humiliation

My sister made this little potpourri bag manger scene for me some years ago. 

It is one of my favourite Christmas decorations.

"'For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.*'" Luke 2:11-12

*"Feed trough" is how my Bible footnotes "manger." It's a bassinet painted with animal drool, and decorated with cobwebs. What a contrast - Savior, Lord — lying in a manger! This is a sign indeed.

But it is consistent. For throughout His life, Jesus characteristically associated with  humble things:

• He spoke easily and graciously with women, even socially despised ones (John 4:5-7; John 8:2-11).

• He ate with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:13-17).

• He taught the dignity and worth of the poor, humble, needy state (Matthew 5:2-12, 11:29; Luke 9:58)

• He welcomed and blessed children (Mark 10:13-16).

• He washed His disciples feet (John 13:5).

• He was "numbered with the transgressors" (Luke 22:37) when He was "crucified..." and, as if that way of death was not bad enough, "between two robbers" (Matthew 27:38).

I have two reactions:

1. Amazement, that the exalted, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of heaven and earth chose to identify with us in this way. The contrast is almost inconceivable.

2. Thankfulness. Paul expresses that the reasons for our thankfulness so eloquently in 2 Corinthians 8:9.

"You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich." Message

Wishing you, dear reader, a rich and blessed Christmas!

Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground) - Chris Tomlin

Holy Week - Easter Sunday

He is risen

He is risen indeed!

"Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

Read: Mark 16:1-13

The story of the resurrection includes a lot of doubting. The women who first discovered Jesus was gone and heard from the angel that Jesus was risen, "trembled and were amazed. And they said, nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

Mary Magdalene saw Jesus but when she reported to His friends, "...they did not believe."

After He appeared to two disciples on the Road to Emmaus and they later told the disciples, the disciples "...did not believe them either."

People don't like to be thought gullible. Skepticism is way cooler. But when it comes to the things of God, we can believe the promises He has made in the Bible.

The disciples wanted nothing more than to have Jesus back with them again. But when He appeared after His resurrection, they didn't believe it could be Him - even though he had told them plainly this would happen.

Oswald Chambers says, "It is always a wonder when God answers prayer...it is so wonderful that a great many people believe it impossible. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do' (John 14:13). Isn't that wonderful? It is so wonderful that I do not suppose more than half of us really believe it. 'Every one that asketh receiveth' (Matthew 7:8). Isn't that wonderful?"

- Oswald Chambers - If You Ask, p. 37

Dear Jesus, nothing is too hard for You. Your resurrection proves it. I want to be a believer. Help my unbelief.

Holy Week - Saturday

"Joseph of Arimathaea" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

To Read: Mark 15:42-47
(Readings suggested by Canadian Bible Society)

In these five verses, nine words popped out at me: "who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God." Ping! That's me. That's you if inside you is that deep yearning for His peace, love and justice to win; for God's order, His kingdom to come on earth.

Joseph of Arimathaea, the man who was waiting, had heard Jesus' teaching and seen his miracles. He just knew Jesus was the fulfillment of God's promise of a king, come to establish a new order. But now his hero was dead.

Still, that kingdom sense in Joseph prompted him to get up the courage to ask Pilate for Jesus' body. Because that's what "waiting for the kingdom" is about too. It's about facing the meaningless, the awful, the sad, the tragic. It's about not slumping into unbelief just because things aren't going the way we thought they would but carrying on, even in the dark.

We too must wait for the kingdom through good and bad. It's easy to anticipate the kingdom when things turn out the way we hope: we get the job, health is restored, the house sells. But in the face of unemployment, sickness, dashed dreams, does our kingdom hope survive?

Dear Lord, please help me wait for Your kingdom with positive action, never losing sight of the fact someday it will come "on earth as it is in heaven."

