Camote Eaters by Carlos Francisco

After reading Luke 6:17-45 yesterday, I pulled out the first volume on Luke by Darrell Bock.  Following are some nuggets I discovered:

Luke 6:21a The consequence of being among the poor is “hunger and sadness.” Darrell Bock 575

• Quote from Goppelt, “The hungry are men who both outwardly and inwardly are painfully deficient in the things essential to life as God meant it to be, and who since they cannot help themselves, turn to God on the basis of His promise.”
• Bock’s summary of the verse: “Blessed are you who sense your lack and depend on God, for God shall accept and reward you in the consummation.” 576

Luke 6:22 from Bock, “Blessed are you who suffer scorn and pain as you identify with God and depend on him, for you shall be fully welcomed by him at his table and shall rejoice.” 577

Luke 6:22-23 “The disciple is treated as evil, unclean, and thus as a person with whom one does not associate.” Total rejection. 579

Luke 6:24-26 Warning about trusting “too greatly in wealth, comfort, popularity and possessions.” 582

• “An attitude of independence from God is the road to destruction.  Its reward is fleeting, limited to the present.” 582

Luke 6:24 “What is condemned is a misplaced focus that zeroes in on this life and its possessions without concern for God’s desires or fellow humans. The danger of succumbing to things of only temporal value is all too real and deceptive.” 583

Luke 6:25 “The joy of possessions now will become the pain of what is lost forever.” 585 Darrell Bock

Luke 6:26 Warning “not to fall into the trap of courting acceptance for one’s message at the expense of truthfulness. . . Popularity at the expense of being God’s faithful representative is disastrous.” 585

Luke 6:27-38

• Mercy should produce a hesitation to judge others.  Luke 6:27-38
• Mercy and generosity belong together
• The disciples are to “make clear what the justice of God would mean for one who steadfastly refused to listen to God; but they were to seek to benefit their enemies as much as possible.” 591

Luke 6:28 supernatural love being discussed here since it reverses “all natural instincts.” 590

Luke 6:29a “Love is available, vulnerable, and subject to repeated abuse.”

• Turning the other cheek “is not so much an active pursuit as it is a natural exposure when one reaches out to those who have contempt.”   In other words, we continue “to minister at the risk of further persecution.” 591

Luke 6:30b “To commit to a radical love, one must see that God honors such a commitment to reflect his grace (6:35-36).”

Luke 6:31 “not simply a command to avoid unfair treatment that one might not wish for oneself. Rather, it is a command to give the same sensitive consideration to others that one might want others to give.” 596

• “treat others with the respect and sensitivity that one would wish from them.” 597
• “As you wish to be treated with sensitivity to your preferences, so treat others with sensitivity to their preferences.” 598  (“this does not involve moral areas where God’s desire is clear”)

Luke 6:34 “One should give without strings attached.”  601

Luke 6:37-38 When we are merciful, we are hesitant to condemn and quick to forgive.  605 (my summary of his words)

Luke 6:37 Jesus warns against a harshness that holds onto an unforgiving attitude and ceases to hold out hope. 607 (my summary again)

olivet by gerard laurenceau

In our online formational reading group, we read Luke 6:17-45 this morning and I wanted to share (with her permission) what my wife wrote about Luke 6:35, “For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil”

I find this verse comforting, but also uncomfortable!

Why?

Because grace itself is comforting but uncomfortable.

And this verse is a definition of grace, God’s lovingkindness toward those like me who don’t deserve it.

And the following verse, “Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Challenging, but also frightening, as I see how short I fall.

I can only be merciful, gracious, as I draw upon the fountain of God’s mercy and grace toward me.

I wonder what the original hearers of this passage thought? Even for me today, after many years of studying God’s words, and hearing about grace and mercy…even today, I am taken aback anew.

Gentoo penguins by Andreas Butz

Saw the following in Ken Royers’s email newsletter that he sends out (for free) to personnel involved in missionary member care.  In his January letter, he passed on “Good Listening: Three Before Me,” an article by Steve Karum of NTM. Although Karum does not use the word spiritual direction, what he is suggesting is a way of accompanying fellow missionaries in their journey with God as we listen to their stories.  Is that not a form of SD? I suppose he is offering a little bit of SD and a bit of coaching He suggests we ask the following three questions as we listen to another’s story:

1. “In light of this how are you and God doing?”
2. “What strengths do you have that will help you meet this challenge?”
3, “Whom do you know who could help as you face this challenge?”

