Strangely Brilliant

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely brilliant,
In the light of His glory and grace.

I apologize to the hymnist for turning her poetry inside out. What Helen Lemmel penned was,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim…

Her intent was to accentuate the unequaled beauty of Christ by casting all else in dull, muted tones. Fair enough.

But closeness to Jesus has mostly heightened my awareness of life’s beauty.

…Setting sunlight turning trees and trail to gold
…The glide of a canoe across a mountain lake at dawn
…An ancient marriage proposal sung in Gaelic
…Rhodies blooming
…The crack of a bat on a 98 mph fastball
…A full night of sleep
…The summertime incense of charcoal
…Saltwater and coconut oil
…Friendships rekindled

In my experience, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of all things into their intended glory.


Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Thanksgiving Blessing

Even as we express our gratitude for God’s good gifts,
We receive the gift of gratitude itself;
Pressed down and overflowing.

Let us seek the way of pure kindness…
In the name of the Father.

Let us shut the door on anxiety…
In the name of Jesus.

Let us remember beauty…
In the name of the Holy Spirit.

Even as we express our gratitude for God’s good gifts,
We receive the gift of gratitude itself;
Pressed down and overflowing…
Pressed down and overflowing.

Amen

leadership

"If the Spirit of God is amongst the people of God then the role of leadership is not command and control, nor is the role of leadership to come up with the right plan. The role of leadership is to create the table… to cultivate the environments… to call into being the spaces where the people of God can begin to dream and imagine and experiment. And that’s not a […] program; it’s a way of life."

Dr. Alan Roxburgh

perichoresis

The model of relationships portrayed by the trinitarian dogma is neither hierarchical nor authoritarian. The relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not subordinationist, but – to use the technical term – perichoretic: God is essentially a dynamic communion of equally and mutually shared love. And this fact implies social impetus. Being made in the image of God calls for ethical and social consequences, it nurtures the spirit of solidarity. Of course, these consequences cannot be simply, mechanically transferred to the areas of human relationships. But they lead, or should lead, the confessor’s heart in an unambiguous direction – toward guarding the faith in the communion of creative love.

Jan Milic Lochman

clay resoftened

Modeling clay becomes cold and hard after a few days of no touch. It has to be patiently warmed and softened in order to return to responsiveness. My hands learned the process a long time ago; the rhythm, heat, and fragrance of transformation are still present to me. Squeezing, pressing, folding... renewing the tactile bond between the clay and my skin... settling into creative interaction.

I used to waste time feeling guilty in moments of awareness that I’d again become hard clay. Now I try to respond with gratitude to that awareness as though it is the Spirit’s touch, initiating a new session of softening. It’s an invitation to change and creativity.

headwaters (river, part three)

Have you visited the headwaters of your defining dream? Have you made an inner pilgrimage to the birthplace of the vision that shapes your intentions?

It’s not an easy hike. Sometimes you come across dams you’ve built to block to flow of your own calling. Sometimes you encounter a culvert of pollutants you’ve allowed to empty into your passion.

But eventually you make it back to the simple source. A wellspring of clear water bubbling up from your soul-dirt... The Spirit flowing from your deep places...

Your family, your friends, your community need the living water that is meant to flow from you. You’re an integral part of a relational ecosystem.

Trinity

The Trinity illuminates perfect relationality, showing the simultaneous, interpenetrating, and ongoing processes of communion and differentiation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit submerge within the One Triune God, and emerge as distinct, unique facets of the Trinity they create.

filtered

“We all have ideas, images of God that are untrue, which the Holy Spirit would remove if we would let Him. These are cultural and doctrinal traditions which have become ingrained in our minds. The power of Christ’s life is filtered and proportionally diminished by the number of these wrong images existing within us.”

Francis Frangipane

presence

Is there a difference between the omnipresence of God (his ‘everywhere-ness’) and his real presence or manifest presence (his ‘right-here-ness’)?

It certainly feels different, but is that due to changes in us or changes in him? …Or both?

Is it our perception of God's closeness that changes as we yield our splintered wills to his One Will? ...Our cloudy truths to his Clear Truth? Or is God actually pressing nearer to us during certain holy moments?

No Further Burden

“For it has seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no further burden upon you except what is absolutely essential...” Acts 15:28

The Acts of the Apostles is a great little adventure story; it is pretty-much a sequel to the Gospel narratives (Luke’s account, in particular).

It’s worth noting that the Gospel is simplified each time it takes root in a new community. The religio-cultural framework of the sending-people is stripped down to bare essentials. Barriers to faith are removed; space is made to accommodate symbiotic pieces of the receiving-people’s culture into a localized iteration of Christianity.

Evangelism provides senders with an opportunity to reconsider the essentials of faith, from the vantage point of their intended receivers. Preferences and assumptions can be held up to the light once again; perspectives can be realigned to what the Holy Spirit is conveying.