**************

Story time

This "waiting for the kingdom" reminds me of a little story Richard Stearns (head of World Vision USA) tells in his book The Hole in Our Gospel. He was visiting a desperately poor family high in the Andes. Octaviana was a widow trying to support herself and her children as well as pay back a $300 debt her husband had incurred. The whole family was sick with parasites. Her small flock of sheep were sick too. Here is Rich Stearns' description of his visit with her. I think it's a beautiful illustration of both sides of 'waiting for the kingdom.'

"I asked her what she prayed for, because I could tell she was a woman of deep faith. She said she prayed to God that He would not forget her and her three children on that remote mountain -- that He would help her carry this burden and that He would send help. And as I held her hand and prayed for her, God revealed to me a profound truth -- that I was the answer to Octaviana's prayer. Eight thousand miles from my home in Seattle, 14,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains, she had cried out to God for help, and He had sent me. God had sent me to help her, He had sent me to comfort her in her suffering, and He had sent me to be Christ's love to her. She had prayed and I was God's answer, I would be God's miracle in her life.

And then the even bigger truth washed over me. I could see that all across the world people were crying out in desperation to God for help, for comfort; widows, orphans, the sick, the disabled, the poor and the exploited. These millions of prayers were being lifted up to God, and we, each of us who claim to be His followers, were to be His answer. We were the ones who would bring the "good news" of Christ to the poor, the sick, the downtrodden. God had not turned His back on the poor in their suffering. God had sent us. This was the good news of the gospel -- good news indeed for the poor."

(The Hole in Our Gospel, pages 166,167)

Holy Week - Good Friday

"Christ on the Cross" by Eugene Delacroix, 1798-1863

Read Mark 15:1-41

How quickly things got ugly once evil was allowed to run free. The crowd turned nasty. The soldiers were blasphemous and abusive. Even the others condemned to death were full of sarcasm and ridicule.

But on another plane a great victory was being won. Jesus had met God's standard of perfection. He was the Lamb of God, paying the penalty for our sin. Our relationship with God would be restored.

At His death the earth shook. The "veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom"; physically impossible for a person to tear it in that manner. Jesus' death opened the way for us to come into the very presence of God. That is why we can call the day we remember a death - GOOD.

Holy Week - Tuesday

"Jesus upon the Mount of Olives" - Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

Tuesday reading: Mark 11:20-13:37

Watch. "Watch and pray. Watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is coming...Watch." These are the instructions Jesus gives after making a string of chilling predictions about end times: wars and rumors of wars, nations rising against nation, earthquakes, famine and troubles (Mark 13).

I'm sure the three disciples Jesus took with him deep into Gethsemane wished they'd paid more attention to this lesson after Jesus' arrest. Similarly, if I knew what was ahead for me, would I be a better watcher?

Lord, please give me a watchful spirit; and Your wise perspective on the world around me.

Holy Week - Monday

"The accursed fig tree" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

Monday reading: Mark 11:12-19

Jesus is in no mood for lightness. He curses a barren fig tree. Then He cleans the money changers and dove sellers out of the temple. His explanation, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of thieves."

What does the serious, down-to-business, days-from-the-cross Jesus curse in our lives, my life? My fruitlessness? My affair with the things of this world?

God help me, this Holy Week, to get honest with You and let You get ruthless with me.

Holy Week - Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday which is the beginning of Holy Week - the week that precedes Easter.

Palm Sunday is the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as the crowds thronged around, throwing their clothes and branches in his donkey's path while shouting "Hosanna." The joyous celebration is made all the more poignant by our knowledge of how soon those cheers will change to jeers. One of the reasons this story hits me hard is how it reminds me of my own fickleness.

Reading for Palm Sunday: Mark 11:1-11

"The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem" by James Tissot 1836-1902

the black hole of the gospel

"Gospel" is a beige word, one of those words we read but it doesn't register because it's so common. It shouldn't be that way. For gospel" (euangelion), a word that means "good news," has significance to all of us. While in ancient Greek "gospel" referred to the reward given for bringing good news, in the New Testament it means the good news itself.

