The Baby Jesus

I was talking to my daughter, as we like to do at the dinner table. Mind you she is only 9-months, so the conversations are pretty one-sided at this time. But sometimes she looks at me and makes sounds her baby language. Today’s conversation centered around the Christmas story. As a new dad celebrating Christmas with his daughter for the first time, I wondered what she thought about the Baby Jesus.

She is so close to walking on her own now, and determined to figure out how to get moving and on her own. She has places to go and especially people to see. I asked her when she thought Jesus took his first steps. We wondered together if Mary had a book like Ellie’s mommy has to keep track of all of Jesus’ firsts.

When did Jesus get his first tooth?

When did Jesus begin to sit up?

When did Jesus start crawling?

What was Jesus first word?

We took the conversation a bit further too as Ellie does a compromised version of Elimination Communication (or click here). We look for her cues and then take her to go poopy. I asked my daughter if she thought Jesus gave the perfect cues to Mary to let her know when he needed to go.

We were blown away just thinking about how the Son of God, the almighty who was here at the beginning of the universe playing a role in creation also sat on the floor and played like our daughter does. The king of the universe allowed himself to go through all the same processes as any other baby. Talking with my daughter about Christmas helped me get a new perspective of Jesus’ humanity.

How does thinking of Jesus as a baby change how you picture him?

 

The Pearl of Great Wealth

Sometimes you never know what you will stumble upon during little getaways. This week, my wife’s parents are in town. This gave us the option to get out of Bangkok for a few days and visit the beautiful south of Thailand. We headed down to Phuket to see some pristine beaches and put our feet up a little as we play with our daughter who loves water more than any 8-month-old should.

The tourist books all pointed the seashell lovers in our group toward the shell museum at the south of the island near Chalong Bay. This museum would be to museums what a hole-in-the-wall restaurant would be to restaurants. The museum sneaks up on you, and yet you have no idea what is inside. If word got out what great gems and finds this place has, the corridors would be mobbed with shell enthusiasts and even casual shell onlookers who only show up for the playoffs, like most Laker fans.

The stairway down to the basement where shells from around the world are kept incased in glass is inlaid with shell pieces leading visitors into a shell world of delight.

Yet within the little house of many shells laid a find worthy of the great museums of Paris, London or New York.

The small museum is in a basement, beneath a gift shop in the south of Phuket, and here laid an exquisite pearl. In fact, the pearl held in this case was the biggest and most symmetrical gold pearl ever found (140 karats).

I couldn’t help but think how this museum must have gone to any length possible to attain the pearl as a centerpiece to their museum. I couldn’t help but think of how the pearl must have been just like the one in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 13.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Walking the museum, I get the sense when this pearl was found; the museum went to more than great lengths to obtain the great pearl. How could they not. In fact, I see this as the same as the great merchant in the story of Jesus. It is not as though we walk through a palatial museum and happen across this pearl, but in fact, we found it in an obscure little place in a remote corner of Phuket.

When we find the kingdom of God, we will sacrifice all we have to gain the treasure that is life with Jesus. It is not as though we add Jesus to a house full of treasures or a trophy room to display all of our beliefs. Jesus becomes the one centerpiece to who we are. We forsake all others and run to Jesus with abandon.

This is the first time I stumbled upon a valuable treasure that seemed out of place. Have you ever seen a work of art or valuable find that seemed more valuable than the home that contained it?

 

Free Gift

Nothing sounds better to the ear than the sound of someone saying this is free, and even better than that is free food.

This week, we were talking about spiritual gifts with the church in Bangkok. These gifts could literally be called grace gifts. That is God graces us with the gifts of the Spirit (I Cor. 12). We do nothing to deserve the gifts that God bestows on us…we simply receive them as an expression of his love for his people. How awesome is it that we do nothing to get the gifts but simply have them from our loving, heavenly Father. Gifts are awesome…

Gifts usually come our way on birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas, among other events like house warming parties, weddings, baby showers and retirement. Well, that is in America…

In Thailand, the culture has even more of a foundation for giving and receiving gifts. People give gifts not at birthdays and Christmas (since Christmas doesn’t really exist in Thailand). Often gifts will be given at certain turning points in one’s life, or if a friend goes on a trip, they will bring back a small gift for their close friends. Underneath the giving and receiving of gifts lies the glue that holds Thai culture together, Grain Jai. This understanding has no good word in English. Essentially Grain jai means the feeling we have to keep things even. A person doesn’t want to impose on another person or take too much than is legitimately expected. There is a give and take, and when you receive something, you look for a way to return the favor or gift. This is one of the reasons that our Thai friends have no qualms in asking how much we pay for our condo, or a new shirt, or sandals, or anything else we buy. In Thailand, you just learn to not be offended when someone asks you how much something cost. This way everyone knows the general value of everything and can repay their friends and keep grain jai at an even level.