Following is Karum’s article in full:

“Three before me” is a little self-reminder, like a string tied on my finger, to stay focused on the one with whom I’m conversing by asking three important questions.

Currently our ministry is with missionaries on home assignment.  We find that while all missionaries have a story to tell, telling the story is just half the experience.  If “telling the story” is to be effective, the story-teller needs to have a good story-listener.  Therefore the main question:  How good a story-listener am I?

Has this ever happened to you?  As the story-teller you’re deeply engaged in relating an incident when all of a sudden, out of the blue, your story is intercepted, hijacked!  Somewhere in the course of your story telling the listener grew bored and took over the conversation!  It might have happened in a short millisecond in which you paused or you said a word that triggered a story or memories, or even a hobby horse the listener insisted on relating.  It’s hard when that happens.  How do we handle it?  Do we speak “Readers Digest Condensed” the next time we’re the story-teller?

As much as I don’t like it, how many times as a story-listener have I hijacked another person’s story?  Have I adopted the un-golden rule, “Do unto others as they have done to you?”  Seeking to encourage while interacting with the story-teller (without hijacking their story), I aim to ask three important questions to bring perspective into a difficult story.

We recently met with a couple en route to PNG.  Since they had started “Partnership Development” they had several setbacks.  After I heard of these events I asked them Question #1, “In light of this how are you and God doing?”

Although it may seem silly to do so I like to ask this question even when everything is going well.  Maybe this is a question that should come later but I ask it first because we are spiritual beings and I believe it is best to start with the most important relationship we have — God and me.  Question #1 pulls our attention to God.  He knows all about our struggles and just as He knows about battles so He also knows the way through.

It is not uncommon to hear a challenge / struggle / disappointment woven through a missionary’s story.  The missionary may not be sufficiently aware of the struggle to put it into words but I believe it’s there and it’s causing them stress, emotionally, physically or spiritually.  Therefore I like to ask Question #2 in a positive way, “What strengths do you have that will help you meet this challenge?”  This question focuses on our God-given strengths.  These strengths will with His direction help us overcome the problem and grow stronger.  It is a question that hopefully will draw the heart toward hope.

Humans are part of a social network and missionaries have several networks:  friends, relatives, churches, mission organization, the ministry country or location, local believers, and co-workers.  Within some networks missionaries feel very safe to the point they will reach out for help.  Therefore Question #3:  “Whom do you know who could help as you face this challenge?”  This query points them toward another who can come alongside.  Suffering is a given but suffering in solitude can seem intolerable.

Of course every conversation has a life of its own.  It’s never the same as the previous one and that makes listening enjoyable.  By utilizing these questions, each conversation will tell of one’s relationship with God — the questions, the blessing, and the challenges — the strengths they never knew they had, and the strength they drew from the rich wisdom of their friends.

Sometimes the “three before me” doesn’t seem to fit.  The surroundings are important.  Is it quiet?  Is the topic safe to talk about publicly?  How well do we know each other?  These all need to be considered.  So with that in mind here is what I try in conversation with missionaries.

It all starts with their story.  I realize that is so “duh,” but I really believe missionaries, actually all people, feel honored through good listening.  Through engaged listening the listener communicates respect, safety, and love to the missionary.  Billy age 4 is quoted on the Internet, “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different!  You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”  I’d like every missionary to say, “I know my name is safe with Steve and Patty.”

 In order to subscribe to Ken Royer’s newsletter, email him at   kenroyer@linkcare.org

First, the Little Drummer Boy Rocks

And after listening to that, I thought of the Prayer as Creativity short video produced by 24-7 prayer guys

prayer-as-creativity

Personal photo from Muir Woods

O Love, divine Love why do you lay siege to me?
In a frenzy of love for me, You find no rest.

From five sides you move against me,
Hearing, sight, taste, touch, and scent.
To come out is to be caught; I cannot hide from You.

If I come out through sight I see Love
Painted in every form and color,
Inviting me to come to You, to dwell in You.

If I leave through the door of hearing,
What I hear points only to You, Lord;
I cannot escape Love through this gate.

If I come out through taste, every flavor proclaims;
“Love, divine Love, hungering Love!
You have caught me on Your hook, for you want to reign in me.”

