Halloween Masks

Tomorrow is Halloween, when many of us will be putting on masks for trick-or-treating or a costume party or just for the fun of it. When we're all done, we'll take off our masks, and people will see us for who we really are... won't they?

Just because Halloween ends doesn't mean people take off their masks. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together: He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, [in spite of their] corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may [be the loneliest people of all]. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. [1]

Did Jesus die on the cross so we could wear masks even when it's not Halloween? Join us Sunday as we explore the possibilities.

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1954), 110. I've taken the liberty to re-word a phrase or two to make this more understandable while, I believe, remaining true to Bonhoeffer's original thought.

Advent Conspiracy

I found this over at Wes Robert's blog. Some ideas are just too good not to share.

365: Mark 4, 5 and 6 (Day 297)

[Jesus] was amazed at how many people had no faith. (Mark 6:6 - NCV)

In Mark 6 we find the narrative detailing Jesus' return to Nazareth. Even though his hometown crowd was amazed at his teachings, they refused to believe in him. Before leaving there, the writer of Mark records Jesus reaction to their lack of faith: Jesus was amazed.

In another account, Matthew 8:5-13, Jesus has a different reaction to a centurion's faith: He was amazed. Wait, that's the same reaction. Nope, just the opposite. With his friends and neighbors, he was amazed at their lack of faith; with the soldier, he was amazed at his abundance of faith.

Just to cover the bases, let's examine a scenario from the final synoptic Gospel. In Luke there is an interesting set of bookends (a story within a story). Both verses include the phrase, When the Son of Man comes again... (17:24 and 18:8). The discourse may have been sparked by the Pharisees' question: When will the kingdom of God come? (verse 20) The Pharisees ask, When?, but Jesus answers a more important question. The question isn't, When will Jesus return?, but, What will Jesus find when he returns? According to Luke 18:8 - NIV, the question is, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Let's put this all together. Jesus was amazed at his friends' and neighbors' lack of faith, and he was amazed at the centurion's abundance of faith. So when Christ returns, maybe it's a given that he will be amazed because of our faith, but will it be for its lack or its abundance?

If you're honest, you'd probably have to admit that you're not that different from me. Right now, whether Jesus was amazed at my lack or abundance of faith would depend on the day of the week. My faith has been stretched and deepened over the past year, but I remind myself of the man Jesus encountered seeking help for his sick son: If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.

Jesus said to the father, "You said, 'If you can!' All things are possible for the one who believes."

Immediately the father cried out, "I do believe! Help me to believe more!" (Mark 9:22-24 - NCV)

God finds my faith amazing. Is it for the right reasons?

Bethany Dillon - You Are On Our Side

My friends posted this song on their blog: Church for Men - Florida. Enjoy.

Around the World in 80 Days... Or Cross Country in Ten

Below are some pictures from our cross country drive, as we moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon. Most of this Janelle and I had seen before, but it never gets old, and it was a joy to share these things with our boys Ben and Will. Janelle and I honeymooned in Rocky Mountain National Park, so it will always have a special place in our hearts. This spectacular valley vista shows the last of the beautiful fall aspen colors.

Above is a picture of the Wind River Canyon in northwest Wyoming. Driving north through this canyon was just beautiful, and delivered us to Cody, where we took a left and headed for the East Entrance to Yellowstone.

Some hot springs, such as this one, are incredibly beautiful. The color and the clarity are mesmerizing. It's amazing to look into their depths and imagine how deep they might be.

This mountainside highway in Yellowstone leads to Mammoth Hot Spring. It's another amazing scene.

This spring is the birthplace of Henry's Fork in Idaho. Pictures don't do it justice. Imagine a full flowing river birthed right out of a hillside, and that's Henry's Fork. The crystal clear water shows off its lush foliage. We didn't get to see one, but I can just imagine a moose munching to its heart's content in this paradise.

I'd like to share more pictures, but unfortunately one of our memory sticks got lost. It's probably laying in a parking lot somewhere in Yellowstone; we're really not sure.

365: Matthew 4, 5 and 6 (Day 288)

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)

Allow me to paraphrase: How fortunate are those who don't content themselves with being spectators at a fight, but who step in and initiate reconciliation, who take a volatile situation and guide it to resolution; and who, rather than say, "There's no hope," bring the encouraging word, "Give peace a chance." People like that resemble their heavenly Father, and people notice.

What if I refused to stoke a conflict, applying water to smoldering fires rather than gasoline? What if I actively advocated for peace, smoothing ruffled feathers and soothing frenzied spirits? And what if I had the kind and volume of peace in my life that overflowed to those around me?

When people look at you, how do they see evidence of your relationship with your Father?

Was the Cross Really Necessary (Part Two)

In my last blog post, available here, I began the tale of our cross country trip from Pennsylvania to Oregon. Our second day of actual driving, ended with Janelle's P.T. Cruiser sitting dead along I-70 somewhere in Missouri, necessitating a mid-trip unexpected new car purchase.

