by Elizabeth | Nov 10, 2010 | Learning Story
One of my favorite parts of my work is looking over my notes before I go to teach and picturing how the Word and words God has given me will impact the people there. This morning, as I was doing this, I thought of all of you who read this blog and wondered:
“How’s your hope today?” Tracing Mary’s story from the moment Gabriel says “nothing is impossible with God” to the day when she stands watching Jesus hanging on the Cross, I thought of the sweet moments of hope intermingled with the seasons of hopes crushed.
Don’t have time to find a performance on Youtube now but I’ll bet you can…Look up Natalie Grant’s song Our Hope Endures and listen and meditate. If you can’t find it, here are the words. I do hope we all remember the only source of hope unchanged today.
You would think only so much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once
And you assume this one has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here
Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It’s more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
How do we comprehend peace within pain?
Or joy at a good man’s wake?
Walk a mile with the woman whose body is racked
With illness, oh how can she laugh?
Oh, ’cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It’s more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
Emmanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient
We never walk alone
And this is our hope
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It’s more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
by Elizabeth | Nov 9, 2010 | Learning Story
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37
Just last week, I mentioned the great hymn, “O Holy Night” in a meditation on “the gospel of peace.” And now, as I think about law and liberty, I’m drawn there again: “His law is love; his gospel is peace.”
A quick story to think about the freedom given to us in the law of love:
My daughter, a senior in high school, told me about a recent interaction she had with a former best friend. She and her friend were great buddies as pre-adolescents, during the sweet and somewhat innocent years of 10-13. (Yes, somewhat – not completely.) They headed off to the same high school, expecting this friendship to continue. But it didn’t. They made different choices about the people they would hang out with, and that led to some very different lifestyle choices. As my daughter disagreed with some of the choices her friend was making, thinking they were destructive, they fought and went their separate ways.
My daughter said, “Well, it was so awkward passing her in the halls and not talking to her at all. Then her Dad came into the guidance office where I was working and I asked him how she was. He told me she had really pulled up her grades and was excited about applying to college. I thought how silly it was to be so awkward with her, and I was really happy for her. So I sent her a message on Facebook and told her that. She wrote me back and said she was doing lots better and maybe we could hang out sometime.”
It’s a small story. A high school story. And yet, as a 48-year-old, I’d have to say that sadly I have some stories like that, where the law of “unlove” has limited my ability to live as I am redeemed to live. I’m still thinking about this. How does this law of love give me the liberty to be reconciled to those I have become estranged to? I know I can’t do it in my own strength, but I know the gospel deconstructs all strong barriers to relationship.
Lord, help us all, to look toward reconciliation and restoration, because your gospel of peace frees us to live in forgiveness and hope. Because of your Son’s precious name I ask it. AMEN
by Elizabeth | Nov 8, 2010 | Learning Story
Back to James today…the whole passage is great; I’m looking at verse 25, which caught my eye because it talks about the “law of liberty.”
Frankly, law has gotten some bad press as Christians have rightly understood that salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone (and all the other great sola’s!). Here’s the verse, wrapping up a sub-section of James’ passage that began with “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”:
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer that acts, …shall be blessed in doing.” Jas. 1:25
What is this law of liberty? I wondered. Yesterday I quoted a friend to the senior small group: “Don’t should all over yourselves.” We live missionally, we go into all the world to make disciples, to tell the amazing story of the good news of the gospel, BECAUSE we were made that way. It is the only natural response to being created by God and redeemed by Christ. I would argue it’s a “LAW OF NATURE.”
Here’s what Alec Motyer says about it:
“We see, then, that the Lord gives his law not as a means of salvation, but as a life-style for those who have been already saved. It is the way he wants his redeemed ones to live….He goes on to say that he is speaking to those whom he has brought out of bondage (Ex. 20:2b): not to those whom he is bringing into bondage by imposing his law upon them, but to those who are now (for the first time) enjoying liberty, and to whom he gives his perfect law in order to safeguard the freedom he has secured for them.”
The law of liberty refers to all of Scripture. It is far far more than a list of rules for how we SHOULD act. It is a description of the great joys we have as we act according to the nature of a free woman or man.