The beautiful thing with God is that he gives us gifts more valuable than we know, and there is nothing we ever did to deserve it. The only way we repay him is by using our gifts to the best of our ability and motivated by love (I Cor. 13).

What do you think about when you realize the gifts we get from God come without merit on our end?

 

Rescued From the Rain

I am still amazed how the turn of events seemingly set against me suddenly turned in my favor. Let me explain. The rainy season or more aptly this year, the monsoon season has hit Thailand hard. The worst rains in more than thirty years just do not relent. My story is hardly comparable to the many who have lost their lives or had to evacuate their homes throughout the many provinces of Thailand heavily hit by the rains, but still here goes my story.

After meeting some of the guys in the church for dinner at the Mall near where they live, they helped take me out to the bus stop where the rain was pouring down, as it had for the previous few hours. The downpour with accompanying thunder and lightning just kept coming. Pausing a moment, we surveyed the scene, and my friends saw the flooding in the street. At this point, we decided to skip the taxi stand where everyone already gathered in long lines and trudged through the ankle deep water to the bus stop.

We waited a few minutes before one of the busses that passes near my home (usually a 40 minute ride) came by…a free bus no less (still a hangover from a government promotion a few years ago to ease people’s fears when the bus rates rose, only for a few months mind you before they came back down). Nonetheless, I boarded the free bus excited to get going home. Knowing the bus did not go all the way past my house, I would have to get off early. Without rain, I could walk the couple of blocks home no problem, but in this rain we might have a different story.
I left the mall at 9 pm thinking this is not too bad. I might get home before 10 pm.   The ride moved along slow as the rain kept coming down in sheets. The bus slowed each time the flooded road blocked our smooth path. But we finally made my stop where I exited the dry reprieve before entering a dark, stormy night.

I sloshed through the calf deep water at this bus stop where the flooding now came over the tall Bangkok curb. No surprise, there was not another person waiting at the bus stop. I hoped to catch a taxi home for the remainder of my trip, but as the case usually is in the rain, all the taxis were full. I remember hearing a stat that at any giving time in Bangkok, the taxis are at 20% occupancy. Yet I imagine in the rain, they come near 100% occupancy. Against all odds, I hoped to call a taxi over to me before my clothes completely soaked. Fortunately, when I exited the bus, the rain was only falling a bit. Maybe it was letting up. Oh no, was I wrong. The rain just wanted to catch its breath before heaping buckets and buckets of water out on Bangkok again. Miserably wet, I continued to stand on the curb with no protection from the rain holding my hand out hoping against hope that a taxi might come. Each car that passed pushed the water up and over my feet while some splashed my whole front side. After about 15 minutes of waiting, I now found myself somewhere between a nervous breakdown as I could not see to get out of my predicament and crying out to God to rescue me. I prayed to God to send a taxi or anyone to pick me up. Just then, a stranger walked up to the bus stop carrying his umbrella, and he confirmed to me that I could call a taxi at this spot. But all the taxis were full.

A couple more minutes passed by as the rain showered me when I heard a voice. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, because I never hear people calling out of a taxi or other car to come to them. What was I hearing…could it be directed at me, oh please, I thought be someone to pity me. The stranger next to me told me that they indeed were calling to me. I quickly walked forward to their car where a hand reached out and pulled me into the car. My mind raced with thoughts and questions of what was happening and who these people were, but I was rescued.

After introductions exchanged, I realized that a father and daughter driving home from work saw me hopelessly waiting by the side of the road. They allowed me to sit my drenched body in their car and were willing to take me home. Now, we only had to turn the corner and make a short U-turn before arriving out our condo. At this point, my wife called wondering where I was as it was 10:30 pm. I replied almost home…

I spoke to soon.

The flooded roads caused the usually slow traffic on our road to grind to a complete stand still. The horrible rain induced traffic slowed our 5 minute drive around the corner to 40 minutes, but finally I made it into my dry home and changed out of the wet clothes, no check that, the completely sopping wet clothes I wore that day.

