Can't remember the last time I so looked forward to summer

When I was a kid, I remember my dad (well, at least I think it was him) sing-song saying, as summer vacation started, "School's out, school's out, someone's let the fools out!"

He couldn't be more right and I will gladly accept the title of "fool" this year, for what a year it was. As I wrote back in December, I've never felt more unequipped, unqualified and under stress in a job than this past year. 

After December, it didn't really get better either. I am pretty sure I don't like this leadership gig. When we left Africa, I somehow thought cross-cultural ministry in a more western culture would be easier. It isn't. I've never felt more like an outsider than this past year.

But I'm also stubborn, don't like to give up, and most importantly, I don't think God has asked me to move on, at least not yet.

Last Sunday, the sermon focused on Jesus' interaction with the man with leprosy found in Luke 5. 

While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And He reached out with His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

I've read these verses many times. Hearing them read aloud, in French, I noticed something I had never noticed before. In French, the word, or expression, used by the leper was "make me pure." I immediately thought, "Hmmmmm... interesting... I wonder why he requested purity and not healing?" Same thought could have crossed my mind in English, "Why did the leper ask to be cleaned instead of healed?"

I know all about the image of leprosy representing impurity, or uncleanliness, in the eyes of God. As a result, those sick with the disease were forced to live outside the camp, crying out "Unclean!" any time they were in proximity of others. I don't understand why God chose this image and why those sick with the disease were forced to live with this burden of exclusion and rejection by society and his people. If I am being honest, it is one of those things that has always bothered me and doesn't fit with the image of God I want to be able to tuck in my back pocket and carry around with me.  Since I can't create God in my image, however, I'm stuck wrestling with this incomprehension and tension. So, all of that to say, I do understand the use of the word clean in the leper's request, but...

For those of us reading the biblical text in this day and age, without that same background connotations and with only the knowledge that leprosy is disease, I think the use of the word clean is perfect and perfectly fascinating. 

Back to the leper - he falls on his face and begging, praying, that the Lord would be willing to cleanse him...

I immediately thought of long moments over this past school year, on my face before the Lord, tearfully imploring him to...

• fix things,
• make it all go away or at least go a bit more smoothly,
• show me what I could do to do to fix things,
• send us to a different mission field,
• just let me teach English with business people,
• give me at least a little energy to face another day,
• comfort me with his presence because this season was so, so lonely,
• help me to walk the halls of the school and actually continue doing the job,
• and a million other things essentially along those same lines.

Many of those prayers? Well, he promises he hears them. 

In retrospect, I can see how others he faithfully answered... on repeat. 

They were the prayers like the leper's prayer, even though I never, ever prefaced my prayers as that man did - stating my confident knowledge of his absolute power to grant any request while humbly acknowledging that THAT wouldn't happen... 

...unless God was willing.

Ever wonder what prayers God is willing to answer?

The ones that are prayed according to his will, and not just a "may Thy will be done" in closing. 

It is the prayers that reflect the character of God and his image within me, that bring honor and glory to his name, that permit his truth and light to shine, that point any watching eyes (including my own) in his direction.

Two answers to prayer, directing my eyes and heart to seek refuge in God and God alone, are two songs literally breathing just enough courage into my wary weariness that I can continue another day. They have been earworms (as my kids say), stuck in my head, and I am so thankful.

The first is Lauren Daigle's Thank God I Do. Read the lyrics : 

I've seen love come and

I've seen love walk away

So many questions

Will anybody stay?

It's been a hard year

So many nights in tears

All of the darkness

Trying to fight my fears

Alone, so long alone

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know You

I'd probably fall off the edge

I don't know where I'd go if You ever let go

So keep me held in Your hands

I've started breathing

The weight is lifted here

With You, it's easy

My head is finally clear

There's nothing missing

When You are by my side

I took the long road

But now I realize

I'm home with You, I'm home

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know You

I'd probably fall off the edge

I don't know where I'd go if You ever let go

So keep me held in Your hands

You're my safe place

My hideaway

You're my anchor

My saving grace

You're my constant

My steadiness

You're my shelter

My oxygen

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know You

Thank God, I do

The second song was written by my daughter for a school assignment. She had to compose the music, write the words and put the whole thing together, recording it for her class.  When she played the final version for me on our way in to school the morning it was due, I bawled (I know... not the most conducive for safe driving.).

