Author: Craig

Praying with Patrick

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  I invite you to take some time and pray with this missionary to Ireland.  The prayer below is traditionally associated with Patrick and is called Patrick’s Breastplate.

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me—

against snares of devils,

against temptations of vices,

against inclinations of
nature,

against everyone who shall
wish me ill, afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd.

Christ to protect me today.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,  Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today through a mighty strength, the
invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness towards the Creator.

Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of Christ.
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.  AMEN.

On Discipleship

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This past week I continued preaching from Mark 8 at our weekend worship gathering.  The passage is a hinge text for the whole Gospel of Mark.  It is a hinge between seeing the power of Jesus and seeing the weakness of Jesus.   It turns us from the question of Who is Jesus? to the question of What kind Messiah will Jesus be?  In the answer to those questions we realize what it means to be Jesus’ disciple.

I did not share all of the following quotes in the sermon, but I have been affected by them.

“The disciples cannot know who Jesus really is without accepting the necessity of his suffering and death.  And they cannot be his disciples unless they accept that fate for themselves.”  William Lane

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.  Once more, all that self-denial can say is ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.'”  Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship p. 97.

“The cross is the heart of the gospel, and bearing a cross is a central requirement of discipleship.”  David Garland, NIV Commentary

Are you beginning to see how radical Jesus is?  It’s not a matter of saying, “I’ve been a failure, I’ve been immoral, so now I’m going to go to church and become a moral, decent person.  Then I’ll know I’m a good person because I am spiritual.”  Jesus says, “I don’t want you to simply shift from one performance-based identity to another; I want you to find a whole new way.  I want you to lose the old self, the old identity, and base yourself and your identity on me and the gospel.”  I love the fact that he says “for me and for the gospel.”  He is reminding us not to be abstract about this.  You can’t just say, “Oh, I see: I can’t build my identity on my parent’s approval because that comes and goes; I can’t build my life on my career success; I can’t build my life on romance.  Instead I will build my life on God.”  If that’s as far as you take it, God is almost an abstraction; and so building your life on him is just an act of the will.  The only that can reforge ad change a life at its root is love.

 

Jesus is saying, “It’s not enough just to know me as a teacher or as an abstract principle; you have to look at my life.  I went to the cross–and on the cross I lost my identity so you can have one.”

Once you see the Son of God loving you like that, once you are moved by that viscerally and existentially, you begin to get a strength, an assurance, a sense of your own value and distinctiveness that is not based on what you’re doing or whether somebody loves you, whether you’ve lost weight or how much you’ve got.  You’re free–the old approach to identity is gone.”    Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, p. 105.

 

Quit small expectations

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If a single mustard seed was sitting on the table you would miss it.  However, you won’t miss the big shrub growing in your garden.  The parable of the mustard seed in Mark 4 conditions us as followers of Jesus to quit underestimating the impact of the Kingdom of God as its announced and displayed in the context of our usual relationships.

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”  Mark 4:30-32

3 observations:

  1. This big shrub was not a usual garden plant.  However, Jesus has it planted in the frequently visited place — the garden.  So it is with the Kingdom of God, when we proclaim the Kingdom through the Gospel of Jesus, it is to be in the normal pathways of our lives.  Our relationships in the normal patterns of study, work, life, and play become our “garden” for the Kingdom of God.   Quit diminishing the value of your normal and usual relationships.
  2. The seed contains immense potential.  Although the seed is not the focus of this parable it is important to note that the big “change” that is the focus of the parable starts with the seed.  Mark 4 has conditioned the followers of Jesus to view the seed as the Word of God — the word of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Jesus.  The Gospel story of Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection has a power of its own to bring change in the lives of people.  Quit diminishing the value of the Gospel.
  3. The growth of the Kingdom is not only for our benefit.  Jesus describes the impact of the seed’s great growth as the creation of a refuge for the birds of the air.  Jesus may be drawing an allusion to the birds of the air references in Ezekiel and Daniel.  The nations shall take refuge in the Kingdom of Jesus.  We don’t get to choose who we are nesting beside.  By design others are to benefit from the change occurring in the lives of those who take refuge in Christ.  Quit diminishing the Kingdom call for open engagement with people who are “not like you;” then, we will experience the blessings of the Kingdom of God together.

Cold Hard Truth & Dyslexia

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I read Kevin O’Leary’s Cold Hold Truth over the holidays.  As to business, money and life, his perspective reminded me of the axiom, “Facts are our friends.”  I most enjoyed the early chapters that explored his family of origin and early influences.  O’Leary faces the challenge of dyslexia and was blessed to have early intervention through the active concern of his mother who accessed care at Montreal’s Children Hospital.  Dr. Sam Rabinovitch and Dr. Margie Golick gave O’Leary both skills and perspectives on dyslexia that helped him harness his strengths and get ahead of his weaknesses.  I believe this early intervention is a huge contributor as to why we know his name and recognize him in Canada today.

O’Leary writes:

It’s no exaggeration to say that enrolling in special education changed my life completely.  To be told that my dyslexia had an upside shifted my perspective on myself and the world around me, and it left me with five very important principles that carried me through the rest of my education, all the way to my MBA and into my business life.

1.  Stick it out through difficulties.  You don’t have to be perfect; you just have to finish.
2.  Stand up for yourself.
3.  Explain what you need, clearly.
4.  Ask questions.
5.  If you don’t understand the answer, ask for a better, clearer explanation.

Margie gave me this list, reminding me again and again that no one else would do these things for me.  I had to do them for myself.  Cold Hard Truth p. 22

Until a child has the means to advocate for themselves parents, teachers and others must do it for them.  Early intervention with dyslexia has proven helpful over and over.  Its important to intervene before the spirit of a child is crushed and they become infected with a resentment that spoils most of their life.  O’Leary goes on to say, “There is a lot of shame when children are told over and over they can’t do something.  These children rarely grow up to be success stories.  Margie Golick removed that shame at the exact right time in my life, before it took root and hampered me, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.  I hope everyone finds his or her Margie.”

The end of fate

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The Christian world view is vitally optimistic.  Our Sovereign God has purposes that prevail and glory that will be manifest in all Creation.  He has granted the human experience a capacity that was not meant to be ruled by fatalism.

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.  Jonah 3:1-4

Our active participation in life with Him means we become authors in His story.  The story of Jonah is not just about a city that repents (Jonah 3) but it is also of a man who has trouble with the character and will of God.

Culture, nationalism, prejudice, and love of self, conspire to create resistance.  When violence and oppression is normalized we yield to fatalism.  The “good” act like “those evil people” will never change.  The “evil” act like they have run out of choices.  Until God interrupts our lie, we will not know the end of fate.

God gave grace to the king of Nineveh.  The king recognized a God who was rightly angry.  We would say there is a God who cares that all is not right in the world.  The king said, “Who knows?  God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

Fate would require no opportunity.  But we have a God who creates opportunity.  For three days His prophet traversed that great city with a warning.  The city repented  This is the end of fate.  People can change.  They can be changed through an experience of the grace of God.

Ultimately we have Jesus who traversed heaven and earth to conquer the greatest liar and prince of death, Satan.  Jesus is the end of fate.  He invites us into His Kingdom of life.

Thank you Lord for the grace to hear and know you.