Even though I am just one guy of millions in a huge city under the dark of night and clouded vision of a rainy sky, God still saw down to where I was and helped me out. Even when I was frustrated and mad at the rain, God came through for me with a kind hearted family who wanted to take me home. Even when I felt pitiful, God showed compassion on me.

How does God surprise you when you least expect it?

 

In the image of Jesus…or is that my image?

If you think about the painting you see, you often quickly flip through the photos in your brain’s multi-layered organizer and see dozens of images of a Jesus that looks more like us than how he accurately could have looked.

In America, we have surfer Jesus with his loose fitting robe for comfort and an over coat. He has the trendy sandals on. (This reminds me of when I ran, and lost for class office in Bible College, I had a top ten list that included the fact that I wore sandals like Jesus did.) The same idea of picturing Jesus through our cultural lens goes for all cultures.

Philipino churches have an Asian Jesus; African churches have a dark skinned Jesus in their art. In my class on communicating in cultures, our prof showed us images of Jesus at the beginning of class that depicted him in the eyes of different cultures.

Ultimately, we can criticize this reality that we make
Jesus into a character we can relate to as a narrow view of our Lord rather than a more precise picture of the creator of the universe. We have had lots of good work done in video over the past years remaking some of the films with meek Jesus that looked more like effeminate Jesus and redubbing the words for humors sake to make the point that Jesus likely had more of a backbone and strength of persona than that. However, we will always imagine Jesus as one of us. We cannot escape the present reality that we are drawn to people like us, and when we see Jesus as different as us…well…that creates barriers that makes us uncomfortable.

Yet this same Jesus even as he does relate with us better than anyone, also must stand in contrast to us as only he fulfilled the destiny God designed for us. Only he lived out life as perfect and devoted to God above all other things. At some level Jesus should disturb our status quo and pull us from where we are into where he wants us. He is not just buddy Jesus to pull from a crass film knocking the Catholic Church and looking for a better way to Market Jesus. He doesn’t just hang around us dining and drinking with us until we finally get it and turn around to follow him.

We see him walking a balance of living in the world and standing out as different and attractive as alternative to living life the way we think we should. We see Jesus in the homes of people with less than ideal backgrounds, or even in the home of a well respected man when a prostitute comes in Jesus had a way of accepting people where they were, so much so that this prostitute did not care that everyone would see her and be repulsed. She walked in with her hair down advertising that she was not a respected woman of society. She even used her long hair to wipe Jesus’ feet with the perfume she poured over it (Luke 7).

On the other hand, people came out of the woodwork wanting to follow Jesus while keeping some prerequisites. One guy wanted to bury his father (meaning he wanted to receive his inheritance first), and others wanted to hold onto their property (Mark 10). Jesus looked them dead in the eye and said follow me with everything or don’t bother. John 6 shares a story when many walked away from Jesus, and he didn’t go running after them trying to explain his story of the kingdom better. In fact, he turned to his closest allies and asked if they too would abandon him. Jesus stood firm, without wavering, as he lived out God’s mission to redeem humanity, example God’s incredible love and give us a glimpse of the invisible God (Col. 1:15).

Now, let’s hold in tension the idea of Jesus, the one we imagine, and Jesus, the one who walked the dusty roads of Galilee as we wrestle with how we know God. This understanding hit me fresh recently in talking with our Thai teacher. She told a story of how as a new Christian she remembered being so angry with Jesus. I said, why? Why, could you be so angry at Jesus? I was thinking of the typical person that blames Jesus for something going wrong in their life.

I couldn’t have been more surprised when she meant a she became angry at Jesus after reading the gospel account of his life. I thought in stunned amazement, what he did in the pages of those narratives that could get a kind, gentle hearted Thai girl so worked up. Don’t get me wrong, all cultures have their fits of anger, so even if the Thai people are generally sweet natured, they can still have their moments. Nonetheless, I couldn’t imagine how Jesus could make her so angry.

She went on to tell the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. When she read over that story, she thought Jesus was so mean. From her perspective as a gentle person who lets frustrating circumstances roll off her back, she saw a powerful man misusing his power. He cursed that fig tree in Mark 11:12-14 and didn’t even give a second thought to it. Again, being visibly angry in a culture like Thailand is a terrible offense.

When she saw Jesus curse the tree for not bearing fruit, she saw an angry and unjust man. That is until she talked to her pastor and learned the culture and geography. She thought why was he so unkind to the tree and angry. Why not just go find another tree for some figs. When she understood more and saw that Jesus was giving a living parable to his disciples about the importance of bearing fruit, she saw Jesus in a new light.