Good news about what? About God and humankind. About the promise of salvation and its fulfillment by the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

This month's feature at Rebecca Writes is the gospel. Every Tuesday and Friday in October she has been putting up links to posts from around blogland that refer to some aspect of the gospel.

The poem "Black Hole" does that.

I first did some reading around black holes years ago when one of the kids was researching a science project. The theory that matter and light swept into a black hole's vortex are lost to us forever remind me of what happened to sin when Jesus died on the cross.

"The darkness at the crucifixion" - Gustave Dore, 1865

BLACK HOLE
"About noon darkness fell across the entire land..." Mark 15:33

Forbidden fruit’s magnetic lure,
crimson Jealousy, Murder,
consuming Lust,
that bangs down doors.

Fear, Conniving,
Lies – "She is my sister."
Complaints, Grumbling, Muttering
Demands: "We want a king."
Whining, Rebellion: "Who made you king?"
Gagging, Tormenting,
Killing truth-sayers.

Disease – rotting limbs,
glazed eyes, fever,
paralysis.
Demonized, rage-filled shrieks
Schemes, Betrayal, Mockery:
Curses, Spitting
"If you’re so wonderful
come down from the cross."

All vortexed that afternoon
in thick, heavy Evil.
Oppression.
Tear-your-hair-out Despair.
Darkness. Sin’s sum total
sucked into a black hole...

“It is finished.”

© 2007 - V. Nesdoly

new - 7

"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

- Hebrews 10:19-22 NKJV

new - 6

"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body.'

Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

And He said to them, 'This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'”

- Mark 14:22-25 NKJV

Merry Christmas

Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." - Luke 2: 10-12 (NKJV)

West Vancouver manger scene

To all who read here - Warmest Christmas wishes!
From our house to yours.

"Of the Father's Love Begotten"

The Wisemen Guided by a Star - by Gustave Dore.

The song that greets you as you enter here is one of my favorite Christmas carols. I first heard "Of the Father's Love Begotten" the year my daughter was a member of the Amadeus Children's Choir and they sang it as part of their Christmas repertoire. It was magnificent sung by pure, high child voices.

The words are from a poem written by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413). The tune is plainsong (a type of old Catholic liturgical music), and from the 13th century. I think the plainsong aspect of it - it is monophonic and has a free vs. measured rhythm - gives it that sense of mystery and exoticism.

And then there are the words, translated from the Latin by John M. Neale (1854) and Henry W. Baker (1859). What theology. What praise. Here are some of my favorites of the nine stanzas:

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!

This is He Whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing, evermore and evermore!

Christ, to Thee with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory, evermore and evermore!

Roby Furley Davis translated it from the Latin as well. All three versions (Latin, English versions 1 and 2) are here.

Jesus glows in the dark

It was the day the kids were to get their Christmas presents. Excitement electrified the air in Bill Wilson's bus as he drove around the Bronx, picking up kids for Sunday school.

At one stop, the little girl who clambered up the steps stopped beside him and handed him a ball of newspaper, covered with Scotch tape. "For you," she said.

He took it from her. "Thank you very much," he said, placing it aside and easing the bus back into traffic.

But the little girl kept standing beside him. "Open it," she said. "You have to open it."

"But we're driving," he said.

"You have to open it now."

"It's a woman thing," Bill said when he told us the story in church yesterday. "I knew it wouldn't do to argue. So I pulled that big school bus as far over as I could on that narrow street, took that taped ball and started unwrapping it."

The kids from the bus crowded around as he peeled off the layers of newspaper. Finally he came to the center and a little plastic creche. It was broken and dirty. She'd obviously found it.

"Thank you," Bill said. "That's great." Cars were honking behind him and on the street a couple of traffic cops approached. He made the motion of putting the gift down, but the little girl wasn't done.

"We have to cover it," she said. She took the manger ornament from Bill, cupped it in both hands and reached it up to him. "You cover it."

Bill did.

"Now look at it," the girl said.

