Posts Tagged: "love"

church without all the BS post copy

Church Without All The BS

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

These are the notes from my sermon preached on 11.21.21 at NWLife Church – the 9th in a series of 10 sermons based on the book of Nehemiah called “When Everything’s On Fire.”

The title of my sermon today is: “Church Without All The BS.”

Up to this point, Nehemiah has had quite the journey… A prayer, a plan, and the gracious hand of God. The favor of the king, permission to go, resources sent along for the work. And the support of the people—so the good work begins. Rebuilding.

And of course there are problems encountered along the way. But Nehemiah is not derailed. He continues. He prevails. The enemy does not succeed. And there are some conflicts among the people, some abusive practices that come to the surface. So Nehemiah has to deal with that too. But even still, the work continues. Restoration. Approaching wholeness…

Glimmers of the Beloved Community, God’s dream for us all.

And it appears that although the work was not easy, it is, in fact, worth it. Better days ahead, for all. Maybe there is life after the fire. Perhaps we can emerge from the ashes and thrive. So, let us believe. … Read More

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NWLife Weekly Conversation—Ray and Reyna Bardo

- - Life With God, Uncategorized, Video

Here is our fifteenth NWLife video podcast featuring our weekly conversation.

Today’s theme: A story of faith and love with Ray and Reyna Bardo

Today, on Father’s Day, I’m sitting with our wonderful friends Ray and Reyna Bardo to hear their story of faith and love and survival.

The video begins and ends with some words from Pastor Andy Jones. Pastor Kyle Wheeler and Georgia Carlton, along with our band, lead us in worship from the stage today.

I hope you’ll take 17 minutes and join us for some church!

The Lord brought me out into a wide-open, spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me.  —Psalm 18.19

 

approach post

It’s In The Approach

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

A few weeks ago on the first day of our big Seattle snow, I went for a walk with my dog around Lake Wilderness. It was morning, and the park was blanketed with thick snow and a silent hush.

When we walked along the trail near the water’s edge, I noticed the blue heron sitting there. We stopped and watched. The heron didn’t move. I wanted to get a good picture (and maybe some video too), so I began walking slowly closer to the heron. I knew there would be a limit… at some point, the heron would be alarmed at the human and dog invading its territory. We got closer, and paused, then moved again… and again.

As I thought, there was a threshold. When we crossed it, the great heron spread its massive wings and slowly flew away.

This experience makes me think about how we approach the other…

Do we approach others (especially those who are “other-than”) with fear, anger, revulsion, skepticism, and a general sense of dismissiveness?

Do we have a better approach than that? I really hope so.

Franciscan Friar Lester Bach writes about the Christian… Read More

love undefeated post

40 Love Lessons

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

I’m reading Jacqueline Bussie’s new book, Love Without Limits. In her chapter on “A Mother’s Love [Charlotte],” she writes 40 love lessons from her mom…

(note: I’ve bolded my favorites)

1. Even if you are not a great singer, sing anyway. God will love the sound of your voice, simply because it is yours.

2. If it gets to be too much inside, go outside. The sun on your face feels like an “I’m sorry” from the world, or from God.

3. Always visit sick, old, dying, and hurting people. Most people avoid looking hardship in the face, but you must always sit down beside it and look it straight in the eye.

4. Everyone just wants to be loved. It’s always within your power to give this to people, even when you don’t feel it yourself.

5. Even if you didn’t get to have/see/do it, you can still create a world in which your children might.

6. Always put a little lipstick on in the car at the first red light. Smiles need to be seen.

7. If you make a promise, keep it. Forever is forever, even if it hurts.

8. Never lend money, but instead give it away—especially to those who have less than you. The love of money is a slave trader who will auction off the souls of the people you love.

9. Showing a person that you remember what they… Read More

a place to call home and people to call family

The Difference Between Being Motivated By Power And Being Motivated By Love

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

The church has never done well when it was latched onto power. The church has always done better when it was on the margins. —Dr. Joseph B. Modica

I suppose it would be a colossal understatement to say there is a lot of hierarchy in church.