Sometimes our impressions can cause us to have a misguided image of Jesus. We might not realize it at first, but if we never do, the Jesus we picture ends up being the Jesus we follow. I admire my teacher for being brave and asking her pastor to explain the story of Jesus better. She wanted to understand Jesus, the real Jesus and not just have her misconceptions guide how she thinks about Jesus.

Let’s be careful that we don’t make Jesus like us, rather, let’s strive to be made like Jesus as God works on our lives. What is one misconception of Jesus that jumps to your mind as you read this?

 

God Rushes in with Mercy

The more I pay attention to the story of God in the Old Testament, I see God constantly rushing in with mercy at the slightest evidence of a turn in our heart.

Let me explain from the story of Saul and David. First some context.

Remember, Saul, a guy’s guy. He’s the guy you would see at the sports bar recanting stories of heroism. The guy with all the other guys circled around him wanting to be a part of the cool crowd. A guy a head taller than the rest of Israel, strong, tough and God’s choice to be the first king of Israel.

Yet Saul lost everything. His life became a tragic tale of missed opportunities and wasted potential.

And that is where David comes in. A poor shepherd boy elevated to the highest seat in the nation. As David began his ascent upward (killing Goliath and leading troops on raids against the Philistines), Saul (sliding down from his former glory) became jealous and looked for ways to put away the challenger to his throne. Saul’s fury kindled hot when he heard the top songs of the day include lyrics of how David killed his 10 thousands compared to Saul only getting credit for his thousands.

David, the wily young general, knew he best get out of town and avoid the assassination attempts from the king. He went and hid out with Samuel in Naioth of Ramah.

When Saul’s spies tweeted to Saul where David was laying low, he sent messengers to bring David back to his courtyard. Here is where the mercy bit on God’s side starts to become evident. As the messengers approached Samuel and came upon the company of prophets, the spirit of God fell on them causing them to prophecy. They stayed in a state of spiritual engagement so long that Saul sent a second delegation of henchmen to grab the boy with kingly aspirations and drag him back to face Saul. These messengers too experienced the Spirit of God fall on them causing them to prophecy. Both groups remained with Samuel and the company of prophets in the presence of God so long that Saul, fed up with this unending drama, took matters into his own hand.

Now, Saul fuming mad, with smoke coming out of his ears, marches out to confront David. I could only imagine the twitter feed from the royal twitter account during this whole political debacle. Saul, deadest to eliminate his competition for the throne, came upon the prophets, and he too was struck by the presence of God. Adding in a bit of my own thoughts to fill in the blanks. As he came into the presence of God with Samuel and Samuel’s disciples, he was reminded of what it was like when he walked with God. At that point, the Spirit of God fell on him as well. I am not sure what to do with the part of Saul stripping off his clothes and staying there naked with the other prophets.

My take home from this story and what has stuck with me since I read it in devotions the other day is how God constantly shows up with mercy even with the most unlikely of characters. Saul did nothing to deserve God’s presence, but God, the Holy One, was there waiting, looking for an opportunity, and offering mercy freely.

If you are reading this and think you have done something too bad to ever be with God again, let me say no you haven’t. No matter where you stand with God right now, you are only millimeters away from God’s grace coming around you and holding you close. More than that, God is at your side tapping you on the shoulder daring to get your attention and draw you back into relationship with him. We see in the life of Saul how God stood by him as he worked tenaciously to stamp out the life of his enemy, David.  God kept him from having his life totally come undone, waiting, hoping, pushing to see Saul turn around.

All we need to do is remember that God wants to be with us way more than we ever give him credit for. God’s mercy, when I reflect on it, is a wonderful and precious commodity that he freely gives out.

 

Knowing God’s Calling and All that Entails, Would You Say Yes?

The mystery of knowing God’s guidance haunts even the most fervent of God’s people. I remember this question coming from many angles in the discussions of my MA classes at Wheaton. Students want to know how to know God’s guidance.

In my last post, I investigated the issue of knowing God’s guidance as seen in the life of Paul…

…now let’s look at a story that gives us some perspective from the Old Testament, one of the pivotal stories in the history of Israel.

God’s people still look back on their shared history to say we are a people who have been redeemed from slavery and brought into the Promised Land. The Exodus story marks a turning point or maybe a beginning point in the life of the Israelite people. Their shared history of bondage and rescue gets wrapped up in song, Psalms 78. They teach it to their kids in school as they learn the Pentateuch. They remember it well every Passover, one of their biggest ceremonies each year. No matter the struggle and pain, the shared history of the wandering in the wilderness indelibly shaped the identity of God’s people.

