Adoption Summit Day One

We have just arrived back at our hotel after an amazing day. Bethany and I signed up for the Christian Alliance Adoption Summit unsure of what exactly to expect, but compelled to attend. Our connection point was our own adoption journey we are currently in the middle of, so I expected or hoped for some confirmation of our choice to jump into this call without all of the answers. What happened today was that and SO much more.

As I’ve listened to awesome Christian speakers in the field, and organizations and workers in ministries related to orphan care God has not only confirmed in my heart our choice but has enlarged my vision for the local church. Today God powerfully reminded me that the church is the hope of the world. Today God helped me to catch the vision that orphan care is far more than a social agenda but is in fact part of the lifeblood of His gospel.

All over the world churches are stepping up to care for orphans in their midst and sharing the truth of Jesus with the audience of people their loving care gained them.

The church in America is being awakened to this incredible need and opportunity to use her resources to empower her brothers and sisters in hurting places to spread the gospel. And I believe as churches in the US do this, they are awakened to God’s power, His love, His missional call, His call to sacrifce and be set apart, our hope in Jesus through the gospel, and God’s glory through His church that embraces the love and sacrifice of Jesus.

I am encouraged in the midst of transitions in my life that God has called me to love and serve his bride the church and to expect and encourage great things from her!

Where the Streets Have No Name (part 2)

Have you read part 1 already?

We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust. -Bono, U2, Where the Streets Have No Name

Jesus.  He was much more than a guy who showed up and lived a life that elicited adoration and moral followers.  He wasn’t a philosopher, a religious leader, a writer, a political leader, a political revolutionary, or a prophet.  The account of the New Testament writers, Jesus early followers, and my own personal faith is that Jesus was uniquely God, a part of a mind-boggling triune (3 parts making one)  God who is the sole creator, sustainer and ruler of the whole world.

Christmas is (at least for many Christians) the celebration of the entry of God in our world in a distinct, unique, and amazing way.  And while it feels like a beginning of a story, it is more accurately the simultaneous culmination of a centuries old story, and the extension of that story into a new and unanticipated direction.

So, to appreciate the significance of baby Jesus in a manger, I want to look at a sweeping theme within the centuries old story (more appropriately prophecy) that had been unfolding over the course of Israel’s history.  I hope in this post to appreciate Jesus as the fulfillment of this long-awaited hope of a people who God had uniquely sought out to reveal himself to and through.

Thinking back over the history of Israel we begin with a man, Abram, who God invites into a relationship.  God tells Abram, (later he names him Abraham = “father of a multitude”):

Genesis 12: 1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him..

Abraham becomes the father of a nation of people (Israel).  He was called to leave a land, and given a grand, albeit distant promise of greatness and blessing.  From this point on God’s interaction with this chosen man and chosen nation becomes a story of going away and coming back; of exile and slavery, and eventual return.  Let me give you a few examples:

• Right after this great promise from God, Abram flees to Egypt to escape a famine, and gets stuck there for a while.
• Later Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) flees to the east to escape his angry brother, whose inheritance he swindled. He eventually returns home to deal with his brother and wrestles with God on the Journey.
• Joseph, the son of Jacob, is hated by his brothers who cause him to be sold into slavery in Egypt.  Stuck there, God blesses Joseph and through many trials he eventually becomes great within Egypt.  Joseph’s brothers and their families eventually meet up with their long-lost brother in Egypt as they flee a famine in their homeland.  Eventually this family and blossoming nation of people lose their favored status and become enslaved by the grater Egyptian nation.  But what of God’s promise?
• Enter Moses, through whom God renews his promise and uses leads Abraham’s descendants out of Egypt (again).
• After a generation of nomadic travels through the desert they make it to their promised home (sortof).  Generations of struggle for their promised homeland continue and eventually through the chaos of this time the people form a stronger government through kings.
• Which brings us to the celebrated King David, and a hopeful turning point for the fledgling nation. David’s kingdom is united, strong, and seemingly secure.  Even this “man after God’s own heart” ends his reign in moral failure and exile.  He flees a usurper son, Absalom, eventually returning after regaining control.
• A couple of generations later his nation is divided and a couple hundred years later their stronger neighbor (Assyria) devastates one part of the divided country (Israel) and forcibly evicts the populace.
• Not long afterward the remaining part of the nation (Judah) is conquered by the mighty Babylon.  It is surrounding this hopeless setting that many of the Old Testament prophets speak to the people God’s purposes and plans.  There’s hopelessness but yet a light, for their God has shown himself capable of getting them out of situations like this before.  The prohecies seem to point to a future hope, a new king, like David, who can right things for them again.
• Then after 70 years Babylon falls to Persia, and the Jews are sent home again.

Exile and return, slavery and  freedom, running away and coming back home…the early Jewish narrative is one of constant uprooting and return, and of promised prosperity and inheritance which are invariably postponed.  Over the centuries following the Jewish people’s return again from Babylonian captivity the word from the Lord spoken through the prophets confirmed God’s promise of blessing and future glory.  These promises more and more seemed to be wrapped up in a future figure: a King similar to David but greater than any before.  Some how God would usher in a radically new era of peace and prosperity under the reign of this King.  The change would be so dramatic that even the natural order would experience a new harmony as lion would lay down with lamb.