I don't have her permission to share the recording of her song, but these words:

Home is not a place

It's the people you're with

The place I feel safe

Because you're who I'm with...

Home's never a place

It's who we are

The place we feel safe

Because you're who I'm with.

Her song is the cry of a Third Culture Kid's heart, but it has also been the cry of her cross cultural worker-mama's heart, realizing all over again that the only safe space, the only home, is near to the heart of God because that is who He is. As I work in the garden, fold laundry, or just sit and stare out the window at the river and the sunset, these words run through my head, healing my heart.

Summer, a season for growth and rest, 

an answer to prayer.

Encountering Jesus - "Believe the Works!"

When we moved into our home in Quebec, we inherited a cockatiel. Her name is Bibi.
This picture has NOTHING to do with the point of this blog post.
It is simply a glimpse of our
daily life in our new place.

If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. (John 10.35-39)

Wow!

It has been almost a year since I last wrote in this series... which started as a slow, deliberate plodding through the book of John, a book which I've always found difficult to understand and therefore have not understood the recommendation to new believers that they start here. I don't know that this study is helping me to comprehend that recommendation, but it certainly is allowing me to encounter Jesus in more profound ways than I have in the past. Now that my hiatus and the craziness of the last 12 months is over, I hope to continue plodding a bit more consistently.

The last time I wrote, I looked at Jesus' statement, "Is it not written... 'I have said you are gods?'" It was a statement that totally befuddled me as Jesus quoted from the Old Testament, and I concluded with these questions: 

1. In my God-appointed roles, where He's vested me with power and authority, am I acting rightly and justly so that some day, when I give account, He will be pleased?
2. As I seek to know God, do I rely on others, personal experience, mystical feelings and sensations... or do I depend upon the same authority on which Jesus staked, first in priority: His claims - the written-Word?
3. Am I allowing God to write His Word deep within on my heart, thus making it a part of me? Or am I trying to scribble it all down and in the process adding, dropping and/or mutating it into something different so that I can say I possess it? 

Continuing on through John 10, look carefully at what Jesus says to His accusers, "Believe the works." First, He tells those who are infuriated by His claim to be the Son of God to believe what was written. If they can't trust the written Word of God, He exhorts them to believe based on what they've seen Him do... to judge rightly whether or not His actions line up with God's nature and attributes. As Matthew Henry wrote, Jesus is effectively saying "...if [my] acts of healing and helping, of mighty consolation and symbolic grace, are obviously such as you can recognize as the Father's, believe them; learn that much..." Jesus was going about doing the types of things that only God could do. 

If those around us won't trust the testimony of Jesus - the authority of His Word - then we must point them to the things that He did and does. 

I'm a TV crime/drama show junkie. After working all day and then a couple of hours of homework with my kids in their second language, it is a preferred way for me to relax. Often, during the court scenes, people are called to the stand as character witnesses for the one accused of a crime. As they are questioned by lawyers, these character witness often give examples of things the person on trial has done - his/her works - works that either confirm to judge/jury that the crime matches with the demonstrated character of the accused... or works that contradict the possibility that accused likely committed the crime.

Jesus is, in a sense, asking those present at this encounter, to serve as judge/jury. Based on what He has done, could His words possibly be true. 

And, in their case, believing the works should ultimately brings one to believe the words as well.

Again... they tried to seize Him. In their minds, they probably figured they had given Him an opportunity to refute the charge of blasphemy. Instead, He only strengthened the case against Him. It was a similar circumstance to what takes place in John 5 - where the Sanhedrin is ready to kill him for breaking the Sabbath and for blasphemy. I'm struck by how often our preconceived ideas blind us to the truth literally right in front of our faces. They understood the significance of what He said - that He was One with God. That came through loud and clear. What they couldn't grasp, perhaps because their understanding of what it meant for God to be one God, was that they were standing in His presence, beholding the face of their incarnate God. But this makes me wonder what "preconceived" ideas I'm currently holding at this moment that are also blinding me to seeing my God at work, right in front of me.

