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Reduced to Resurrection

April 15, 2013 by 1 Comment
easter-resurrection

During Holy Week a few years back, Sam (my youngest son) came home late. In simple desperation, he said to me: ‘I need Jesus. I need help.’ His drug problem was consuming him. In severe mercy, Jesus reduced him to new life. Sam had been baptized years before. Now he needed to be raised from the dead. This Holy Week a pastor recounted to me the return of Kim, a congregant who had left her husband and kids years before for another woman. Her lover became physically violent and she returned to the Lord. Her family has moved on. Her help is Jesus, and a small band of Christians. Kim has no idea what His new life will mean for her now. She … [Read more...]

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Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible

May 19, 2012 by 12 Comments
inspiration

Our most powerful witness in this hour of ‘gay marriage’ and other injustices are our wounds. Raised with Him, secure in love, we must reveal our scars of sin and shame. The servant is not greater than His master. If the Glorified Christ is to this day ‘a Lamb, looking as if it had just been slain’ (Rev. 5:6) then we should be unashamed to declare our brokenness. Jesus’ humiliation has been eclipsed with glory. So is ours, as we testify of how His mercy has washed us and solidified the new creation. Over lunch the other day, a friend recounted his healing story. To do so, he began with his shame, which was founded upon a … [Read more...]

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No Doubt

May 2, 2012 by 9 Comments
forgiven

Since Easter Sunday, I have never faced such irrational insistence that those with SSA (same-sex attraction) cannot change. The world and worldly church is diabolically united: the gay self is the true self, liberated only in active expression. Thank God for Easter. Thank God for the season of Easter that spans far beyond its six weeks in the Church calendar; Jesus’ resurrection reminds us daily that He has trumped our old nature and activates us afresh to resume our pilgrimage. Following the Risen Christ is always a path toward maturity, with clear markers for our sexual and relational humanity. United with Him, we ascend slowly towards … [Read more...]

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5

April 6, 2012 by 2 Comments
Jesus' crucifixion. Woodcut after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794 - 1872)

This is the fifth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5 Weeping and lingering were the earmarks of Mary’s authority. These are the signs of holy intimacy; tears of gratitude spilt while abiding in His love, and tears of grief over the loss of love. Mary Magdalene witnessed that loss at Calvary. God entrusted her, along with Jesus’ mother and a couple other women, to abide with Jesus as He was led to the Cross. They had followed Him from Galilee to Golgotha ‘to care for His needs.’ (Matt. 27:57) … [Read more...]

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

April 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
forgive

This is the third post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3 Intimacy with Jesus made an ex-prostitute the bearer of the most important event in human history. God entrusted a woman, not one of the 12, with Christ’s resurrection. That’s why the Roman Catholic Church names Mary Magdalene the ‘Apostle of Apostles.’ Mary’s surrender to Christ was marked by weeping and lingering, two earmarks of loving another with all one’s heart. Such sustained intimacy gave Mary authority. Such reliance on … [Read more...]

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Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

April 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
confession

This is the sixth post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine ‘When You disciplined us, we could barely whisper a prayer.’ (IS 26:16) ‘Christ’s abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light.’ Pope Benedict The sexual abuse crisis in the Church brings us to our knees. We do not kneel politely but painfully, a sprawl rather than a pose. On behalf of those felled by the weight of a priest’s perversion, we too stumble and fall. … [Read more...]

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Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

March 14, 2012 by 3 Comments
confession

This is the third post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame In the Church, God has put Himself into hands that betray Him again and again. - Pope Benedict Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may Your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us, and forgive us our sins for Your Name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” (PS 79:8-10a) We repent on behalf of … [Read more...]

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Reduced to Mercy

December 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment
reducedtomercy

Kenn Gulliksen, my original pastor and founder of the Vineyard, once said: ‘When you’ve lost mercy, you’ve lost your calling as a Christian.’ He’s right. I tend to assess ‘mercy’ levels in my heart as a gauge of how I am doing as a Christian. And God is always faithful to reduce me to mercy when I have majored on other things. He does this through suffering, through the slow boil of real life that tends to burn off extraneous things and distill what matters. In cooking terms, a ‘reduction’ involves the intensifying or thickening of a liquid mixture through boiling it. Some things evaporate, thus concentrating the … [Read more...]

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Reunion

April 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment

‘He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.’ (Mk 16:6) Resurrection is reunion: Jesus, torn from His Father, now returns to Him. Evil demanded payment: crucifixion, the vast distance between God and God. Love crossed over that gap, conquering sin and death. Resurrection is the ultimate Father/Son reunion. Every Easter, God extends to us a fresh invitation to reenter that reunion. Jesus descended into hell to get us out of there. He rose again into perfect union with His Father, that we might join Him there. His reunion with the Father becomes ours, His triumph over sin and death becomes ours. The … [Read more...]

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Abandonment

April 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

‘But I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me? I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; They have completely engulfed me. You have taken my companions from me; the darkness is my closest friend.’ PS 88:13-18 Jesus’ rejection, abuse, and murder at the hands of men were not His greatest sorrow. It was His Father’s abandonment of Him on the cross. Jesus expected the scourge of political and religious foes. The desertion of His … [Read more...]

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