Into this culture– fully anticipating a king who would right all that was so wrong– a heavenly messenger appears to a young virgin named Mary.  He tells her:

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

What Mary must have wondered about her son’s future I can only imagine.  But I can infer that the incarnation of God…the decicive, implausible, and awe-inspireing fact that God had entered his creation like a painter inhabiting his own canvass…that this–inspite of all the expectations of his time– was unexpected.  And how beautifully so.

Where the Streets Have No Name (part 1)

We’re doing a teaching series at LifePoint Church When Love Comes to Town which, while inspired by something done by another big and hip church, I am very excited about.  It uses U2 songs and themes as a launch pad for an advent-like series.  I’ll be teaching on the 28th, and am using Where The Streets Have No Name as inspiration.  So I thought I’d lay out some concepts that are bouncing around in my head right now, and invite you to share in the “aha!” moments of discovery between now and then.  My hope is that you would share this journey over the course of a few posts and join (for those of you LifePoint people at least) us for the final experience together on the 28th (which I expect to be a super high turnout since it’s a few days after Christmas Eve, and a few days before New Years!).

First, if you want to see the song live in concert you can watch this great clip:

Also here are the complete lyrics for the song:

I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.

I wanna feel sunlight on my face.
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace.
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We’re still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It’s all I can do).

The city’s a flood, and our love turns to rust.
We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust.
I’ll show you a place
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We’re still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It’s all I can do).

And wrapping up the background, a quote from lead singer Bono on the song, from U2.com:

‘Where the Streets Have No Name is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch – I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down.
‘An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making – literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name….’

“Coincidentally” (I think it’s no coincidence) I have been reading in the New Testament book of 1 Peter, and the song and this reading have totally clicked for me and so I will using 1 Peter (I think) for the 28th.  I also have connected a unifying theme (which I’ll share in the next post) within the song, 1 Peter, and Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish and global Messiah.  This sounds really broad, but if you stick with me, I’ll show you how it ties together, and how fitting a Christmas message it is too.  To do this I’ll need to paint a picture of a theme that shows up again and again through the Old Testament Scriptures and is repeated again through Jesus.  Second I want to show how Peter (one of Jesus’ closest followers) writes to early believers urging them to lifestyles which embraces this theme. And lastly I’ll ask some questions about how we as Jesus followers apply Peter’s instructions to our livesn today.

So, enjoy the great clip above (if you haven’t already), and if you want to take a wild ride join me for the next few posts. I expect to take 3 more posts, one on each of the 3 parts I mentioned above, but might take a little longer if necessary to at least scratch the surface on part one.

If I can help even one of you to pause and think big and grateful thoughts about Jesus during this Christmas season, I will be truly happy.

Giving Thanks for Light and For Glory

Bethany and I assembled our Christmas tree tonight.  ( A side note: I succeeded last year in selling Bethany on the idea of an artificial tree, so with this year I figure we’ve made up for half of the cost of it over a real tree, and in 2 more years we’ll break even on tree costs. And they look so much nicer. And I’m not afraid our dried out tree will burn the house down.)  Well, the point is I love the lights on the tree. There’s something peaceful about dimming the lights in the house and looking at the light of the Christmas Tree.

So that brings me to what I want to say thank you for.  God, my Father, you have given us your Son, the Light of the world.  I want to thank you publicly for Your Son Jesus, of whom You said:

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13 ESV)

The Incarnation. God, as man, stepped down and walked among us. The light of the world, in the world in the flesh. Light. And not just any light, but a glorious one.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)

That we have seen Jesus’ glory is God’s grace to us. That we can continue to see his glory continues to be God’s grace to us. Thank you God for your Son Jesus. You allowed me to see His glory, and have given me a new life. By Your grace, may my eyes see again and again, and always be compelled by your glory.

Reflections on an Historic Night

The verdict is in, this marathon of an election that has consumed so much is complete,  and Barack Obama is the President Elect of these United States of America. My emotions are mixed, and although John McCain received my support and my vote, I will take a cue from his gracious exit speech, and focus on my hopes tonight.

I am hopeful for a nation that has selected it’s first African American president. I am hopeful because young people appear to be energized in a political process in greater ways than before. I am happy to live in a nation that allows candidates to battle hard for it’s Presidency, and the winner-elected by it’s citizens- is welcomed and applauded by his supporters, and even his defeated opponent. I am hopeful, even though many of my views differs from his, for my President Elect has succeeded in inspiring a hope about tomorrow for so many that want to believe our nation may have its brightest days ahead.

Mostly I am hopeful, optimistic, and happy to know that “on Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other faith is shifting sand.” So tonight, I will sleep secure and I will do so because I follow a God who is sovereign over all and a Jesus who is the King of Kings (and presidents).

Jesus once said to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, so tonight I applaud the achievement of Barack Obama’s team, and I give God all respect and hope for tomorrow.

At the end of a long war for independence from Britain, in his final communications as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington wrote about this unusual in experiment we the “Citizens of America” are still sharing in today:

They are, from this period, to be considered as the Actors on a most conspicuous Theatre, which seems to be designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity.

Washington believed that the American experiment was a gift to shine a beacon of freedom to the world, and that no other reason but the hand of Providence could explain the unique opportunities the infant nation (or soon to be one) had been granted. I hope America can increasingly be a blessing in our world, but more-so I hope that Christians can be.

Jesus told his followers that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. May God grant to Christians in America increased opportunity to preserve, save, flavor, and lighten this world of ours because of or in spite of or irrespective of these concluded elections.