Now let me frame it this way…

Looking back we see the shaping work of God’s hand, but looking forward in Exodus 1-3, would we see the Hebrews saying yes to this process if they knew what God was demanding of them?

Do you think these people would have said yes to God if he told them what would happen? They barely wanted to go as it was…aside from the plagues, they got upset with Moses for even suggesting that they go and worship for a few days as Pharaoh turned the screws on them.

God posed the call to them that he was going to rescue them and lead them to the Promised Land. What if he said, I will take you out of Egypt where you don’t have it so well, but at least you have food and housing. I will lead you into the desert where everyone over 20 will die as you wander the desert wavering in your faith for 40 years until I humble you to become the people I have designed you to be. You will face snakes, drought, famine and war. I’ll send you food and water, but you’ll get bored with eating the same thing. Who would have said yes to that call?

Not me…

Nonetheless, this story of wilderness wandering and God’s constant provision shaped the people of God to be who they are today. Even the teachers of the law harkened back to their shared story and what their fathers ate in the desert when dialoguing with Jesus, John 6. Stephen reminded his accusers of their story touching on the wilderness experience before jumping ahead to the temple story.

Sometimes the biggest things God uses to shape us and mold, he finds best not to tell us about up front.

I am not saying he causes the misery and rough times, but he uses them to make us who we are.

As I think about calling and direction, I can take courage that my story will unfold in the best way God has for it. As we continue serving God in Thailand, he will make us into the people he wants us to be.

Is there a story in your life, where you felt you were following God and it didn’t go according to your plan, but it turned out  to make you into the person you are today?

 

A Compassionate God Part 2

I want to continue our look at Elijah. In the second part of our story we come to the showdown on Mt. Carmel. God expresses himself as real in this epic encounter.

Elijah comes out of hiding to meet Ahab only to be called a trouble maker. Living in a land with a king today, I can’t believe anyone would have the intestinal fortitude to say this. Elijah, speaking on behalf of YWHW says, nae nae, King Ahab, you are the trouble maker. You and your family, rejected God and now follow Baal. Jezebel, the princess from Phoenicia and quite possibly a high priestess brought the worship of Baal to Israel when she married Ahab.

This is the context in which Elijah faces Ahab and requests a showdown between the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the god of rain and lightning (Baal). Here is where we love to read the story as one of power, which it is, but this story also contains a big look into the compassionate nature of God. All the while he is setting up an opportunity to reveal himself as real, he is turning the hearts of his people back to him, I Kings 18:36, 37.

When God acts in power, it is to draw people to know him. Charles Kraft talks about three encounters that people have in conversion.

1. Truth encounter
2. Allegiance encounter
3. Power encounter

When God acts in power, it is to draw people to know him. He constantly desires relationship with us and all peoples. I am reminded of the moving story of Watchman Nee when God acted in power to bring rain on a small island of the coast of Southern China. Watchman Nee was an evangelist in China after his conversion in 1927 until his imprisonment under the Mao regime.

Nee and a band of Christians entered the island to share the wonderful story of God with its inhabitants. However, the islanders who worshipped a false god didn’t open their hearts to the story of God. During one conversation with one of Nee’s disciples’ the islanders told how their god provided clear days during a special ceremony each year. When finding out the day of the ceremony, Nee’s group challenged the islanders to see if God was real. They promised on the day of their ceremony God would send the rain. It hadn’t rained in over 200 years on this ceremony. Nee and his group realized the severity of their proposal and began to pray fervently. When the prescribed day came, God sent heavy rains. The islanders baulked and changed the day of the festival, to which God sent rain on that day as well. The residents of the island then abandoned their former worship and came to believe in God due to the power encounter they witnessed.

Back to Elijah, He finds himself confronting 850 priests on Mt. Carmel, a range bordering Phoenicia and Israel near the modern power city of Hiva. He throws down the gauntlet asking each sided to prepare an offering. He leaves one caveat…no fire. Each must call on their god to send fire. The god who sends fire would be real. Here in v. 18, he echoes the call of Joshua to the people of God watching in anticipation of what will happen. He says essentially, choose today who you will serve. He even allows the group of priests to go first, since there is so many of them. How kind of him.

After they begin the shouts and pleas with no response, the humor of the story begins. Elijah taunts them, saying maybe their god is busy, deep in thought, away or even sleeping. These all contrast the nature of God who is everywhere at all times. They pull out swords and knifes to slash themselves as per their customary worship. I am glad that we don’t worship like that today. Now, I love what the narrative says next. There was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Elijah stepped forward and said it is my turn.

