Blessed Are The Mourners.

I can tell you for an eternal truth that troubled souls are always safe. It is the untroubled that are in danger. Trouble in itself is always a claim on love, and God is love. He must deny Himself if He does not come to help the helpless. It is the prisoner, and the blind, and the leper, and the possessed, and the hungry, and the tempest-tossed, who are His special care. Therefore if you are lost and sick and bound, you are just in the place where He can meet you. Blessed are the mourners. They shall be comforted.

Andrew Jukes (1815-1901)

Reflections on Lent

February 17^th is Ash Wednesday. As I mentioned before, I am not in a liturgical tradition but believe the liturgical year can be a great tool in our sanctification. As far as active asceticism goes, I don’t do so well. Lent, if observed, is a good time to implement the gospel into our lives in a palpable way. Jesus stating that those who would follow him must take up their cross and deny himself (Luke 9:23). Self-denial is not something that is embraced or practiced in our culture. We are people of gross indulgence. We are gluttons for food, television, movies, video games, magazines, and all those things having to do with leisure and recreation. We are better at gorging ourselves then denying ourselves. But the mark of the Christian is, should be, that of denial. Below is a synopsis and good reflection on what Lent is about.

“The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity. Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him. Thus it is fitting that the season of Lent begin with a symbol of repentance: placing ashes mixed with oil on one's head or forehead. However, we must remember that our Lenten disciplines are supposed to ultimately transform our entire person: body, soul, and spirit. Our Lenten disciplines are supposed to help us become more like Christ. Eastern Christians call this process theosis, which St. Athanasius aptly describes as "becoming by grace what God is by nature."

LOST

Time travel, monsters, pain, joy, ontology, relationships, peril, paradise, personal triumphs, catastrophic failures, unexplained occurrences, religion; just some of the topics you will find on my favorite show LOST. I am very much excited about Season 6, which is the last and final installment of this "time travel odyssey." Creators Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, and J.J. Abrams have created, what I would consider to be one of the most intricate and perspicacious television show to date. I am not even going to attempt to recap the past five seasons. I will say if you haven’t watched them I would encourage you to do so. We will finally see what becomes of the passengers from Oceanic Flight 815. Lost Season 6 premiers Tuesday, February 2nd at 9PM EST. Below is a stirring recap:

Epiphany

Most Christians I know are not in a liturgical tradition. I personally find this grievous seeing that most Protestants have lost rich Christian holidays and the rhythm that comes from the Christian calender. The liturgical year is as follows:

"The Christian calendar is organized around two major centers of Sacred Time: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; and Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, concluding at Pentecost. The rest of the year following Pentecost is known as Ordinary Time, from the word "ordinal," which simply means counted time (First Sunday after Pentecost, etc.). Ordinary Time is used to focus on various aspects of the Faith, especially the mission of the church in the world. Some church traditions break up ordinary time into a Pentecost Season, (Pentecost until the next to last Sunday of August) and Kingdomtide (last Sunday of August until the beginning of Advent)."

Today is Epiphany (January 6th) or three kings day. We are all familiar with the twelve days of Christmas, at least the song. For centuries the church has agreed that there are twelve days of Christmas beginning Christmas day and ending with the feast of Epiphany. The feast of Epiphany is a feast celebrating the 'shining forth' or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ. Moreover, Epiphany is the date on which Caspar,

Melchior, and Balthasar, who are variously referred to as The Three Kings, Three Wise Men, or Magi arrived from the east bearing gifts for Jesus. In the story they see the star in the west announcing the birth of the Messiah and then follow the star to see the new king. They bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-7).

My hope is that whatever tradition you are in that you would stop and ponder in you heart God's ultimate revelation in the person of Jesus Christ and thank him for our great salvation on this last day of Christmas.

For Want...

I just finished A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’ Engle, which is the second book in her time travel quintet. In the novel she quotes from

the proverb For want of a Nail. In the book it is used to show how a microscopic creature can affect the fate of the universe, and is the impetus for much of what takes place. Here is the proverb:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

This is a proverb that I have been ruminating on as I begin the New Year. The idea relayed by the proverb- that my seemingly minute attitudes, beliefs, and actions could have catastrophic or constructive effects on my life. The idea in physics known as chaos theory or the butterfly effect viz., that all events are linked and affected by initial conditions.

Proverbs 4:23, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Happy New Year!

Men

I am in a guys group that meets weekly. The topic that we have been discussing over the past couple of months is the topic of masculinity. I have come to find that this topic viz., the topic of gender is crucial to how we understand ourselves, our culture, and our individual roles/function. In our culture we have largely lost what it means to be distinctively male and female. The lines have been so blurred, that it would seem that they can be synonymous; the old adage, anything you can do I can do better. Due to this lack of distinguishing, who we are and how we ought to live out our gender, we find ourselves in a plight.

I counsel many men who have been or are abusive. I counsel many men who are incredibly passive. I counsel many men who are addicted. I counsel many men who are scarred. And I see a generation of men who are largely lost in a big world, grasping for direction and security in the face of their own insecurity. I interact with so many men who say, "I have no idea who I am."

I have compassion on this generation of men who seem to be bearingless, without proper functioning fathers to forge a path, I was one of them. However, we do not only need compassion, we need a good kick in the tail.

I came across this video. No matter what you may think of it or his delivery; I feel it is a strong prophetic voice speaking into what I see is a desolate landscape of American masculinity.

Cranmer

Here is a good article entitled, Thomas Cranmer: God Must Intervene for Salvation, by Justin Holcomb. Thomas Cranmer is one reformer who seems to be a bit overlooked. The article is informative in giving some information on Cranmer but also in its challenge to think about what drives us. Here is a great excerpt:

In an interview about Cranmer, Ashley Null summarizes powerfully humanity's problem:According to the Thomas Cranmer's anthropology, what the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. The mind doesn't direct the will. The mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants. The trouble with human nature is that we are born with a heart that loves ourselves over and above everything else in this world, including God. In short, we are born slaves to the lust for self-gratification. That's why, if left to ourselves, we will always love those things that make us feel good about ourselves, even as we depart more and more from God and his ways. Therefore, God must intervene in our lives in order to bring salvation. Working through Scripture, the Holy Spirit first brings a conviction of sin in a believer's heart, then he births a living faith by which the believer lays hold of the extrinsic righteousness of Christ.

It is a helpful excerpt underscoring a reality that many are not attune to, which is, that our will and heart drive us more than our thinking. It is our passions that get the best of us and it is our minds that attempt to expunge our guilt (justify). This is not to say that we don’t employ our minds, to the best of our abilities, saturating it in truth, the truth of Scripture, to combat our passions that can set our lives aflame. However, as Cranmer has suggested, it is primarily a supernatural act of the Spirit that works in us not only to justify but also to sanctify.