Bill peeked under his hand and saw that from the baby Jesus figure came a greenish glow.

Beaming, the little girl said, "See - Jesus glows in the dark!"

*****************


Bringing the light of Jesus to the ghettos of New York is what Bill Wilson has done for the past 25+ years. Now he and his team of 150 staff and 300 volunteers drive 60 buses to minister to 40,000 kids weekly. Metro Ministries is the biggest Sunday School in the world.

Metro Ministries is international. They have Sunday Schools in various places around the world including the garbage dumps of Manila (Philippines). And invitations keep coming in to start more Sunday Schools -- from India to the Gaza strip.

Bill was himself abandoned on the street by his mother when he was 12. "You stay here," she told him that day, as she left him on a street corner. "I'll come back for you."

She never did. Three days later, a man passing by in a truck noticed him. He and his wife gave Bill water and something to eat, then paid the $17.50 it took (in 1961) to send him to camp. Five hours later, Bill was at an Assemblies of God youth camp where his life was turned around.

It's no wonder that he speaks with such conviction about the power of the individual to make a difference. "Can one person make a difference?" was his message to us yesterday.

It's online. Listen to it here.

Bill Wilson:

If you want something you've never had before, you've got to do something you've never done before.

Whatever makes you mad -- that's what God will use you to change.

If you see a need and can fulfill that need, that's the call.

Sidewalk Sunday School.
Check out Metro Ministries video library.


A short video overview of Metro Ministries

communion thoughts

Yesterday I went through the house with a clipboard, making an inventory of all the things I still need to do before we're ready for our move on Friday. It's a long list. This will be a busy week in the packing department.

So in the interests of getting lots of that done done this week, I've decided to warm up some old posts instead of writing new ones. I'll be reposting my five most popular, according to sitemeter stats. Today it's number 5 - a poem "Communion" which I first posted when my blog was about one month old in November 2004. (It seems 'communion thoughts' is a popular Google search every Saturday night. Thus I get a hit or two or three every weekend.)

*****************

COMMUNION

"Communion Service,
next Sunday morning at 10:00,"
church bulletin said.
I imagined sitting there,
wafer and tiny goblet of juice in hand
trying hard not to think
of what I'll make for lunch.
It wasn't even a prayer, just a thought
I wish it had more meaning for me again.

Early Communion Sunday morning
the book opened to the spot
kept by the crocheted cross
"The Bread that I present to the world
so that it can eat and live
is myself,
this flesh-and-blood self."

(Ew gross!
It offended the Jews then,
'How can this man
serve up his flesh for a meal?'

People still say,'Your religion
is too bloody.')

"But Jesus didn't give an inch.
'Only insofar as you eat and drink
the flesh and blood of the Son of Man
do you have life within you.
By eating my flesh
and drinking my blood,
you enter into me
and I into you.
... bring a hearty appetite.
... make a meal of me."*

Oh God of heaven, Jesus, Lord
On personal invitation
I'll chew the bread, imbibe the wine
Your presence my distraction.

I cannot with my literal mind
Pretend to understand
What happens when I eat and drink
Inscrutable, heavenly plan,

It’s mystery
And intimacy,
Communion
God with man.

******************
*Peterson, Eugene H. The Message, the New Testament In Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs CO., Navpress, 1993, John 6 – pp. 234,235.

heart cleaning - the dining room

(from "My Heart Christ’s Home" by Robert Boyd Munger)

From the study we went into the dining room, the room of appetites and desires. Now this was a very large room. I spent a good deal of time in the dining room and much effort in satisfying my wants.

I said to Him, “This is a very commodious room and I am quite sure You will be pleased with what we serve here.”

He seated Himself at the table with me and asked, “What is on the menu for dinner?”

“Well,” I said, “my favorite dishes: old bones, corn husks, sour cabbage, leeks, onions, and garlic right out of Egypt.” These were the things I liked – worldly fare. I suppose there was nothing radically wrong in any particular item, but it was not the food that should satisfy the life of a real Christian. When the food was placed before Him, He said nothing about it. However, I observed that He did not eat it and I said to him, somewhat disturbed, “Saviour, You don’t care for the food that is placed before You? What is the trouble?”