He put the altar of the Lord back together as it likely was torn down under Jezebel’s command. He then asked for four large containers of water. Hmmm, in a drought, but this mountain  happened to be the location of a fresh spring of water, so Elijah used that to soak the dry wood not wanting any doubt in the minds of this attentive audience. He soaked the sacrifice three times with all the water as it filled up the trench he dug around the altar.

Now Elijah prayed an awesome prayer and saw God answer with fire…fire that licked up all the water and burnt the sacrifice.

God answered in power, turning the hearts of his people back to him. God’s power has always been a real way to show himself to people. Paul said as much in I Corinthians 22:1-5 saying that he came not with eloquence  or human wisdom, but with a demonstration of power and of the spirit that the Corinthians would put their hope in God and not human wisdom. God is a real God, and Christianity is not a mere philosophy.

I am reminded of incredible stories in Thailand of God showing his power. One story is that of a woman I met in Had Yai during a celebration of the church there. This woman was being baptized with about a dozen other people who recently came to know God. Her story stood out as she came to find God when he showed up in power. She had been divorced after her husband who contracted AIDS from a prostitute gave it to her. Now she was left in a culture that overlooks widows to care for her children and fight a devastating disease. As her body withered, and she lay in the hospital, one of her friends kept coming to comfort her. Her friend was a member of this church. Finally, she was ready to allow her friend to pray for her. God healed her of AIDS right there in the hospital room. Now she is walking with God as the church came alongside of her to help her care for her children as well.

We see the compassion of God as he moves in power to draw us to know him.

 

Success that Matters Part 2

Last week, I looked at John, the profile of a successful person according to Jesus. Today, I want to see the attitude of him. As I investigated the life of the person Jesus called great, I found myself stunned at how opposite his bio was from those we claim to be successful today. For that matter, his life is rarely lifted up in a Bible study or pattern to follow from those in the Bible. He is more like a flash in the pan with his family relationship to Jesus being his claim to fame. As we see him, he did something nice, but God tells us he is the greatest. Hmmm…makes me stop and pause.

But here is the real jaw dropper…The man Jesus called great had an attitude that mirrored humility.

Most people I have met who have any success today are brimming with confidence, bordering on cockiness. Meanwhile John the Baptist preached a message straight from the Old Testament prophets. These Hebrew prophets foretold the day of the Lord which no one really looked forward to as judgment would come. He called on people to repent, an unlikely formula for success. He even berated the elitist Pharisees who came to see him and what the buzz was all about.

More than all of this John cuts from traditional wisdom on how to be successful when he lauds the success of the new guy. In John 3, we see a story with John’s disciples asking about Jesus and all the people that are now following him. The people who used to come and listen to John have now flocked to Jesus. I imagine not too dissimilar to the staff members asking why all of our people now are going to that other, new hot church in town. We used to have standing room only on our Sunday service, and now there is sparse attendance, the young Jr. staff member asks. He goes on saying that guy doesn’t even follow the rules of ministry the way we do.

Here is how John responds.

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’  The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:27-30.

Wow, oh my…

I would love to unpack this for a while, but I for the sake of space, I’ll let us soak on what John says, especially, he must become greater, and I must become less.

This is not to say the new church with all the buzz needs to become grater, but that we have an attitude that Jesus becomes greater as we become less. Our ministry is not about acquiring fame or significance in this life but in making the name of Jesus great and lifted high.

I know in my life, as a young minister, I had dreams of greatness. I wanted to impact my community and influence others. I wanted to have a large youth group or speak at camps. I wanted to do things that lifted me up in the eyes of my peers. It is a tough battle to have the heart of John.

Even today, I want to write books that people read. I want this blog to make a bigger splash in the blogosphere. I want to be a missionary that influences a nation.

These things can drive us in ministry, but if we are led by our calling as John was, we can be seen in the same light as John was by our Lord, Jesus.

How can we ruthlessly work to keep our view of success like that of John the Baptists?

 

Living in the Now and the Not Yet

I was honored to write a post for my denomination’s weekly devotional. They are going through the book of Acts, and this week is Acts 18.

The title was Living in the Now and Not Yet and focuses on Paul’s struggles and how God meets him in that time.

Acts 18: Living Between “Now” and “Not Yet: Sometimes we need to be OK with God touching others through us, even as we wait for Him to touch us.