What do you think? What has your understanding of LAW been? What freedom can you see in living according to the law of liberty?
by Elizabeth | Nov 5, 2010 | Learning Story
transitions
Not much time to write today…but wanted to share — prepping for time with women in Ohio and awed by how God is changing us…This drawing my daughter did gives me such a lovely image of the process…
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflecta the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
by Elizabeth | Nov 4, 2010 | Learning Story
Received an email this morning from the editor for the Bible study, called Learning God’s Story of Grace in my proposed version. They are discussing titles and he asked me for a 3-5 sentence summary of the concept of shalom. I knew that was impossible — describing shalom is like describing love — best done with pictures of it and as soon as you show one, you think of another. Just see the difficulty John has describing it in Revelation 21-22.
Anyway, two things: one — if you have any suggestions for a title for a Bible study that takes people through the shalom structure of our lives in creation-fall-redemption-consummation, I will certainly send it on. Second — found this old post in my search for “shalom.” Since we’re getting near the Christmas season, I figured it wasn’t too early to put it up there. Besides, this isn’t really just a Christmas hymn — it’s a hymn of redemption:
“His Gospel Is Peace” is a line from…name that Christmas hymn:
Yes, O Holy Night. The lyrics are rich in their declaration of the power and transformation that came to this “weary world” with the birth of our “dear Savior.” Even so, today I am going to ignore all of the other lines to focus on just four words. I pray these four words will get stuck in my head and yours as we move into our own weary world today with a gospel of peace.
Gospel: translates the word euangelion, which historically meant a message of “good news.” Not merely a newspaper headline message, though. This announcement meant that the king had conquered the land and called for the hearers’ allegiance.
His: This is the gospel of the conquering King, Christ, the only one who can truly conquer the cosmos for our good and God’s glory. This isn’t just the next fallen person ascending the throne. This is God, who loved us so much he became human and died for us, so we might truly surrender our agendas to his wise and loving care.
Peace: Biblical peace is always about shalom, which is not simply the Hebrew word for hello and good-bye. Shalom is “the way things ought to be,” a universal flourishing, the kind where lions lie down with lambs and Auburn fans kiss Alabama fans. Shalom is the right rendering of the world. Look around you… See anything broken? Friendships, family relationships? Light bulbs need replacing or laundry needs doing — again? Chemotherapy or climate issues? His gospel of peace rights every wrong you can see or imagine.
Is: Always was, is now, and ever shall be. The Gospel story wasn’t PLAN B; it has been God’s plan for establishing shalom forever since the beginning of the world and will continue to be until the end of this temporary story we are living.
Here’s the take-home message: it’s a “syllogism,” as I learned from studying rhetorical terms with my daughter last night:
If His gospel is peace, and we are Christ’s followers,
then
Our gospel is peace too.
Into what wrecked realm or relationship will you bring his gospel of peace today? Just one caution — don’t forget as I often do and accidentally try to bring YOUR gospel of peace. It is HIS GOSPEL of PEACE that reigns forever and ever. His gospel is peace. His gospel is peace. Sing it with me today and every day!
by Elizabeth | Nov 2, 2010 | Learning Story
“Everyone should be quick to listen; slow to speak; slow to become angry.” James 1:19
Aargggghhhhh. Don’t you just hate it when the Bible nails you with a 3- clause-elliptical aphorism that’ll get stuck in your brain and quicken your heart all day, all week long? I do, and I don’t.
I’ve been mentioning my study of James here these last few weeks, and this verse has been “stuck in my head” since last week when I first read it. The day it got stuck, the day I first read it, for some ridiculous reason I thought “well at least I’ll remember not to get angry today!” I should have known better.
I went to get in my car to drive to Physical Therapy — that simple task that has recently become much more complex. I went to start the car only to discover my keys weren’t in my purse. No biggie, right?!! Do you know what I did? Explosively, with powerful righteous indignation, I threw up my one working arm, and shouted to all the birds and the bees who inhabit our garage, “GREAT!”
There was no lag time. Even as I was venting my huge frustration over a ridiculously miniscule matter, the verse was scrolling through my brain. And I just stopped. Took a deep breath. Said, “Lord, forgive me. I think I’m going to need a little more help with this than I had originally anticipated.”
Maybe you don’t need it stuck in your head, but I do.
For consideration, how does being quick to listen and slow to speak impact your anger (if you ever have that emotion?:)
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