We drove from Kansas City to western Kansas, then the next day to Ft. Collins, CO, where we enjoyed lunch with Janelle's niece and her husband, as well as an extensive 45-minute foray into Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, we've seen it. Let's go. (More on that another time -- RMNP is one of our favorite places in the world; it was where we honeymooned 29 years ago, and we hated having to cut our visit short.) From Colorado we drove north into Wyoming, where we reconnected with friends in Casper, before heading out for Yellowstone. We actually got to spend an entire day at Yellowstone, thanks to the gracious offer of a cabin just across the Idaho line from the West Yellowstone park entrance. When it was time to get back on the road, we headed across Idaho on US-20. We stopped at a rest area in the middle of nowhere, and this time, my truck wouldn't start. I found it ironic that we were across the street from a nuclear power facility, but I didn't have enough juice to start my truck! Another tow, another diversion from our schedule, and at 3:30 Friday afternoon (October 10th), we started out on our final 580 miles to Portland. We were bound and determined we were going to get to our destination that day, and even though it was about 1:30 a.m. before we arrived, as far as we're concerned, it still counts.

Okay, now bear with me (a little Yellowstone reference there).

We needed a new car. The dealership was very gracious, but still expected payment. If we couldn't have arranged financing, we would have limped along in Janelle's P.T., hoping and praying it would make it to Oregon. If the dealer had said, You can pay the $20K for the new car, OR you can recite the 23rd Psalm, we would have chosen the easier of the two and started our recitation. But the dealer didn't say that. There were financing options, but we still had to pay for the car. The deal is, if offered two ways of accomplishing something, we're going to choose the easiest way that still gets for us what we want.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan offered, If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things (Matthew 4:9). He was saying, You don't have to go through with the cross and pain thing; just bow down to me and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world.

Just after Peter confessed the lordship of Christ, Jesus explained his coming arrest and execution. Peter got in his face and said, Those things will never happen to you (Matthew 16:22). Jesus rebuked him.

Satan and Peter were both offering Jesus kingship without suffering, lordship without paying the redemption price.

Go to Gethsemane. Abba, take away this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want (Mark 14:36).

If there were an easier way to provide our redemption, Jesus would have taken it, but there wasn't. If righteousness could be gained through the law (or any other way, for that matter), Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21).

Savior, thank you for paying the price, and for not settling for a more comfortable route that wouldn't have accomplished what was accomplished through your shed blood.

We talked about the necessity of the cross on Sunday, asking, Why did Jesus have to die? This week we'll be discussing the sufficiency of the cross, asking the question, Was the cross enough?

Are you putting the full weight of your expectations for abundant and eternal life on Christ and his sacrificial death? If you're betting on anything else, you're betting on the wrong thing.

Was the Cross Really Necessary? (Part 1)

Between packing up our Pennsylvania house, moving across country, hitting the ground running at a new church, and moving into a new home, I haven't been around much. I think I'm back now. Anyway, this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

We recently relocated from Western Pennsylvania to Aloha (pronounced uh - LOH - uh, or maybe it would be easier to just say, the h is silent), Oregon. I don't know why the h is silent; no one I've asked is able to tell me why it's silent; it just is... leave it at that.

Halfway across Missouri, my phone rang about the same time I noticed, in the rearview mirror, that my wife's P.T. Cruiser was on the shoulder behind me coasting to a stop. I tried to start her car, but no luck. We called GEICO and a tow truck arrived to take her car to the nearest Chrysler dealer. I was kind of thinking fuel pump (like I know anything about cars), but they quickly diagnosed that two of her computer sensors were dead. They had one in stock, got the other from a nearby dealer, and promised us we'd be back on the road before long, with about $400 less in our travel budget.

Wrong. Once they got the sensors replaced, the car was still dead. A drooping cable, rubbing on the drive shaft, was apparently shorting out everything else. But they could fix that.

Wrong. Once that was fixed, the car was still dead. This time they acknowledged that we'd have to spend the night in a nearby hotel, and give them a running start in the morning, but they were confident we'd be on our way midmorning... with $500 less in our travel budget (still $400 for the repair, and $100 for the extra night in a hotel).

Wrong. The next morning they alerted me that they had found the problem... something about gel packs in the starboard necell shorting out the warp drive. By this time I was really not listening any more, and getting a cramp from spending so much time in the fetal position. There was a new one (whatever it was) at a St. Louis dealership and they were going to barter for it. If they could procure it, they'd have it within two hours and we'd be back on the road by midafternoon... with only $1,100 less in our travel budget.

In the meantime, I was walking around the hotel parking lot praying: God, you've taken such good care of us this summer; please take care of us now. Amen.

Before long my cell rang. It was the dealership asking if I had considered trading the P.T. Cruiser for something new. The $1,000 was going to get us back on the road, but there were other issues with the car, and no guarantee how far it would carry us. I quickly answered, Oh no, there's no way I could do that, and hung up. Then I got to thinking, You just prayed for God's care. Could that phone call have been God's answer? So, after talking with Janelle, we decided to see what we could work out. I think the paperwork took longer than fixing the car, but by day's end (they were literally shutting down the shop as we were driving away) we had a new car, and we were finally back on the road heading to see Janelle's family in Kansas City.

By this time, even after driving 550 miles the first day, we had lost two of our ten days allotted for driving cross country. That meant we had a day less to spend with Janelle's family, and had to make up another day somewhere else. Janelle was mourning her P.T. (maybe just a little bit), and the adventure was just beginning.

Next time, I'll finish the story, and explain the title. Y'all come back now, ya hear?