The again in this final phrase refers back to, I believe, John 7. In verse 30, John records that they tried to seize (same word) him - possibly the crowd listening to Him. In verse 32, in response to the "whisperings" the temple guards were sent to arrest ( a word built on the same root as the word translated "seize" elsewhere) Him. Then, in verse 44, the text mentions that the people were divided in their opinions about Jesus and that some desired to seize (same word). In this last instance, it isn't clear if they actually tried... but the comment made was that no one could lay a hand upon Him - so it could be inferred that someone tried.

Apparently seizing Him was a common theme...

What does that word "seize" mean in the original language?

According to Strong's, it means: "apprehend, catch, lay hand on, take; probably another form of biazo; to squeeze, i.e. Seize (gently by the hand (press), or officially (arrest), or in hunting (capture)) -- apprehend, catch, lay hand on, take." 

Jesus was outnumbered each time they tried to seize Him - but they couldn't. Imagine. Here's how Matthew Henry puts it: "They stretched out hands which dropped harmlessly at their side - another confirmation of the solemn statement of verses 17-18:" "I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

I'm trying to imagine if that had been me - reaching out to grab someone in anger only to find my hands refusing to cooperate...

...If you can't believe the words, then believe the works!

One of the most troubling and convicting thoughts as I've studied these words this week has been: "what "preconceived" ideas am I currently holding that are also blinding me to seeing my God at work, or noting His presence, right in front of me?"

How about you?

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

Our kitty. She joined our family back in early December as the kids' Christmas gift.
She was a stray who would hang out on our back deck and lived in the big back hedge.
We named her Frankincense (in keeping with the Christmas theme)... or Frankie for short.
However, long before we'd ever enticed her to darken the door of the house, we had
started calling her "Pouf" because she looked like a little puffball of fur.
Frankinpouf seems to be the evolution...

Recently Frankinpouf has been obsessing on Bibi...
So... anyone have suggestions or advice on how to train a cat to ignore a bird?

Ten most recent posts in this series: 

• of illusions and fun house mirrors
• Four elements of Spiritual Sight... according to MacArthur
• It's your call!
• "I just don't get it? Why didn't they understand?"
• Authority and Authorization
• Two really important "I ams!"
• The Great Separator
• "Tell us plainly... Have you come to take away our souls?"
• He is Messiah
• one of those times Jesus said a confusing thing

Click here for all of the titles and their corresponding links in the Encountering Jesus series.

A Story of Three Very Different Thanksgivings

Posted this last weekend over at Missionary Mom's Companion...

 Thoughts of Thanksgivings way past... 

• traveling to grandparents' house
• aunts and uncles and cousins and family friends 
• tearing around a small, rural southern Illinois town on bikes in jeans and sweatshirts, fingers and noses freezing, but a last hurrah before it became too wintery
• the smell of cigars
• Thanksgiving Day parades on TV - with all of those amazing floats 
• American football in the heyday of the Pittsburgh Steelers
• cousin slumber parties in the refinished basement
• tables and tables and tables full of food including Stove Top Stuffing spiked with chunks of cheese
• unlimited orange and grape pop in the basement fridge...

Magical memories...

They easily assume an almost mystical, mythological place in our minds, which then makes it all the more difficult to appreciate a present moment. As an adult, I've discovered that those delightful recollections of childhood Thanksgivings had unexpected repercussions. I'd try to recreate aspects of those bygone days, only to fail miserably because it never felt the same, at least not to me.

I was on an express path to lose my love for what had always been my most treasured holiday.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with remembering. But there's so much wrong with trying to recreate what has passed... Instead, we have to draw from the past to build something new.

