Wandering Aramean

Rob Bell once preached a sermon, or maybe a sermon series, called “My Father is a Wandering Aramean.” The Wandering Aramean was Abram, later renamed Abraham. He was called by God to leave his home with his father in Haran (themselves transplants from Ur). God told Abram to head out to a land which he would be shown. The land wasn’t even named. “Just go. I’ll let you know when you get there.”

I feel like a wandering Aramean myself. When people ask me where I’m from, I struggle with how to answer and usually launch into a much-too-long answer that involves rattling off the numerous places I have lived in my life. If you’re interested, take a look at the About Me page. Constantly on the move, it’s hard for me to invest in people or places. I’m not used to sticking around long enough to make it matter.

Tonight, I was reading in Luke 12 and came across verse 34. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jesus’ point, of course, is that our treasure needs to be with God. Heavenly treasures aren’t subject to corruption or decay. I get that.

But tonight, as a wandering Aramean, I’m struck by the idea of committing and investing in the place where God has you. Have your place. Know the name of your librarian. Have a history with the barber who cuts your hair. I say this particularly to those who have had to or chosen to leave familiar stomping grounds in order to go to the job or the ministry or the mission field or whatever. Commit to where you are. Invest. Buy a home if you can. Develop friendships. You are where God needs you to be. Where God wants you to be. So place your treasure there.

Don’t be looking back. Don’t be looking elsewhere. Don’t be looking for greener pastures. You are here, now. This moment is all we have. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Invest fully in this moment. Live. Live now. Live right where you are. Place your treasure in the present where God has you and let your heart be there, too.

I think that may be the best way to follow God and honor Jesus’ words in Luke 12:34.

Blessings on you as you give up on waiting to live when the right time comes, the right job comes, the right paycheck comes, the right person comes, the right “whatever.” Live now. Invest now. Commit now. Treasure now. Place all of your heart now. God’s name is “I Am.” Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He is now. Be here. Now.

 

Good News

Did you know that God wants to create a family for Himself? And did you know that God wants all of us – you and me and everyone in this room and everyone else in the whole world to be part of His family?

The problem is, we can’t be his family. Because we do things that are wrong that keep us out of God’s family. Things God doesn’t like. Things God can’t have in His house or among His family members. The Bible calls those things sin. And the punishment for sin is severe. The punishment is that we have to be apart from God for all of eternity. He doesn’t want that! We shouldn’t want that, either!

But the Good News – God’s own message to us – is that He loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be one of us, live as one of us, and then take the punishment for our sin for us by dying on a cross. If we had done that, we would be dead forever – separated from God for all of eternity. But not Jesus. Jesus was innocent – He never sinned! After three days, Jesus rose from the dead and now He lives. And because He lives, our debt – our punishment for all of the wrong things we do – is paid. God can declare us righteous and whole and complete.

Jesus is never going to die again. And he wants us to be with Him when this life is over and we die here. We can do that if we believe that Jesus has died for us and our own personal sins. AND if we repent. Repent means to turn away from something and not do it anymore. We have to repent from our sins. We turn away from them and do our best – and God promises to help us here – to never do them again.

We call this being saved. And God wants you to be saved. And He wants me to be saved. I was saved a long time ago – at least to you and me – way back in 1987. I knew then that I did wrong things, I needed God to forgive me (which He promises He will do for anyone who asks). So I asked Him to. And you know what? He did! I’m forgiven. And I trust that I’m forgiven because of what Jesus did for me, and what He did for you.

Because I’m forgiven, I know that I will get to spend eternity with God in heaven and the new creation.

If any of you know that you need to be saved, then maybe you can write me (daryl “underscore” j “underscore” white AT yahoo DOT com) and talk to me about it. I’d love to journey that road together with you!

 

We Are a United People

Text: Ephesians 2:11-22

In the Garden of Eden, the wily serpent played against a human trait that still persists among us today. That serpent approached Eve and encouraged her to compare herself against God. The serpent further suggested that God was actually scared of what Eve and Adam might become should they taste that succulent but forbidden fruit that would garner each of them the knowledge of good and evil. Eve listened. And she began to compare. And that comparison led to envy. And that envy led to pride. And that pride, as it always does, led to sin.

As Eve did with God, we are quite adept at comparing ourselves to each other. We are well oiled in the art of surveying a gathering of any size and estimating our place in the pecking order. Paul chastised the Corinthians regarding their arranging themselves at fellowship meals in order of perceived importance. But we all do it. It is second nature. There is, indeed, a pecking order among any group of people that establishes a chain of importance and arranges all of our interactions with one another.

The arts of comparing and its twin, contrasting, help us to see where we are alike – and so what circles we can run in – and where we are different – and so what circles we cannot or should not run in. India is famous for having codified such systems into five social circles, called castes, which were fixed by birth. They ranged from the high and privileged Brahmins that interpreted spiritual beliefs to the low, outcast, and untouchable Dalits.

 

What Are We Waiting For?: Restoration (Advent III)

Also published at www.montevistabc.com.

Isaiah 35:1-10

“All is well,” so says Michael W. Smith in the song that I shared at the beginning of our service. All is well! Angels and men rejoice because darkness has fallen and a new light of dawn has risen. All is well! There is peace on earth because the Christ has come – he has come in a manger, lying in a stall meant for animals in the town of Bethlehem with his mother, his father, and some shepherds from nearby who had just had a very frightening encounter with a whole host of angels in the sky. All is well! This baby Christ lying in his manger, this is our Lord, our Savior, Him whom we revere, love, adore, worship, depend on, have faith in, cast all of our hopes to. All is well! Emmanuel is born – Emmanuel! God with us! He is here. He has come. All is well!

 

A River in the Night

Wow, time slips by quickly. Has it really been over a month since I wrote anything for this site? Proves my blogging inconsistency. I’ll go for a week or two in a row posting regularly, then stop for an endless time while other things in life take priority.

Like having a child. Still waiting for that, though. Due date’s in three days, so any day now they can come!

Anyway, I am still here, still in ministry, still pondering how to do this thing and live life in a God-honoring way. And still reading books. Just not the ones I have in the sidebar at the moment…that’s the next update!

Hopefully, I’ll post more later. In the meantime,  back to whatever it was I was doing before.