Water Fight

There is nothing better on a hot day then a water fight. Taking out the hose, water balloons, and buckets and drenching each other. Each day we are involved in our own water fight of what to chose Roman bath or mikveh?

When looking at them they look the same. They both hold water,  the water is placed in stone structures, and people enter into both. But when you really look at each you notice they are completely different.

A Mikveh is a ceremonial bath where a person immerses themselves to become ritually clean according to Jewish Law. The water was often piped in from cisterns filled by

aqueducts that were connected to rivers or streams, necessary to provide “living water” to ensure purity. Jews would wash their head, heart, hands, and feet as a symbol of purity before God. The mikveh was used by worshippers who immersed themselves before entering worship and the presence of God. I picture the mikveh at Gamla (picture on the right) a place where all are welcome. A place  where you are stripped naked both literally and physically before God. You are to enter the mikveh to offer yourself as new and clean an offering of repentance before you go meet with God. A beautiful picture of water that shows your surrender and leaving behind of what is not good to have more of God.

The mikveh at Sardis (the picture on the left) is a place that offers a cup of cold water to the wanderer, traveler, lost, or outcast. A cup of cold water is the minimal requirement for what the Scripture calls hospitality (or xenophilia) love of the stranger.  Jesus says that  whoever gives a cup of cold water to the stranger will receive their reward. 

The Roman bath on the other hand represented the worldliness,  pleasures, and vices of the Romans. The Roman bath was a time of nakedness and lust. Roman baths normally included denunciations of luxury and immorality. Roman baths became a visual representative of how far  Rome had fallen into decline.  I picture the people in Bible times who visited the Roman bath wanted to be noticed. This was the high class social country club everyone wanted to be a part of.  If people were at the bath it meant they were rich, higher class, and well good enough to be at the Roman bath. The Roman bath screamed elegance, rituality, and set apartness.

When I look at the mikveh and the Roman bath I see similar venues with different meanings. I also see glimpses of our own daily battle. Each day we have to make the decision Roman bath or mikveh? Sure in our own culture we may not find ourselves in the Roman bath, but we do have our own pleasures and vices. Our pleasure and vices may come in the all different forms.  Satan so badly want us to chose the Roman bath life. God wants us to be set apart a holy priesthood,  holy and dearly loved. The kingdom of priests need and want to put God on display.

So as we go throughout normal everyday activities we have to ask ourselves mikveh or Roman bath? Where are we in our own lives? Which are you mikveh or Roman bath? Are you making the conscious decision to change, repent, and be different after entering the water of mikveh? Are we offering the cup of cold water? 

I find myself asking am I going to conform to the patterns of this world and live in pleasure or am I going to stripe myself bare before Jesus enter the living water and allow him to make me new, repentant, and transformed. When we chose mikveh we are choosing redemption/repentance over immorality. We are allowing ourselves to be pruned by God rather than pleasurable life. But most importantly we are choosing to be transformed rather then conforming.

The biggest challenge I find myself wanting is to take a cup of cold water out of the mikveh and march it through the gymnasium of Sardis (picture above) over to the bath behind it and offer it to people that chose Roman bath over mikveh. May we live shalom and put God on display so others will desire to chose the mikveh.

Blessings and Shalom as we engage in the water fight ourselves and for others. 

Whose on your throne?

As I sat (actually stood) in church this morning of the songs that we sang stuck with me today. The song was The Lord Reigns the lyrics was ‘why do the nations rage when the King is on His throne? Now and forever You will reign.’

In class last week were talking about Deuteronomy chapter 17 in which Moses gives us the law and guidelines for the kings of the Old Testament. I find this interesting considering the fact that Moses was giving this law 400 years before Israel would ask for a king. God knew the temptations of the Promise Land. But, the Israelites wanted to be like the other nations. I wonder what God really thought of them asking for a king like the other nations. This is the God that brought their ancestors through the Red Sea, made the sun stand still, and won battles for the people. As the song says why do the nations rage when the King in on the throne? God is on the throne yet they are asking for more. Did they miss that God wanted to be King alone?

Today for me the words would not be why do the nations rage when the King is on the throne? Mine would look more like why do you (doubt me, worry, not trust, not completely surrender) when I am on the throne?

