Monday, June 26, 2017

Patience While Under Construction

Patience Three-Hour Self-Guided Retreat Guide download here

Photo credit: CIFOR via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

And [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

“But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Luke 13:6-9

Ruth Bell Graham, late wife of evangelist Billy Graham, once saw a sign along a highway that she thought would be fitting to put on her gravestone. It said, "End of construction. Thank you for your patience."1 She had latched onto an important truth: As long as we are living, we are under construction. We are always learning and being shaped. And for that patience is required. Patience with ourselves. Patience with and from our family, friends, coworkers, and church family. Patience, even, with God!

Thankfully, God is patient. Jesus’ parable from Luke 13 declares that Good News to us. When most would be ready to be done with us for our fickleness and flaws, God is willing to patiently work with us and enrich us…coaxing growth and fruitfulness from us. This is the meaning of the Greek word Paul uses in Galatians 5:22 that is translated as “patience.” Patience has a sense of steadfastness and staying-power. Patience is being “long-tempered” instead of short-tempered. This quality in God contributed to our salvation. It is a quality in us that will save many a relationship.

Patience is important for our own peace of mind. As disciples of Christ, we are works-in-progress. Be patient with yourself in your progress as a Christian. Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2 captures the need for patience in our spiritual life perfectly:

“Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time…. I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties ‘let go, and let God.’ But it was not like that for me. For all that ‘I was lost, I am found,’ it is probably more accurate to say, ‘I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment.’ And then a little less and a little less again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.2”

For further reflection of the role of patience in your life I invite you to take this month’s Three-Hour Retreat on Patience available for download at this link.

Thursday, June 08, 2017

Joining God's Peace Movement (includes retreat download link)

3-Hour Self-Guided Retreat on Peace download


Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. (Acts 10:34-6, New Living Translation)

As Peter proclaimed to a Roman family, God initiated a great peace movement through Jesus Christ, who went to the cross to die so that, by his sacrifice, we were given forgiveness of our sins. In Romans Chapter five, the apostle Paul pointedly states that we were once enemies of God, and that God made peace with us through the death of Jesus Christ. Christ’s broken body and spilled blood . . . Christ’s death, removed God’s wrath from us. And if Christ’s death removed our enemy status . . . in fact, it made us part of God’s family . . . then Christ’s resurrected life assures us that we have life and peace with God. This is the great Good News: Peace with God . . . forgiveness of sins . . . a relationship with God that will last forever . . . are all a reality for those who have faith in Christ.

God initiated the peace movement. Peace moves into your live through Jesus Christ. Peace, from the biblical perspective, is a sense of wholeness or well-being in individuals and groups, that comes from a real relationship with God.

The great Good News is that peace can move into the lives of every single person. God accepts every kind of people. What shakes up our world, like it shook up Peter’s, are the consequences of God’s acceptance. If God finds all people acceptable, well it’s quite possible that our view of the world is going to get shook up a little, too.

I write these words as Britain is reeling from a terrorist suicide bomb attack that killed 22 people leaving a concert. The world we live in is not a very peaceful place. Even finding personal peace is getting harder to come by. Christians have the challenging call of conveying the Good News of God’s peace through Jesus Christ to people . . . even to the people we consider untouchable. We’re called to join God’s peace movement. And like Peter with Cornelius . . . our actions may just speak louder than our words.

Joining God’s peace movement means change at a personal level. It requires some personal rewiring. All the things that separate us one from another—jealousy, envy, a critical spirit, stubborn pride, comfort, tradition--anything that alienates us from others . . . they’ve got to go if we are going to be meaningful members of God’s peace movement.

One of the most powerful testimonies to the power and peace of God is a community of faith that is modeling acceptance and forgiveness. We’ve been caught up in God’s peace movement and it has been our salvation! It’s God’s forgiveness and acceptance that has been extended to the world. Let there be God’s peace on earth and let it begin with you, let it begin with me, let it begin with us.

3-Hour Self-Guided Retreat on Peace download