Love as Jesus Would

I don't know about you, but when I see Jesus, I see Love. He's all about Love. Love that is risky. love that is sacred. Love that is messy. Love that brings tears to your eyes. Love that instills hope in those who are lost and alone. Love that takes guts, sweat and blood. Jesus' love is far from commercial it reaches out and surrounds people, places and things that we wouldn't normally care about let alone LOVE. It's a love that worships God with every fiber of our being and like wise with our neighbors.

After 2,000 years you would think that Jesus' disciples would understand and follow the Great Commandment. Unfortunately, too many people who call themselves Christians seem to adhere to an exclusive form of religion that orchestrates hate and disdain for people who practice other religions.

In Luke 10, Jesus gives a gut-wrenching analogy of who our neighbors are. I should think that his statement offended many within the crowd... I'm talking about the story of the Good Samaritan.

I often look for modern day stories of the Good Sam.

Which brings me to last Sunday...

Early Sunday morning I was reading my Bible in one hand and CNN on my Blackberry in the other... (A great theologian recommended as much.. not the Blackberry but the newspaper). This is what I saw... A Headline that read.. "Muslim Protesters Surround Christian Mass to Protect Christians."

Evidently Muslim protesters joined hands to protect Egyptian Christians as they held mass on Tahrir Square. They were returning the Love.

Now I don't know about you but that true story should grasp your inner soul.

Amen..

A Personalized Letter From Dear 'Ol Santa

Did you know that Santa spams? He does! I found a note in my spam box advertising a genuine, certified personal email from Santa to my little one. No thanks, not this year. We've joined the advent conspiracy this year. No - don't worry, we will not tell little Gracie that there is no Santa, but I'm not gettn jiggy with the Santa stuff like I used to.

Anyway, I got to thinking, sure would be nice if someone sent me a personal letter from God...

Oh yeah, they already have. It's called The Holy Bible!

Peace!

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything on this site. But I'll do better I promise!!! Famous last words of the many....

Anyway it's almost Advent, the time to prepare for the coming of Christ. I pray that this will be a season when I, my family and church (they're family too) will be deeply moved to be more like Christ.

So check out www.adventconspiracy.org this is quite the movement. I read a book by Rick McKinely one of the tri-conspirators of this movement called, This Beautiful Mess it's about the birth of the Imago Dei out in Portland I think. What I got out of this was that this small band of young followers of Christ wanted to start a new church but nothing really happened until they began to pray for people in their community in need of LOVE...

Isn't that what Jesus is really about. Did he not come to us because we were and are so desperately in need of a real Godly LOVE?

There is a whole lot of talk right now about approaching Christmas differently this year. You know, putting the Christ back in Christmas. There is even a new song going out on the net right now called Christmas with a Captial "C". It's a peppy song, no doubt about that, and there are parts that make sense, but I feel like it still misses the mark about Christmas. If you check out many of the comments underneath you'll see what I mean. There is a lot of anger there... from Christians. I think it makes us (followers of the Way) appear to be a bunch of angry citizens that yell and resent being told what they can and cannot do.

I'm not so sure that Christmas is so much about our right to say Christmas; rather, perhaps Christmas is about the rights of all humanity in need of love.

"Love God with all your heart, your mind and your soul... and by the way love your neighbor as yourself..." Yeah, Jesus said that.. Matt. 22:37-40. I'm sorry he's still saying that.

So may Advent this year about loving others. May it be about seeking justice and loving mercy, may Christmas be about preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and using words when necessary.
May we all conspire this year to LOVE those in need of LOVE.

May it bee filled with "C"ompassion for all

In Christ,

P. Bill

Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Osbourne!?!?!?!?

Yeah, for some bizare reason I got tired of hearing the regular news so I stopped the channel flipper-clicker to the E-Channel. They were doing a special on the Osbourne family - "a family," they say "that stays together even during the tough times because they love each other."