He answered, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” He looked at me again and said, “If you want food that really satisfies you, seek the will of the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, not your own satisfaction. Seek to please Me, and that food will satisfy you.” And there about the table He gave me a taste of doing God’s will. What a flavor! There is no food like it in all the world. It alone satisfies. Everything else is dissatisfying in the end.

Now if Christ is in your heart, and I trust He is, what kind of food are you serving Him and what kind of food are you eating yourself? Are you living for the lust of the flesh and the pride of life – selfishly? Or are you choosing God’s will for your meat and drink?

heart cleaning - the library

All the cleaning I’ve been doing lately has reminded me of another kind of cleaning – heart cleaning. I remember a little book I once read about that called “My Heart Christ’s Home.” When I looked for it the other day – sure enough I found it (I have a great many things still squirreled away, even after these many days of cleaning!) I’m going to post bits of that book in the next few days. It fits with my frame of mind.

The book starts out with a little intro. I’ll begin with that and then go on to the first room of the heart that gets a cleaning – the Library. So here is “My Heart Christ’s Home” by Robert Boyd Munger.

...The body of the believer would be the temple of the living God and the human heart would be the home of Jesus Christ. It is difficult for me to think of a higher privilege than to make for Christ a home in my heart, than to welcome, to serve, to please, to fellowship with Him there.

One evening that I shall never forget, I invited Him into my heart. What an entrance He made! It was not a spectacular emotional thing, but very real. It was at the very center of my life. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire in the cold hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness and He filled the emptiness with His own loving, wonderful fellowship. I have never regretted opening the door to Christ...

After Christ entered my heart and in the joy of that new-found relationship, I said to Him, “Lord, I want this heart of mine to be Yours. I want to have You settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to You. Let me show you around and introduce You to the various features of the home that You may be more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together.”

He was very glad to come, of course and happier still to be given a place in the heart.

The Library

The first room was the study – the Library. Let us call it the study of the mind. Now in my home this room of the mind is a very small room with very thick walls. But it is an important room. In a sense, it is the control room of the house. He entered with me and looked around at the books in the bookcase, the magazines upon the table, the pictures on the wall.

As I followed His gaze I became uncomfortable. Strangely enough, I had not felt bad about this before, but now that He was there looking at these things I was embarrassed. There were some books there that His eyes were too pure to behold. There was a lot of trash and literature on the table that a Christian had no business to read and as for the pictures on the wall – the imaginations and thoughts of my mind – these were shameful.

I turned to Him and said, “Master, I know that this room needs a radical alteration. Will You help me make it what it ought to be – to bring every thought into captivity to Thee?”

“Surely!” He said. “Gladly will I help you. That is one reason I am here. First of all, take all the things that you are reading and seeing which are not helpful, pure, good and true and throw them out! Now put on the empty shelves the books of the Bible. Fill the library with Scriptures and meditate on them day and night. As for the pictures on the wall, you will have difficulty controlling these images, but here is an aid.” He gave me a full-sized portrait of Himself. “Hang this centrally,” He said, “on the wall of the mind.”

I did and I have discovered through the years that when my thoughts are centered upon Christ Himself, His purity and power cause impure imaginations to retreat. So He has helped me to bring my thoughts into captivity.

May I suggest to you if you have difficulty with this little room of the mind, that you bring Christ in there. Pack it full with the Word of God, meditate upon it, and keep before it ever the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus.

a friday we call 'good'

Today is the day we call “Good Friday.” It is a day Christians around the world remember the death of Jesus – the Passion. The story of it is written in all four Gospels (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19). But its foreshadowing looms across the Old Testament. Its repercussions impact all of time, into eternity.

Early in Genesis, right after Adam and Eve have given in to Satan’s temptation, God promises Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15).