I go back to the desert wandering we did and how God gave the people just enough.

Was God not enough for the Israelites? Is God not enough for me?

The greatest reminder comes in the guidelines God gives to those that will be king. They need to ditch the gold, girls, and giddy up and they need to get into the word. The only requirement to be king is to read the text all the days of their life. As we read and learn we also learn to fear God. Fear meaning reverential trust. So may we all allow God to be the only one on throne, spend time with him in text so we can learn to fear and trust God. As we do thisour leadership will one that God says he/she did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

King Jesus

The last week as I turn on ESPN all the hype is Lebron James. All the analyzing of what he was going to do. Yes, he is great basketball player. How many people last night waited in anticipation to find out what King James was going to do? Is he staying is he going? One of the things that got me was the reaction of the people. The people in New York, Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New Jersey when he made the decision. Some were happy others burned his jersey in disgust. The fans of Miami sold out all of their season tickets for next year to see the trio of James, Wade, and Bosh take the court. One newspaper today had this headline: Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh = Best Thing Ever.

Yesterday I go to thinking how many times do we as followers of Christ act the way the followers of the NBA did the last week. If we as followers of Christ talked about our King Jesus as much as ESPN talked about King James the last week we could change the world. If we as followers analyzed Jesus and what he did in scripture as much as the "experts" on ESPN did the last week of James how much better would we know our King? If we were more like the fans of Miami and were completely sold out for our Trinity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit what could happen in our cities. If we would describe Our Trinity as the Best Thing Ever what a testimony that would be. The Cavaliers fans have passion, anger, and betrayal when they heard the news. If we as followers had that passion and anger when people took our God’s name in vain or discredited the Awesomeness of our God what a stand that would be.

King James plays basketball and he some great things. King Jesus did miracles and died on a cross and that is an amazing thing. So yesterday as I watched and listened to James and ESPN the song by Christ Tomlin came to mind, Famous One.

You are the Lord

The famous one

Famous one

Great is your name

In all the earth

The heavens declare

You're glorious, glorious

Great is your fame

Beyond the earth

My prayer is that we can be completely sold out like the fans of Miami for King Jesus.

My prayer is that we can be passionate like the fans of the Cleveland for our King Jesus.

My prayer is that we can be more like ESPN and proclaim King Jesus as the famous one and tell of His great name in all the earth.

A lesson from God in the Grand Prix

Tonight I was challenged. I was driving home from a great night in Des Moines with a good friend. I was listing to the radio. My car was stopped on the interstate because of a accident. Also as this time was the most amazing sunset. The sun was bursting from the clouds. The raises were shooting straight into the air. I got this smug my God made that face on and marveled in the creativity of the God I serve. I took out my camera and took a picture of the marvel.
Just a few miles later I was crying tears as I had a conversation with the God that made that sunset. The more I talked the more I cried. I should have been listening. After my talk with God I turned the radio back on. The man on the other end of the radio said we don’t need to worry. Why do we worry? The God of the universe has everything under control and yet we worry. So in a period of 5 minutes I went from praising the God of the universe in His sunset to slapping him in the face with my worry. I can trust God to make the sun rise and set each day. I cannot trust him enough with the small worries and intricacies of the day.

Tonight was a yet another moment of God teaching me to trust.

Later on my drive home I heard a song. The song is entitled Whatever your doing by Sanctus Real. The lyrics I know came from the mouth of God into my not trusting heart.

It's time for healing time to move on

It's time to fix what's been broken too long

Time to make right what has been wrong

It's time to find my way to where I belong

There's a wave that's crashing over me

And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace

It's hard to surrender to what I can't see

but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone

Time to begin again

Reevaluate who I really am

Am I doing everything to follow Your will

Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills

So show me what it is You want from me

I give everything I surrender...

To...

Time to face up

Clean this old house

Time to breathe in and let everything out

That I've wanted to say for so many years

Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but I believe

You're up to something bigger than me

Larger than life something Heavenly

Got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart!

