Our Gethsemane

What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane between Jesus and Father God? Ultimately after several hours of torturous and agonizing prayer, His will and the Father's converged. This should be for us a time to pause and consider. But we, in the 21st century have become so familiar with His story, that we move quickly to the next plot. At its core Gethsemane depicts the story of an unanswered prayer. Jesus' cup of suffering was NOT removed. Jesus told his disciples "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Author Philip Yancey asks an unanswerable question: "Is it possible that for the first time ever Jesus did not want to be alone with the Father?" Other times Jesus had sought to be alone in prayer. How about our own Gethsemane experiences? Of course none of us have been born to die for the sins of ALL of humanity. But, God's call for us to follow Him to the unknown may bring us to places of doubt and fear. I believe that Jesus shows us in His garden experience that agonizing prayer is allowed. In fact as I consider Jesus' bold move forward to Jerusalem and the trial and crucifixion, I feel it was that time of releasing His will to the Father's that allowed Him to say to Peter "...shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" and later to Pilate "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above..." There are times to consider the cost. There are times to say, "God I don't want this." Agonize...wait...listen...ask again...further agony. Then, there is the time to think: Will God ask something of me but not give me the grace to accomplish? "Not my will be done, but Thine," Jesus concluded in those agonizing hours in the Garden. Our gardens are holy ground. Find yours. In 2020, many are having Gethsemane conversations with God.

"Advantages" of being poor

I've been given some personal challenging remarks of late, regarding the issues of privilege. Without it, life is unbalanced and unfair to those without it. In a book I am reading, I read this from Monika Hellwig, who lists the following "advantages" to being poor. It relates to to the Beatitudes taught by Jesus. Hellwig wrote: The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption. The poor know not only their dependence on God and on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another. The poor rest their security not on things but on people. The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy. The poor expect little from competition and much from cooperation. The poor can distinguish between necessities and luxuries. The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence. The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering and want. When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding. The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything. In case you are counting, Monika has 10 "advantages". Don't know if you agree with these but contemplation of each seems to be worth the time and effort.

Yancey's book The Jesus I Never Knew

I'm reading again. Book is The Jesus I Never Knew. What a title. If nothing else could catch my attention, the title should...and it did. What Jesus is the author, Philip Yancey speaking of? It seems his search was NOT for the two dimensional Jesus found on flannel graph boards he heard about as a child. This Jesus was limited by the hands of someone moving him around for the story. And, sometimes Jesus fell off the board if he wasn't carefully placed there. Yeah. I sense the author was in search of the "real" Jesus. And, if all I knew were the sweet stories told to me as a child, I would be searching as well. Yancey asks a lot of questions. Some he answered and I agree with. Other questions were not answered either because Yancey hadn't found the answer at time of writing or he is still on a quest. Regardless, I did find myself agreeing with the "What were you thinking Jesus?" and the many "Why God? questions. Yancey seems to have issues with ALL the silence about THIS SPECIAL LIFE as written about in the gospels. The reader is given some insights into the culture Jesus was born. All of this is helpful because like the flannel graph stories, Christmas cards are lacking. But between Jesus' 12 year old "come and find me Mom and Dad" and John's declaring Him "The Lamb of God", we are left to wonder about who He is. Getting back to me as a reader...I know right away if a book has holding power over my attention. I also know if I am not going to like a book if its messages to me are ones I can't agree with. So, I hit a few spots in this reading that caused me to wonder, "do I continue on...is this worth my time?" I skipped to the last few pages (another technique of mine). And YES. This is a great read! Yancey writes on the final page: "That dark, Golgothan Friday can only be called Good because of what happened on Easter Sunday, a day which gives a tantalizing clue to the riddle of the universe. Easter opened up a crack in a universe winding down toward entropy and decay, sealing the promise that someday God will enlarge the miracle of Easter to cosmic scale. It is a good thing to remember that in the cosmic drama, we live out our days on Saturday, the in-between day with no name --- waiting." 2020 seems to be nothing but one Saturday after another.

Christian communication in 2020

The Apostle Paul was adamant about protecting the truth of the gospel.  Integrity in the new church was critical.  Again and again Paul encouraged believers and leaders to be true to the teachings of Jesus.  Along with this, the apostle told the early church that unity was vital.  The world was watching.

Today, it seems to me that expressing political views has become more important than unity.
Americans and much of the world are polarized about who is right and who is wrong. Try as we may, as Christians, we can't help but be affected about how we see other Christians when their political views are shared.

I have a dear friend who has very different opinions from mine in the political arena.  But this friend is also a Christian.  We are careful when talking to each other to keep our political opinions out of our relationship.  Our friendship is a treasure.  Another dear Christian friend and I also have very different views on some social issues.  We have discussed these differences privately. We've been unable to come to a place of acceptance on these.  Now, our relationship is broken. This being said, I DEEPLY WISH that Christians would begin to stay away from political discussions on social media.  I trust that the truth of the gospel is kept pure by these believers because they seek it through God's Word and prayer.  But we all know that there are different sources in the news media for how politics and politicians and social issues are viewed.  These are to the left views and to the right views.  There are Democrats.  There are Republicans.  There are conservatives and liberals. And in all this, there are the in-betweens and non-commited.  As these differences meet in conversations on issues, feelings get hot.  Tempers rise, angry words are expressed and relationships are changed.  Forgiveness is needed, but often not sought or offered. 

Dumb as a sheep

MAKING IT PERSONAL - The Psalm for this day - Psalm 83...This is how it goes with me --- I start with reading HIS Word and get centered - YES! Psalm 23! Then throughout the day I listen to the crap on TV news, read a lot of crap on social media and by the end of the day I am living Psalm 83 - chastising God (are YOU blind? are YOU deaf?). vv 1-2. Then I tell God what to do - Go get those bad people (scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind - disgrace them, etc). THEN comes the personal part "Then they will learn that you alone are called the LORD, that you alone are the Most High supreme over all the earth." v. 18 Right Gini! THEY LEARN...how about YOU LEARN. Dumb as a sheep, I am. But, I do have the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23. Thank you Jesus for your grace and mercy <3