With all the titles and positions, posturing and power-grabbing, manipulating and controlling, and the ever-present sense that we are not enough—we need to be given advice, we need to fall in line (and if we don’t we can expect some form of dismissal, disapproval, excommunication, shunning, etc.), it’s no wonder people say they don’t… Read More

our true height in love

Advent Day 16: Our True Height In Love

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

*photo above: kids at last night’s Toy Give at NWLife – over 400 children received Christmas gifts

Father Greg Boyle tells the story of a homie named Fili and a volunteer at Homeboy Industries named Ms. June…

One of our tutors at Homeboy, Ms. June, is managing a roomful of students, whom she is teaching to fill out forms. She is a tiny Japanese American woman, a retired teacher who volunteers once a week helping homies on their literacy skills.

One of the many homies she’s working with is named Fili.

When the form asks for his height, he doesn’t know how to answer; confined to a wheelchair by gun violence, he is about three feet sitting upright. Ms. June asks him to… Read More

now i see post

Now I See

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind, but now I see. —John Newton

Now I see that God’s love does not seek value, it creates it.

Now I see that my identity is a gift from God, not an achievement of my own.

Now I see that I don’t have to prove myself, for God has taken care of that; all I have to do is express myself in deeds of love and gratitude.

Because I am held in the embrace of God’s love, I can’t run away—nor do I want to.

How much better to face it all—the imperfections of my soul and my… Read More

light in the garden easter post

The Light That Sweeps Over The Garden

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color. —Isaiah 35.1-2

A sound behind her stirs

A scatter of bright birdsong through the air.

She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,

Or recognize the Gardener standing there.

She hardly hears his gentle question, “Why,

Why are you weeping?” or sees the play of light

That brightens as she chokes out her reply,

“They took my love away, my day is night.”

And then she hears her name, she hears Love say

The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.

—Malcolm Guite, from his book Sounding the Seasons

 

I wanna testify

Scream in the holy light

You bring me back to life

And it’s all in the name of love

—Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha, In the Name of Love

 

His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it. —John 1.5

We crucified Love.

But Easter tells us… Read More

like a child post

Lent Day 38… To See Them Like Children

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Normally I have been posting each morning for this Lent series – but it is Spring Break and we are in Portland. Anyway, the internet was down at the Airbnb place we rented, so it’s only now that I’ve been able to get online.

Today is Maundy Thursday. If you look that up on Wikipedia, it’ll say something like:

Scholars agree that the English word maundy (referring to Maundy Thursday) is derived from the Latin mandatum (also the origin of the English word mandate).

It is the first word of the phrase “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, so you also must love one another.) This statement by Jesus (John 13:34) comes as he explained to the Apostles the significance of his washing their feet.

So today is about this mandate. This new command to love one another—as Jesus has loved us.

About two months ago, just before Valentine’s Day, I was giving a short leadership lesson on the theme of love. I acknowledged that Valentine’s Day was coming up… which meant that many of us would be thinking about romance and chocolate and flowers and stuff. This was my segue into sharing this next segment from an interview on NPR with author Alain de Botton…

I think that one of the most—one of the kindest things that we can do with our lover is to see them as children. Not to treat them like infants, but… Read More

little tyrant post

Lent Day 36… The Little Tyrant Inside

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

You need power only when you want to do something harmful. Otherwise, love is enough to get everything done. —Charlie Chaplin

Jean Vanier, in his book Community and Growth, wrote…

We are so inclined to want authority for the honor, prestige and admiration that comes with it. Inside each of us is a little tyrant who wants power and the associated prestige, who wants to dominate, to be superior and to control. We feel we are the only ones to see the truth… Christians can sometimes hide these tendencies behind a mask of virtue, doing what they do for “good” reasons. There is nothing more terrible than a tyrant using religion as his or her cover.

The little tyrant inside. Sheesh. How I wish this wasn’t true, but… Read More