Our first "traditional" Thanksgiving in W. Africa was a memorable one. My father-in-law had flown out to visit and to see our new home. He brought a frozen turkey in his carry-on! I learned to make mock pumpkin pie from squash, mock pecan pie using oatmeal and mock apple pie from zucchini. I made giblet gravy for the first time and stuffing from scratch - we splurged on cheese to stuff down into the chunks of bread. We borrowed VHS tapes with old football games on them, pulled out our piddly artificial Christmas tree to decorate and began playing Christmas music. We worked on puzzles and played board games and watched Swiss Family Robinson. We'd invited a few single friends to spend the day with us. We discovered that some of the best watermelon EVER came into season during November in Niger and started a new Thanksgiving tradition that involved watermelon instead of cranberries. We prayed and thanked the Lord for our new home. It was a beautiful, wonderful Saturday (since the actual US Thanksgiving day was work as usual for the rest of the world) that set the scene for many more W. African Thanksgivings to come...

After we'd been living in Niger for a few years, we realized that our brothers and sisters in the church also celebrated a time of thanksgiving. Sometime in October, after the beginning of the school year (October 1), many churches observed a "Fête de Moisson," or Harvest Celebration. Invitations were sent to sister churches. Neighborhood children were invited. The church was meticulously cleaned, sometimes even repainted and decorations were strung from the metal trusses supporting the roof. A goat or sheep was slaughtered and slow cooked in a sauce we'd smell throughout the entire service. Everyone brought some food - or at the very least, a bag of hard candies or several bagged yogurts to share. Sometimes, there was even a case of cold, glass bottled Coke - for the men. A basket was placed in the front of the church and after the time of singing and a short sermon, everyone had several opportunities to sing and dance their way down the aisle, to the front and place gifts in that basket - first the elders, then all the men, then all the women, then the choir, then the children, then families - one by one... and on and on. Often, the women would buy yards of the same material from the market several weeks ahead of time and would show up to church in mostly matching outfits. There were games during the children's Sunday School time - sometimes prizes were handed out to children who recited their verses. At the conclusion of the service, we'd eat a meal together - men served first, often in groups of 5 or 6 sitting around a large plate piled high with the rice and sauce that had been awfully distracting during the sermon. Then children would be served... and finally the women would eat together. Usually everyone ate with their hands. Sometimes - trying to be nice, they gave us - the missionary family - spoons to use. We always smiled and said thank you - and never said that it was actually more fun to eat with our hands. I can't say that I loved it... this Thanksgiving celebration... NOT the first time. But it grew on me. The past few years, I've missed watching my children dance and laugh and clap their way to the front of the church - and the offering basket - while our African family danced and laughed and clapped with them.

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada.  Canadian Thanksgiving's beginnings are more closely identified to European traditions than to New World unity. Many decades before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place throughout Europe during the month of October. It is generally agreed that the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America actually took place in Canada, when English explorer Martin Frobisher landed in Newfoundland. He was thankful for safety as he traveled across the Atlantic. He arrived 43 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts... 1572. I've only ever celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in Quebec; according to what most have told me - it isn't nearly as big of a deal in Quebec as it is in Ontario and western Canada (nobody really said anything about further east). At most, it is a three day weekend to spend time with family. More typically, it is a bit of a party weekend, with Monday as the official holiday. After our traditional Thanksgiving meal (with from-scratch cranberry sauce, for the first time ever), our daughter and her friend went out door to door in our neighborhood. They were collecting pop and other cans for recycling (it's a common way students here raise funds for school activities). Her friend said it would be a great weekend - lots of beer bottles to collect - and she was right. We filled our SUV with garbage bags full of bottles and cans. Even the passenger side front seat was packed, and the girls had to walk to the return center while I drove to meet them. Our church did have a meal after the service on Sunday, which was a fun time to fellowship, eat delicious food and visit. But we couldn't hang out all day as we rent a room and had a deadline by which we needed to be cleaned up and cleared out. The Christian school our children attend gifted families with a four-day weekend - and the last Thursday afternoon was spent watching students (dressed in "Fall" themed/colored costumes) participate in an annual competition: the Autumn Leaves Race. Many parents were at the school to cheer their kids on, and it seemed like fun was had by all - even the highschoolers who had to reluctantly run 2+ kilometers. 