We see intimations of this day again when God establishes His covenant with Abraham, telling him that through his family all nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Jesus' place in Abraham's family is outlined in Matthew 1.

It is graphically pictured in Exodus 12, when God institutes the Passover. In order to avoid a visit from the Death Angel, the Israelites are to kill a lamb and smear its blood over the doorposts of their house. God promises: “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13).

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” writes David in Psalm 22 - words Jesus echoed when He was on the cross.

Isaiah 53 is full of prophecies which came true quite literally on the day Jesus died, about 700 years later:

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent
So He opened not His mouth.

How do you celebrate Good Friday? We usually go to church. In our town, it is often the day of joint services, when churches of many denominations come to worship together. Jesus would approve. The unity of His followers was close to His heart (John 17:20,21).

A part of the service is Communion. Jesus actually directed the first communion service the night He celebrated his last Passover with His disciples. He called this remembrance of His death by eating bread and drinking wine together, a new covenant (Matthew 26:17-30) because He knew that in a few hours, He would be fulfilling the requirements of the old.

It was at such a Good Friday service nine years ago that I first read the poem “How Shallow Former Shadows Seem” by Carl Daw. It expresses most eloquently why we can label such a sad event ‘good.’

May your Friday also be good.

sometime on the sixth day

...the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world... Revelation 13:8

It stands there
blinking, surprised
then begins to ba-a-a-
this wooly,
trusting
easily-led-astray animal
just created

and a shudder goes through heaven.

© 2007 - Violet Nesdoly (Family Reunion)

did Jesus make lists?

That's the question that came to me this morning as I was thinking about the day ahead and the list of things I’d like to get done. List-making has always been for me an efficiency tool or self-check guide to focus me and help me make sure I’m staying on-task. As such, though, lists can easily rule me, making me resistant to serendipity and interruption.

Jesus, on the other hand, comes across as a very anti-list person, the way He drifted from incident to incident – one day in Galilee, another in Capernaum, then Bethany, then Jerusalem – with seemingly no plan or agenda but to do His Father’s will.

And then this morning, just after thinking about Jesus and lists I came to the place in Luke where He made one! Yes indeed, in Luke 6:12-15 Jesus comes to His flock of followers one morning with a list of twelve people He’s picked to be disciples. Though I’m sure he didn’t make His list because He was in a panic, feeling overwhelmed, or wouldn't otherwise remember (more reasons I make lists), I imagine He had one reason in common with mine -- His time was limited. He had lots to get done and needed to focus His efforts.

But there is also a big difference between Jesus’ list-making and mine, and that is what He did while He was making that list: He “continued all night in prayer to God.” Luke 6:12. Now there’s a novel thought – praying over my lists. Presenting them to God and letting Him strike out some items and add others to my to-do list, prayer list, grocery list, list of people I’d like to have over, books I want to read, things I’d like to do before I die ...

I’m definitely a list person, though I must admit that more than once I’ve questioned the lists I’ve made because they so easily spin me off into my own little agenda. But if Jesus made lists surely it’s okay for me to make them too – as long as I don’t forget to invite Him to be part of the process. Oh, and I just thought of a way to shake off the tyranny of any list that thinks it's the boss. I'll make sure that "serendipity" and "interruption" are always on the list!

an opposite spirit

Meekness is the character trait of a strong person who is continually surrendering his or her rights to God. Jesus was the perfect example of meekness, for as He said, he did nothing except what His Father told Him to do. Jesus was meek when He took out a whip and drove the money changers from the temple, just as He was meek when he stood before Pilate and refused to utter a word to save Himself.

When Jesus said that the meek would inherit the earth, He was telling us His master strategy for winning the war against Satan and demon forces on this earth. God is going to utterly defeat Satan, and He’s going to do it with individuals who move in the opposite spirit to the forces of darkness. We are going to win the victory, but only as we discern what the devil is doing and do the opposite thing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

-- Loren Cunningham, Making Jesus Lord