Orb Weaver spider by fiveeyesvik

If I leave through the door of scent
I sense You in all creation, You have caught me
And wounded me through that fragrance.

If I come out through the sense of touch
I find Your lineaments in every creature;
To try to flee from You is madness.

Love, I flee from You, afraid to give You my heart;
I see that You make me one with You,
I cease to be me and can no longer find myself.

If I see evil in a man or defect or temptation,
You fuse me with him, and make me suffer;
O Love without limits, who is it You love?

Matthias Grunewald The Crucifxiion

It is You, O Crucified Christ,
Who takes possession of me,
Drawing me out of the sea to the shore;

There I suffer to see Your wounded heart.
Why did You endure the pain?
So that I might be healed.

Jacapone Da Todi

Thanks Jonathan for a lovely Epiphany service tonight and for sharing with us this poem.

One quote out of the article struck me.  Osteen is said to say, “We don’t always get what we deserve in life, but we usually get no more than we expect; we receive what we believe.”

But, when I read Matthew 20, I see that all we receive is of grace and is not dependent on the effects of our believing.

I read Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the parable of the workers yesterday.  A few quotes from Lloyd-Jones

• Even the rewards are of grace. He need not give them, and if you think you can determine and predict how they are to come you will be quite wrong. Everything is of grace in the Christian life from the very beginning to the very end.
• Be prepared for surprises in this Kingdom. You never know what is going to happen. The last shall be first
• It is grace at the beginning, grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us at the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace. `By the grace of God I am what I am.’ `Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Omnes de Saba venient by Salvador Dali

Saw this poem mentioned in Richard Swenson’s In Search of Balance and found it here

Miles across the turbulent kingdoms

They came for it, but that was nothing,

That was the least.  Drunk with vision,

Rain stringing in the ragged beards,

When a beast lamed, they caught up another

And goaded west.

For the time was on them.

Three wise men by Eric Gill

Once, as it may, in the life of a man,

Once, as it was, in the life of mankind,

All is corrected.  And their years of pursuit,

Raw-eyed reading the wrong texts,

Charting the doubtful calculations,

Those nights knotted with thought,

When dawn held off, and the rooster

Rattled the leaves with his blind assertion—

All that, they regarded, under the Sign,

No longer as search but as preparation.

For when the mark was made, they saw it.

Nor stopped to reckon the fallible years,

But rejoiced and followed,

And are called “wise”, who learned that Truth,

When sought and at last seen,

Is never found.  It is given.

Adoration of the shepherds by Bassano

And they brought their camels

Breakneck into that village,

And flung themselves down in the dung and dirt of that place,

And kissed that ground, and the tears

Ran on their faces, where the rain had.

Mary’s prayer shows us the way.  “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”Mtt 1:38

Share with a partner one thing for which you need the courage to say yes.  Then, if you are comfortable, read/pray the following prayer with a partner.  Pray for one another.

A Prayer of Abandonment

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you;
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures—
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need
to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands
without reserve and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.  Amen.

Charles de Foucauld
Found this poem on Ruth Haley Barton’s post here

Group Prayer for those needing the Courage to say Yes

From a pew forum study

It appears to me that whatever we suffer now will show up only dimly when compared to the wonders God has in store for us.  It is as though all creation is standing on tiptoe longing to see an unforgettable vision, the children of God being born into wholeness.

Although creation is unfinished, still in the process of being born, it carries within it a secret hope. And the hope is this: A day will come when we will be rescued from the pain of our limitation and incompleteness and be given our share in a freedom that can only belong to the children of God.

At the present moment of all creation is struggling as though in the pangs of childbirth.  And that struggling creation includes even those of us who have had a taste of the spirit.  We peer into the future with our limited vision, unable to see all that we are destined to be, yet believing because of a hope we carry so deep within.

Wiederkehr writes the following as a reflection on Romans 8.

Could it be true
That some folks die
Because our hope is too small
To bring them forth?

It is good to remember:
We do not give birth to ourselves.
We give birth to others
By believing in that first, small spark of life
The spark we can barely see.

It is called hope.
Immensely hopeful
At birth.

After reading the above, I wrote the following confession:

Forgive me Lord for not having hope
Forgetting hope
not believing
not feeling
not trusting

They need the gift of hope I can offer them
And when I withhold hope
They suffer
Die
Or may never be born
Forgive me Lord