We're still figuring out Thanksgiving here. We live near a First Nations/Native American reservation. I'd love to find out if they have any type of harvest celebration! Next year, maybe!

Were those Thanksgivings past better than more recent ones? No. And even though not EVERY year makes memories with the same sort of reminiscing power, Thanksgiving remains my favorite time of year...

Maybe because it isn't all about me. It is all about remembering why I'm thankful... and to quote some lyrics of a well-known song: 

The sun comes up

It's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass

And whatever lies before me

Let me be singing

When the evening comes

You're rich in love

And You're slow to anger

Your name is great

And Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness

I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons

For my heart to find

And on that day

When my strength is failing

The end draws near

And my time has come

Still my soul will

Sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years

And then forevermore

Forevermore

Bless the Lord oh my soul

Oh my soul

Worship His Holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I'll worship Your Holy name"

(Matt Redman - 10,000 Reasons)

Generating Gratitude

Thanksgiving is this month… unless you live in Canada (like I do now). If you do, Thanksgiving was last month.

Traditionally, Fall- or harvest-time in western cultures - includes a specified time of celebration, family and giving thanks. But that doesn't mean western cultures have the corner on this sort of celebration.

Have you already guessed? Our monthly theme [at Missionary Mom's Companion] for November is thankfulness... and we hope to spark a conversation about how Thanksgiving (or Action de Grâce as we say in French) is celebrated around the world. 

To start things off, I'd like to revisit something I wrote a few years back... while I was still living in West Africa... all about gratitude!

...I feel a bit stupid starting out like this – 

I REALLY can’t stand listening to a generator.

I know. You’re wondering, “What’s the big deal?”

First, I’ve listened to them an awful lot lately.

Additionally, generators are noisy, they stink, there’s usually a big puff of black smoke as they start up, I’m quite sure they can’t be good for the environment and they consume a whole lot of diesel fuel. That gets expensive. 

And while that list of five might actually be considered valid reasons for my churlishness, they aren’t the real ones behind my stronger than ambivalent dislike.

My antipathy towards those monstrosities which authorize electricity for some while everyone else has plunged into darkness is nothing short of sinful.

I detest them because I don’t have one…

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Don't bail now! To read the rest, please join me over at Missionary Mom's Companion... and let's discuss thankfulness!

Encountering Jesus ~ one of those times Jesus said a confusing thing

I'd originally planned on looking at a much larger section of John 10 today. But I got stuck with just these words because I found them very hard to understand. 

Jesus answered them, 

“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”?’ ”(John 10.34)

photo credit: toridawnrector via photopin cc

 First - since it has been a few weeks - let's take a quick look at the context and refresh our minds as to what was taking place. Jesus had quite clearly stated that He was the Son of God (vs 25-30). The unbelieving Jews, in turn, respond by accusing Jesus of blasphemy; in their minds, He blasphemed the moment He said said He and the Father were one... the instant He attributed to Himself the power to grant eternal life and the ability to preserve those He'd saved (vs 33).

What's all that mean? Well, the Jews would have been very familiar with those powers that only God had. They would have studied them in the Old Testament and would have recognized that anyone who claimed to do what God alone could do was, at best, trying to set himself up as God's equal. At worst, he'd be identifying himself as God.

Look at just a few verses where God gives His people information to use so that they would know Him:

• "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39)
• "For He wounds, but He also binds up; He injures, but His hands also heal." (Job 5:18)
• "There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God ... The LORD kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up." (1 Samuel 2:2, 6)
• "The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted." (Isaiah 30:26)
"‘All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I am God. Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?’" (Isaiah 43:9-13)

In these verses, God proclaims that He gives life and that He stops anyone who would impede Him from accomplishing His sovereign will.

