building at the University of Georgia. The ping pong and pool tables were privy to scenes that could be used to chart the rise and fall of empires! My friend Lucky would meet me at least once a week. And with each aggressive slap of that ping pong ball he would cry out, “Its just Lucky!”

When we were done, or rather when he was done with me, he would announce, “I’m off to redeem the time.” And away he went.

Lucky sought to live full of the Spirit of God. He was saved by Jesus and experienced healing in a baptist hospital in Nigeria. Afterwards he began to preach the Gospel. By his account he preached by the Spirit of God what he didn’t even “know yet,” as he was just reading the Bible. He loved Jesus and he was conscious of time as a gift from God. Redeeming the time for him, meant to be a part of the Kingdom life and to use his time wisely.

 Redeeming the Time

The Apostle Paul writes that we are to pay attention to our lifestyle, to live wisely “making the best use of time. “

7 Best Use of Time Suggestions:

1. Create habits that save you time and energy.

2. Avoid the tyranny of the urgent by identifying what’s important but not yet urgent. Block out the time to attend to these daily.

3. Divide a page into the key demands or your areas of responsibility and make lists at the beginning of each week; check regularly throughout the day.

4. Attend to the habitual actions that squander your time. As you identify these time wasters eliminate or manage them with different “rules.” For example you could say, “I won’t surf Facebook, Pinterest, etc. until after 9 PM.”

5. Create little “finish lines.” You could divide your day into 90 minute chunks and then take a “recovery break” in order to refuel, recharge, and create the energy for focusing again.

6. Identify “when” (what part of the day) you are best able to focus and put your most demanding work into that time slot.

7. Watch for the “interruptions” in your plan & agenda that actually may be God’s opportunity for you to join Him in the work of His Kingdom.

 

Redeem the time!