Teapot Theology

“We pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.” Dag Hammarskjold

“Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity.” Genius!! What a compelling (and complicated) invitation!!

“So, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit formed it to be a colony of heaven in the country of death” (p11-12).

The church, Peterson says, is those people who practice the resurrection of Christ in the country of death.

Sure, he admits, the church isn’t all it seems it should be but he makes this observation: “Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church” (14). Peterson thinks Ephesians gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what church is.

“Sometimes we hear our friends talk in moony, romantic terms of the early church. ‘We need to get back to being just like the early church.’ Heaven help us. These churches were a mess, and Paul wrote his letters to them to try to clean up the mess” (p16).

“And what comes clear,” in this letter to the Ephesians, “is that church is not what we do; it is what God does, although we participate in it” (p17).

But “we don’t read Ephesians as a picture of a ‘perfect church’ to which we compare our congregations and try to copy what we see. Rather, we read Ephesians as the revelation of all the operations of the Triune God that are foundational beneath what is visible among us and at work throughout each congregation. This is what makes us what we are, however imperfectly or neurotically we happen to be living it out” (p17-18).

from Petersons, Practice the Resurrection

God says, I want you to realize that I never underestimated how thoroughly you’d mess up your life or how painfully you would struggle and suffer and I don’t want you to underestimate your failures or struggles either. They’re all part of the story I’m telling.

But neither have I underestimated My determination or ability to enter the mess you’ve made and the pain you feel and turn everything around.

I can, and I will, make everything good again. (More than just pass-ably good, but exceedingly great!) Never, never underestimate Me. I have a plan, a very good one, and it will move ahead to completion. Guaranteed! …. so continue to Trust Me!

Why? Because I love you even when you’re messing up badly. I love you in the middle of your pain even though I don’t relieve it as quickly as you wish. I am worthy of your trust, no matter what happens in your life. I have a good plan, and nothing will stop Me from carrying it to completion.

You must live now in the tension between anguish and hope. This is trust: this is Lent.

Here’s the words and wisdom of Henri Nouwen in a prayer:-
“The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.

I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.

I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.

Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. Amen.

We can so downplay certain days in the calender….. we pass them by, we believe that we’re too liberated to be bound or connected and yet in them is meaning, richness and purpose….

One of things I love about NOT giving up things this Lent is using the forty-ish days till Easter as a journey. A time of increased personal examination.

During this Lenten Season, I’m asking myself……

1. Where is there forgiveness and grace needed? (like extra dollups!!)
2. Where is a (soul) blockage that would keep the Holy Spirit from moving freely?
3. Where are the places where there isn’t resurrection life right now? (stale, stuck or stagnating places!!)

All of it (even already) has sharpened my hunger and desire for greater intimacy with Jesus! The preparation for Easter could and should be a time to improve and renew your relationship with the Risen Christ! So let Easter result in daily resurrection (now!!)

“… So that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” 1 Corinthians 2:5

The season of preparation has begun.

God is not absent.
Not distracted.
He sees.
He knows.
He cares.
And He’s doing something about it.

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a person perfected without trials - Chinese Proverb

Today I had great fun, preaching from Nehemiah 2 v 1-10 and I didn’t even set the passage! Most of you know I’ve been brought back to this book, time-after-time….. I took a different tack to the passage, and resisted checking over previous preaches from this passage!

I contend that it’s often the hardest thing to  turn intention into action! Yetwithal making it happen is vital! My original thought is this:- Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace!

1. Be patient; Passionately pray and responsibly serve. v.1b

2. Be bold; Let your fears feed your faith! v. 2-3

3. Be dependent. v. 4

4. Be prepared. v. 5-8a

5. Be expectant. v. 8b

“I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light. I would rather walk with Him by faith than walk alone by sight.” Mary Gardner Brainard

* Guest blog from Julie!

Barbara Streisand said ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces’ is a film about transformation; transformation from the ugly duckling to the beautiful princess, transformation from the mindset that values the superficial without looking below the surface; transformation when an adult woman realises that her father thinks she’s beautiful; transformation of true friendship into deep, abiding and passionate love.

Watching the film with my beloved caused more than a few smiles and laughs but also some tears.  Tears as I know something of the wonder of recently discovering I am beautiful. Johnny tells me that I am beautiful on the inside and out; the first time anyone has ever said anything like that to me.  My Father in heaven also tells me that I am beautiful, loved unconditionally and forgiven. Forgiveness is transforming. Jesus death on the cross is transforming.  God’s unconditional love is transforming. God’s grace extended to such as me is transforming, it enables me to look up, confident that regardless of what circumstances or people may seek to message, God remains Sovereign and He (like my beloved), is planning for me in love.

How many faces do I have? There is the public face that presents confidence and competence but in reality just covers what is really going on underneath, the private face, the real me, is seen by few – the doubts, the fears, the struggles, the sadnesses, the uncertainties, the longings to be different – more holy, more kind, more gracious, more loving. I am so very glad that God invites us to come; to come to Him just as we are, burdened and heavy laden, anxious, worried, uncertain, empty, thirsty, hurt, rejected, abandoned, betrayed … far off.  He says ‘come and find rest … come home, where you belong’. This rest is a rest of letting go, relaxing in the everlasting arms, allowing myself to believe what my Heavenly Father believes about me.

So, …. if you want to laugh, cry, enjoy and dream watch the film with someone you love and be grateful …. grateful like me for the love of a man that consistently affirms and messages unconditional, unswerving love and grateful that my heavenly Father has always seen and known what I was/am and continues to love me just the same!

“Community is the place where the person you least want to live with, always lives.“ Henri Nouwen