In light of this, any response other than the Pharisaical reaction of angry astonishment when Jesus makes similar claims about Himself would have been surprising:

"‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.’ Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’" (John 10:27-33)

 We have the context of the immediate passage, but to discern what Jesus was saying, we also need to understand the context of the psalm that Jesus quotes. Psalm 82, a psalm of Asaph, pleads with God to judge the "gods" for failing to execute their position with justice and righteousness. It is quite obvious within the psalm that "gods" are simply men in positions of authority, those whom God appointed to rule and judge His people. Calling human magistrates “gods” highlights 1) their authority, 2) that civil power was a formidable force, and 3) both power and authority came derived from God as those men were His choices and ruled by His appointment. Key to understanding Psalm 82 is understanding that men appointed to judge while on earth must be impartial and rigorously pursue justice because God will hold them accountable. Look at verses 6 and 7 of Psalm 82, as they warn these flesh and blood judges: “I said, `You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.' But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler.” Those God chooses to represent Him are mortal, they will die and after death, will face judgment as they give account for how they used the power and authority with which He vested them.

So, when Jesus quotes this verse from Psalm 82, he focuses Jewish attention on the fact that the Law refers to mere men—men of authority, power and prestige—as “gods.” Essentially, He asks, "Why accuse me of blasphemy because I called myself 'Son of God' when the Law uses the exact same word to mean magistrate?" 

Looking closely at Jesus' words, though, I find that the other parts of His statement just as fascinating and equally convicting. First, He asks, "Is it not written...?" He appeals to respect for the written Word, word which the Jews considered holy and the key to knowing and understanding God. As W. Gary Phillips writes, "The Word-Incarnate relied on inferences drawn from the Word-written." For those who take the time to look deeply and seek, those written words will confirm Who Jesus is. He also refers to the Law - the one that God gave His people and that these Jews have worked so hard to try and keep, even down to every jot and tittle - as YOUR law. Sometimes, I can take the Word God gave and modify or mutilate... metamorphisize or mutate... and make it mine. If that is because God is writing it on my heart and I'm internalizing it so that it becomes a part of me and is present and reflected in all that I say and do. If I grab ahold of that Word to make it mine by adding my own mark to it... well, then it is no longer God's Word and is merely my own. And then I begin trying to hold people accountable to "my" law - a behavior that is unrighteous, unjust and abusive.

I started last week, examining this passage, and very confused. Now, as I type these words, I find myself deeply challenged by asking three questions God's Spirit is asking me I've plunged even deeper into this very intense Jesus encounter:

1. In my God-appointed roles, where He's vested me with power and authority, am I acting rightly and justly so that some day, when I give account, He will be pleased?
2. As I seek to know God, do I rely on others, personal experience, mystical feelings and sensations... or do I depend upon the same authority on which Jesus staked His claims - the written-Word?
3. Am I allowing God to write His Word deep within on my heart and thus making it a part of me? Or am I trying to scribble it all down and in the process adding and dropping and mutating it into something different so that I can say I possess it? The first pleases the Father. The second angers while deeply saddening Him...

How would you answer each one of those questions?

this week's gratitude list

(#'s 4955 - 4979)
little guy wandering about the house practicing his music for Christmas Eve

good heart to heart with my Tori-girl

finding the perfect-as-says-Mary perfect tree

the delight on her face when we said she could pick the tree

the absolute very biggest Christmas tree we've ever had

clothespin dolls turned into Christmas ornaments

choir practice with the orchestra

Christmas carols

little girl cold seemingly making its exit

minion t-shirts

Christmas tree lights

Thanksgiving with the WHOLE Wright side of the family this year

playing Euchre with my nephew

watching said nephew teach his mom to play Euchre at the same time

Live Nativity plans

folk and praise music jam sessions

giblet gravy that turned out perfectly... which only happens about 1 out of 5 times, so truly a cause to celebrate

beautiful Christmas dresses in a bag of hand-me-downs

an extension I was praying I'd get

looking forward to sharing one of my favorite studies, from Colossians 3

the cutest little white feathery owl ornaments you've ever seen

lounging around in a comfy, old pair of my Pop-pop's pjs - and remembering special times with him

a new season of The Mentalist - been waiting a long time!

so much fun watching Sadie Roberston represent Christians well and winsomely as she competed on Dancing with the Stars

enjoying this season's Amazing Race and watching "the surfers" (i.e. Bethany [Hamilton] and her hubby Adam) do the same

Ten most recent posts in this series: 

• THEN Jesus...
• of illusions and fun house mirrors
• Four elements of Spiritual Sight... according to MacArthur
• It's your call!
• "I just don't get it? Why didn't they understand?"
• Authority and Authorization
• Two really important "I ams!"
• The Great Separator
• "Tell us plainly... Have you come to take away our souls?"
• He is Messiah

Click here for all of the titles and their corresponding links in the Encountering Jesus series.

