Blog My Sojourn Live

Christmas time is ringing in my ear.  Is it a good ring?  Is it a commercial ringing? 

Well, Christmas time is this:  "His name is Emmanuel-the God who is with us-who is made out of the same stuff we are and who is made out of the same stuff God is and who will not let either of us go." ~Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way.

Yes—God came to earth through a miracle.  God came to earth and walked among us.

God came to earth to die on the cross.  God came to earth to show His love, His kindness, His justice, His complete care for people created in His image.

Yes—I still love gift giving.  I still love the hustle and bustle.  I still love doing the Christmas tree thing, all the festive stuff for sure.

Now, I don’t drink and party anymore to cover the pain I once had.  I don’t need an incredible gift.  I don’t need to get get and get.  I enjoy the meaning behind giving, the enjoyment of seeing someone enjoy the gift they are receiving.  Yes, I enjoy the Christmas deal. 

But things have changed over time for me.  To me back in the day, Christmas was about singing carols, going to Christmas service, going to family stuff, waking up and getting presents and all that goes with it.

The longer I live the more I get this:  "His name is Emmanuel-the God who is with us-who is made out of the same stuff we are and who is made out of the same stuff God is and who will not let either of us go." ~Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way.

And for that gift—for the gift of Emmanuel—I am so, so thankful.  I am blown away.  How in need I was—going to all the services, getting loaded to feel good, getting festive to have fun, getting getting getting to feel something that was missing.

Interesting—I knew the meaning of Christmas.  I grew up in church.  I know all the songs.  Oh as a kid—I did believe in Santa—I did like the Peanuts Christmas deal.  As I got older—oh I knew the story—but I didn’t really believe it.  Why should I? 

But now— I believe.  I believe that God came to earth.  I believe that out of all the events in history the virgin birth, God coming to earth is 2^nd to this same God’s death on the cross and resurrection.

Oh yes.  Christmas is an amazing time in history and is an amazing time every year.

"His name is Emmanuel-the God who is with us-who is made out of the same stuff we are and who is made out of the same stuff God is and who will not let either of us go." ~Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way.

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Thankful for this:

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Col.2.6-8

The longer I live, the more I get it!

Salvation is a gift.

God’s love is not earned.

Faith matters.

Jesus Christ is Supreme!

I am thankful for God’s love for me

His purpose for me

His grace

His mercy

I am thankful for the tough times that have strengthened my feeble faith.

I am thankful

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Jim Elliot (1927-1956)

Success for a missionary is not taking the Gospel to new lands and establishing the Christian church there. That is what God does, and He does it in His way and in His timing. Success for a missionary, as for any Christian, is being obedient to God's will.

Jim Elliot always wanted to be a missionary. He grew up in a family which read the Bible daily and lived a Christian lifestyle. He went to college with his focus on those activities which would help him to be a missionary.

After he graduated, Elliot had the opportunity to go to Equador to work amongst the Quichuas peoples and he went there in 1952 with Peter Fleming. For more than three years they worked amongst the people establishing a missionary post and an airstrip. Of course they had the task of understanding the language of the Quichua people as well. Jim Elliot married to Elisabeth Howard in 1953.

In 1955 they began their attempts to get to know the mysterious Auca tribe. They decided to drop gifts to the Auca tribe from Nate Saint's aeroplane. Eventually they agreed that the time was right for them to go into Auca territory. They flew in and established a base. They made initial contact with some members of the tribe and contacted the missionary post by radio to tell them that things were going well. That was the last time that contact was made.

The five men were Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderin and Peter Fleming. Their bodies were recovered and their equipment and personal property was brought back.

To many people it would seem that Jim Elliot's dream and the aspirations of the other men had ended in failure. But they had done what was expected of them and it was now time for God to continue with His plan. Amongst the personal possessions was a camera and amongst the pictures taken were some of the Auca Indians who had initially made contact with the missionaries. The people in the photographs were recognized by an exiled Auca woman who had helped the missionaries learn the language. They were relatives that she thought were dead!