Tonight I had an experience similar to one found in Acts 2. Acts 2 is the passage where the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. The passage in chapter 2 tonight that I really could relate to with the coming of the Holy Spirit was verse 13 which said, “Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.” Tonight at the final Tulip Time parade some of my wonderful friends and I had a lot of fun. We yelled at friends going by in the parade. We ate a lot of great food. We cheered for bands. We laughed together. We Dutch danced to The Nadas. My friend Joy and I shared a chair. We laughed and chatted with my students. It was a good night. A fun night. A night filled with joy. A night where many who saw us probably said they are drunk. No. That is not true. If those strangers knew me they would know it is not true.

What I was experiencing tonight was something greater than any beer or wine it was TRUE HOLY SPIRIT JOY. For some people being a follower of Christ means it is wrong, or frivolous, to display too much happiness or high spirits. The fruits of the Spirit will be evident in the lives of people who are walking with God. The second fruit mentioned in the Spirit’s list is JOY. Right after love the greatest of these is joy. Our joy had little to do with the food we ate, the bands that were playing, the people we saw or talked to. Tonight our joy came from a deep connection that we had with God and each other. We were celebrating the good in life tonight rather than complaining about all that’s wrong. We chose to have the joy of Jesus in our hearts. We all shared a Spirit-filled joy –a sense of having our lives all firmly founded on the rock of Jesus Christ. Any life with Jesus as its center is a joyful life, no matter what is going on in the world. Tonight was that kind of joy as we had a good time not caring what was going on around us.

My Jesus I love thee!

Two weeks ago I was sitting in my Gospels class with Dr. Brown (my new hero!)
In devotions that morning she was telling us about how she remembered Jesus growing up in the church. How they portrayed Jesus as a blonde lighter skinned man. I sat in church and looked at the Jesus in the stained glass behind my pastor yesterday. He was not blonde but he did not look very middle eastern either. My professor went on to read to us from Time magazine 2008 future revolution ideas that stated Re-Judaizing Jesus as one of them. The reason why I write (ok type) this is because tonight someone asked me to summarize my two weeks. Oddly it was something one of the graduates mentioned at our communion service last Friday. For most of my life I put Jesus in a box. I let Jesus operate in the small box I put him in. I knew the Bible stories about Jesus. I knew how to pray. I had scripture memorized. I went to church twice on Sunday. I did the “Christian” thing. All of those things I let Jesus stay in the small box I put him in. Since going to Seminary almost two years ago my box keeps getting larger and larger. The answer to Who is Jesus has changed for me. I sat in Global and Contextual as my first class as was amazed at the passion of Dr. Magnuson and his passion for Muslims. My box grew in love for Muslims. As I sat in Hermeneutics I was in awe that I actually knew what that word meant and at the seeing the big picture and not jumping into the spirals. As I took Systematic Theology Dr. Lawrence and his presentation of community through the Trinity blew me away. I could go on and on about each of the classes at Bethel. Each time I leave I process. Each time I process my box gets bigger. The box does not just get bigger but so much better. I pray God continues to widen my box and open my eyes to the glory of new things.

The song that comes to my mind is one I learned and had memorized as a little girl.
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
(Oh my Saviour) If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

It is now (if ever I love my Saviour, 'tis now etc)
It is now (if ever I love my Saviour, 'tis now)

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Lenten Worship

This past week in my Discipleship in Community class we started off the week looking at the early church in Acts 2:42-47. In verse 46- 47 it states, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” What a beautiful picture of worship. One of the reasons we go to worship is stir ourselves to praise. Worship is a corporate confession of sin. This is not to say that we are confessing through other people. Corporate confession is followers of Christ gather together to worship in their total fallen state and with out Christ cannot make it. So as I worshipped this morning I was joyful and thankful because I know without this Via Dolorosa or the Way of Sorrow that Jesus walked down my worship would be that of tears and sorrow. Instead as he walked to the cross I can worship with joy in the faithfulness of God’s covenant to send a Messiah to save us. The worship of joy strikes down any pride that has welled within me and has me humble crawling to God through Jesus grace. Through Jesus and his sacrifice of blood God can look at me with eyes of love, forgiveness, and mercy.

This morning as I went to church and worshipped I was screaming on the inside,

“My sin-oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! --My sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more; praise the Lord, praise, the Lord, O my soul!”

As we go to worship may we honestly confess our sins to God. In our confession have joy in the Lord and delight in His salvation. As I leave I will say I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.

That is something to Give thanks and be joyful about!