Encountering Jesus ~ He IS Messiah

The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10.26-33)

Jesus had taught a parable - the good shepherd versus the thief.

Then, the Jews make a request:

"Tell us plainly... Have you come to take away our souls?"

They just DID. NOT. get it, did they?

Before diving into this text, read this brief summary from InterVarsity New Testament Commentaries: 

Jesus has withdrawn from the temple (8:59) and begun to gather around him a community distinct from official Judaism (chap. 9). He has interpreted his activity as the divine shepherd's gathering the flock of God (10:1-21) and has concluded with a reference to the authority God has given him to lay down his life and take it back again (10:18), echoing what he had said in his first public teaching to these Jewish leaders concerning his body, the temple (2:19-22). Now he returns to the vicinity of the temple, though not to the temple proper. Solomon's Colonnade (10:23) was an open, roofed 45-foot walkway with double columns that were 38 feet tall. It was situated along the east side of the Court of Gentiles (Westerholm 1988:772). Although it was part of the temple complex, it was not considered to be part of the actual temple (Brown 1966:402), as evidenced by the fact that Gentiles were not allowed into the temple but they could be present in Solomon's Colonnade. Thus, Jesus' departure from the temple at the end of chapter 8 was final. But now, right next to the temple, at a feast commemorating the rededication of the temple, Jesus gives his clearest teaching about his own identity. It is this identity that is the grounds for his replacement of the temple as the place where forgiveness of sins is available and God is to be met. "Christ in fact perfectly accomplished what the Maccabees wrought in a figure, and dedicated a new and abiding temple" (Westcott 1908:2:64). Jesus also clearly spells out the separation between himself and the Jewish leaders.

photo credit: freestone via photopin cc

Jesus has told them, and even if He has not told them in uncertain terms, as bluntly - perhaps - as they would have preferred, His message should have been unmistakable. The Jews, with their knowledge of prophecy, the hearing of Jesus speak (for example John 7:37 John 7:38 , John 8:12 John 8:35 John 8:36 John 8:58) and the clear testimony of His actions verifying both prophecy and His Words, should have clearly recognized Him for what He was... the long awaited Messiah. 

The problem is not a lack of clarity on the part of Jesus. Rather, it is that these Jews are not of His fold... they've understood exactly what He is saying, but they cannot believe and accept because they are not His sheep.

But oh... the benefits for His sheep:

• His sheep listen to His voice - in other words, His sheep get to hear God's voice which prompts God to birth faith within; 
• Jesus knows His followers - the kind of first-hand personal experience that comes through prolonged acquaintance;
• They get to follow Him or to go to be in the same way with Jesus, accompanying Him specifically as a disciple;
• Jesus gives His sheep eternal life - an amazing gift because in Him, they experience the unique reality of God's life at work within. The Lord manifests His self-existent life as it is in His sinless abode of heaven and His sheep will partake of that. Eternal life operates simultaneously outside of time, inside of time, and beyond time and while time is what gives everlasting meaning for the believer through faith, eternal also means time-independent. (Try wrapping your head around all of that!);
• His sheep shall never perish - they will never be fully, permanently and utterly destroyed;
• no one will snatch them out of His hand - no thief can access them as they are kept in His hand
• these sheep are a gift to Jesus, from His Almighty Father, Who also holds them in His hand;

Then Jesus makes a statement that gives so much peace and confidence to the hearts of His sheep... but inflames the Jews. He states, "I and the Father are one.”