She made contact with them and before long Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint (Nate's sister) were living amongst the tribe. They established a church and many of the Aucas became Christians. Elisabeth returned home to America after several years but Rachel stayed with the Aucas for many years.

The story of Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderin and Peter Fleming has become one of the great missionary tales throughout the world. Many, many people have been inspired by these men. They have also been inspired by the the wives, and sister, of these men. Marilou McCully set up a school for missionary children in Quito. Barbara Youderin went to work with another tribe. Elisabeth Elliot has produced many books, including an excellent on the Christian principles on raising children.

The deaths of these men, a personal tragedy for their families, has become a world-wide testimony of faith in Christ and dedication to the work of God, which is much, much bigger than the conversion of a jungle tribe to Christianity.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."   ~ Jim Elliot

"When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945)

Food for thought today!   From 2 men of faith.  I want what they had.

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Disappoint- to fail to fulfill the expectations or wishes of

I have faced disappointment before and I regrettably am facing it again.

Sometimes my job—Student Ministry Pastor has a way of producing some disappointments.

Being a father has its disappointments.

Sometimes the disappoint gate just opens wide.

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Twittering is sometimes a pain.  The matter of tweeting for people to know what I’m doing is sometimes—is just not important.  On the other hand, I like getting Tweets from Rick Warren, Rob Bell, and other leaders in the church world.

I got this tweet yesterday from Rick Warren--"Listen to God, not other's fears: "Jesus ignored their comments & said to Jairus,'Don't be afraid.Just trust me'" Mark5:36

But before I got that tweet, I got this tweet--"Never wake up people who are dreaming they're the hero of their own great battle.They won't like reality & will fight you."

 This is the reality of my ministry position, my job, my life.  I am not reading this tweet as about those without Christ.  Although it could apply—I read this quote about those in the circle I operate and live in.  The Christian culture.  The Christian’s that cannot deal with life outside their dream, outside their list, outside their mantra, their construct, their ideal.

 I have been around this block many many times.  I lived it.  I live in it now—

The dream, the ideals, the stuff that people cling to—is it Biblical truth?  Sometimes.  Is it their way?  Sometimes.  I call it the “box”.  The box that has God, the Bible, the do’s and don’ts, a relationship with Christ that looks and feels the way it does for them or their group the way they want it to be.  Their dream!

I have done it too, and I may on occasion still have a little of the “box” mentality, or the idea that I am the hero in my world, just like those that believe, they are their hero in their world—and not waking them up—is because—

Because when I left the church plant thing years back, my dream was shattered.  I was my hero and God was, was not a player at all and it all came crashing down.  The dream was gone, the sense of “knowing” all the right things, doing all the right things was merely a dream, that no one could have awakened me from—except, except God.

 Which brings me to the day I live in now. 

 The Christian camp which I am not apart of—those that believe in “certainty” and want and try and make everyone, everything fit in their construct quoting scripture to justify their rude behavior to anyone that is outside their dream,  their belief that “they are always right” —those that don’t like people like me because I’m not going to just fit it, jump through their hoops, those that teach kids about authority and treat those in authority with disdain because they don’t fit their construct—what a joke really—authority is only authority if—if that authority fits or is “worthy” according to their construct—I cannot wake them up.  They don’t want it.  They love their hypocrisy.  They love their idealistic view of God, the Bible and what it means to know Jesus as Savior in their construct.  Take out the “alive” Jesus and put Him in a box that says—this is who He is… they get to build the box, the get to be in the dream, and everybody else—well they need Jesus their way—not the Biblical way—their way.  It’s not a process—it’s a time, a day, an event.

Am I a heretic?  Am I totally misleading students?  Am I out for myself?  Am I doing things for me?  No.  God forbid.  I am no longer my hero.  I was broken from that years ago.  But, I am so saddened by my “Christian” brothers and sisters that I work for i.e. the local church-- that refuse to see anything other than the dream they live in.  They are their hero’s.  They are their standard.  Oh they believe that the way they do things is absolute—and others like me...

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