Crossing Heaven's Threshold

Christmas is a time of celebrating a simple fact: God crossed heaven's threshold to 'incarnate' himself to the world to rescue it. Have we learned from his example?

In the previous post I referenced Jesus' words to us that we, his church, are the light of the world. (Individuals are not that light!) But he said, does anyone put a light under a basket? Or do they put it out in the open for everyone to see and receive light?

It seems to me that in many ways, we have hidden our light under the basket of the church building. We have expected to reach people by attracting them to church programs. But how many unchurched people do you know who really care about church programs? They have other real and/or felt needs.

Shouldn't we, the church, get the light out of the building and out to the world? Shouldn't the church should be impacting all levels of society and culture as salt, and bringing light and life to all people in need?

As one person said, we should start fishing on the other side of the boat. And another, "Bait the hook with what the fish like, not what the fisherman likes."

Jesus crossed heaven's threshold to 'incarnate' himself to the world. His church, I believe, should cross the building's threshold to 'incarnate' herself to the world.

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You are Not the Salt of the Earth

Last month I was struck with the realization that I am not the salt of the earth, and I am not the light of the world. Probably many of us who grew up in Sunday School had learned that we are the salt and we are the light. I have recently had to 'unlearn' this.

If we could read the Greek, we would realize that Jesus said "You (plural) are the salt, and you (plural) are the light." In fact, he followed up with, "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." I've begun to wonder if so many of our attempts to bring hope and light to the world have been feeble because we have tried to do it on our own.

Yes, we have measured impact through individual effort. But our impact could be exponentially increased through synergism, two or more working together. Synergy comes from "syn" meaning "together", and "ergo" meaning "to work".

Jesus then said, "Let your (plural) light (singular) shine in such a way that men may see your (plural) good works ("ergov"), and give glory to your Father in heaven." Yep, it's an 'us' thing, and it looks like there is a considerable amount of work to be done.

We won't get much done working alone.

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For All You Bloggers Out There

Another great poster from Despair.com

Blogging
Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.


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God is Amazing

I am constantly amazed at God's creativity. You may have already seen some of these pictures that have hit the news in the past week of the new species discovered in the Mekong Valley, but here is a cool slide show some videos and photos.


If this video no longer works, try this link. (The flash will take a few minutes to load.)

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Walking in Someone's Shadow

For most people, the idea of walking in someone else's shadow is not anything to be desired. Some people have walked in the shadow of an older sibling, and may seem to have never measured up to their achievements. Some walk in the shadow of others more skilled, talented, or qualified -- and they never seem to catch a break in life.

Psalm 91, however, suggests that it is an advantage to walk in the shadow of God. The first verse says that whoever "dwells in the secret place of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty." The cool thing about walking in His shadow is there are all kinds of benefits: security, safety, health, etc. And when we walk in His shadow, then it really doesn't matter that people are noticing Him instead of us.

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