I found this paragraph (from the InterVarsity New Testament Commentaries) to be particularly helpful as I've sought to understand this passage: "His sheep are safe in his hand (v. 28) and his Father's hand (v. 29). The implication of such a juxtaposition comes with Jesus' climactic claim, I and the Father are one (v. 30). What is this oneness? In the context Jesus is speaking of God's love, care and power and his own claim to share in these. Such a claim to oneness with God is not a claim to deity, since the same unity with God is true of Christians, who share in God's very life and are participants in his will, love, activity and power. Thus Jesus is one with the Father in the same way believers are. But even when this language is used of Christians it is made clear that their oneness with God is mediated to them by Christ (17:22-23). Jesus' own oneness with the Father includes these aspects, but it also is of a completely different order (cf. 8:58). The Father not only gave Jesus life, as he has done for believers, but has made him the giver of life (5:21), a divine attribute illustrated in what Jesus says about the bread (chap. 6) and the water (chap. 7) and which will be climactically demonstrated in the raising of Lazarus (chap. 11). So this figure of the hand is not just about sharing in God's power or exercising God's power; it is part of his claim to equality with God. It implies a oneness in essence since "infinite power is an essential attribute of God; and it is impossible to suppose that two beings distinct in essence could be equal in power" (Westcott 1908:2:68; cf. Chrysostom In John 61.2; Augustine In John 48.7). Here, then, is a powerful claim to deity. The opponents take it as such (v. 33), and Jesus does not deny that interpretation.

The reaction of the Jews is to prepare to stone Him. They asked Him to tell them plainly if He was or was not the promised Messiah. He says He is - but even at that, they never expected their Messiah to claim equality and oneness with God. Stop and think about the craziness of what actually occurs here. A crowd of angry, deeply offended people are gathering stones to start throwing them at Him with intent to kill. Instead of fleeing for His life, or "disappearing" as He does at another time, He gently tries to explain - always seeking to bring them to faith and into the fold. Talk about amazing grace!

But it has me thinking about how often we seek to kill... or silence... the One Who offers... or has already given us... life.

He appeals to them, based their experience of what He has done:  good works, meaning things both great and admirable, things that demonstrate great power but also moral excellence, the things that would be expected of a good shepherd. The proper response to the works of Jesus should have been admiration, humility, thankfulness, praise, awe... instead He received anger, hatefulness, and evil intentions. 

I wonder if it hurt Jesus when they accused Him of blasphemy...???

this week's gratitude list

(#'s 4931 - 4954)
snow

a successful wisdom teeth extraction - and relatively minimal pain resulting (now for the swelling to go down!)

convicting sermon at church on Sunday night

Christmas shopping with Gammie

a really cool arts and craft fair with the kiddos over the weekend

basketball practice

cheerleading practice

a college fair at the Creation Science Museum

college apps, essays, test scores and transcripts... all over again

being able to make a late night run to the grocery store

snow ploughs

that moment when I overheard the girls discussing that they felt like they were living inside a snow globe and God had shaken it up so the snow was fluttering every direction

the gift of two cases of Coke

weekends in a deer blind with Daddy and her Chromebook

birds of prey up close and personal

friends traveling safely

looking forward to homemade waffles this week - to go with my homemade syrup

starting to enjoy my study through Psalms, since the psalms have always been harder than average scriptures for me to enjoy

heaters on cold winter mornings

actual checking a few things off that never-ending, ever-growing checklist

an upcoming Shakespeare competition for my big girl

snow shovels

finding my electric blanket (now to get it plugged in)

homemade biscuits that turned out just right and fluffy and perfect (since it doesn't happen very often!)

Ten most recent posts in this series: 

• When your past comes back to haunt you... 
• THEN Jesus...
• of illusions and fun house mirrors
• Four elements of Spiritual Sight... according to MacArthur
• It's your call!
• "I just don't get it? Why didn't they understand?"
• Authority and Authorization
• Two really important "I ams!"
• The Great Separator
• "Tell us plainly... Have you come to take away our souls?"

Click here for all of the titles and their corresponding links in the Encountering Jesus series.