Did you know that heavy metal families could actually love each other?

I thought you had to be straight-laced, with a spot-free reputation like June Cleaver's freshly laundered bed linens. You know, crisp, clean, pure, fresh with a spring like aroma.

Anyway, they interview Sharon, wanting to know how she has stayed with her husband Ozzy for so many years, even through all the rough times.

So get this - she says, "Well, it took me quite a few years of trying to change Ozzy unsuccessfully, when I finally realized you can't change someone, you have to accept them for who they are."

I think we "know," she's right. But how often do we follow that practice?

What are effective ways of being in relation to each other without trying to change those around us?

By the way, she would say that they were truly in love when they got married.

CREATIVE Words

So we talked about the potential damage our mouths can do according to James (3:6-12) a few weeks ago during worship. I think at one point James alludes to the creation story (3:7). It is within this story in Genesis, where we learn that God created the heavens and the earth and all the living creatures with…

ONE WORD.

And it was GOOD.

Incidentally, when is God Good?

And then God created humans… In God’s image.

And then God asks Adam (humanity) to NAME the animals.

So since we are created in God’s image…

And we are to name the animals…

What if the words we spoke

Created GOOD?


What if we concentrated on speaking words of creation instead of words of destruction? Why it would be GOOD… ALL THE TIME.

Words like:

Harmony Love Hope Justice Tender Mercy Passion Compassion
Service Worship Jesus Kindness Gentleness Listen Help Yes
Life Serenity Awesome Beautiful Potential Sincere Unity Holy
Grace and Peace

A few weeks ago, I had preached a sermon on the transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Mark 9:2-9). I talked about how awesome it would be to actually witness Jesus changing before the eyes of the disciples, and the additional WOW factor of Moses and Elijah showing up on the scene.

And of course, I pointed out the humorous - humanness (is that a word?) of Peter, as he tried to control this holy of holy moments by offering to put the three in tents. We always try to put God in a box don’t we?

Not to mention, by making this offer, Peter is suggesting that Jesus is on the same level as Moses and Elijah. I’m so happy that I never put someone else on the same level as Jesus or maybe even higher… yeah right.

But you know what really gets me about this story is when this huge cloud overshadows this group, and a voice comes out of the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!”
Now when I hear that voice in my head I think about what’s about to happen in the rest of this story. We know that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified on the cross…

And God knows this…

Now I don’t know what it’s like to actually lose a child. I cannot imagine it. I don’t want to imagine it. My wife and I had a miscarriage several years ago, and that was horrible! But losing a child… there can be no words…

And so I as I explained this to the congregation, knowing that there were a few families that had indeed lost a child, I stated that God certainly had to be crying when God said, “This is MY SON, the BELOVED.” I imagine God’s voice cracking. I can hear the moans, the agony the pain. I bet it was raining, since God surely had to be crying.
God’s son was about to die… would we just please take Jesus seriously? Will be please, please take notice of him? God is in agony.
Today, life just sucker punched one of the families that were seated in the sanctuary, listening to that sermon a few weeks ago. Their daughter who was three months pregnant was in a horrific auto accident this morning. She left behind a little boy and a loving husband. Her grandfather was seated next to his son.

It doesn’t make sense. These are times when our faith is challenged. We don’t understand why God would allow this to happen? Why does this happen to one family and not the other?
But what we do know is this…

God knows the pain and the agony of losing a child too. I don’t know if there is comfort in that, but maybe it brings our hearts closer to God knowing that God can relate to that kind of pain…

So let's all pray for the family-- her husband and small child, for her parents, her brother, her grandfather, pray for her parent's church and for this young woman's church. In doing so, we are somehow mysteriously connected, we are unified through Christ Jesus. Our tears are their tears, their tears are God's tears.

Courage

"From the cowardice that dares not face new truth, from the laziness that is contedted with half-truth, from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, Good Lord, deliver me. Amen" -- Prayer from Kenya