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  Mark 3:48 pm on August 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: fatherhood, LK10 Community (3), mowing, Ray Vanderlaan   

  Praise and Seeking Approval 

  

  So Jesus explained, ”I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

  Jesus, John 5:19

  I only want to do what I see my Father doing. This powerful verse and insight into Jesus’ relationship with Father reminds me of watching my little brother follow my dad up and down the backyard with a toy lawn mower as my dad cut the grass. Following in his footsteps. Getting so close that by the end of the day, both of them had green shoes and were covered in dust.  Jewish disciples in ancient times had a phrase that I just love – they wanted to follow their rabbi with such passion and closeness that they would be “covered by the dust of his sandals…” reminds me of mowing the lawn – out on mission with Father – and the delight that we share as we do the work together is wonderful and meaningful…

  Isn’t this true discipleship? Knowing where God is and following after him as close as we can? Doing only what we see him doing? Listening carefully to God’s voice, then boldly doing amazing things in HIS name, not our own.  My friends at LK10.com say, “Mission flows from listening…”

  Set up next to this beautiful image of listening to one voice is the temptation of listening and following many false voices. Jesus states that he does not accept the praise of men. But the Jews alternately seek each other’s praise, which leads to a disbelief in Christ and an ambivalence toward God. Jesus says in v44 that you can not believe if you accept the praise of one another, but make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God. The only way to come to belief is to think for yourself, and stop seeking human approval!

  But what does “the praise that comes from the only God” look like? I thought I was supposed to be praising him! I’d love to know you’re thoughts on this, but I think that if God is my Father, then I should hope that he would want to praise me for doing good work, work I also see him doing. That praise may be his provision, or his healing presence (from past wounds, or physical healing), or his overwhelming love and acceptance of me as his adopted son, or his strength to silence the praise of men and let me think for myself, which leads to deeper belief in Christ.  Just some starter thoughts…

  What other ways does God praise us, even as we live our lives as praise to God? Lots to ponder here…

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  Mark 1:35 pm on June 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Ensenada, Mexico 

  Just returned from my impromptu mission trip to Mexico.

  I KNOW!  I was as surprised as you are.  A friend of mine from a church in the Western Suburbs called me and asked if I was free and would be interested in an all-expense paid mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico to work with orphans and the poorest of the poor for a week.

  How could I refuse??

  God pulled some amazing strings to get us there – and I’m so thankful for the gentleman who raised the funds so I could go (he was planning on going himself, but at the last minute got a new job!  Win/win in my opinion.

  Ensenada is my first “developing world” mission trip.  Previously, I have done work in Argentina, Japan, and Australia.  All places that are in desperate need of Jesus Christ, and yet the Baja Pennisula where I spent only 6 days broke my heart in ways the previous places never did.

  As I sat in rooms with mud floors on the precipice of a mountainside just waiting for a downpour to wash away their lives…looking at babies with life-threatening diseases, at elderly with treatable wounds with no medical care, and at a literal city of children with parents who had long since abandoned them…I began hearing God’s cries for the poor to be liberated.

  Simultaneously, I am reading Exodus – where God uses Moses to liberate an oppressed people and call them out as his own.  I don’t claim to be an expert on Liberation Theology, but I know to my core that God’s pursuit is for the forgotten, the abused, the ragamuffins.  God craves the reconciliation of all creation, but I believe it will be accomplished through those who can’t afford the coffee I’m drinking right now, and can’t imagine doing mission work half a world away.  They are the down-and-outs, and that’s exactly what God became in Jesus to find them.

  “I came for the sick, not the healthy…”

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  Mark 5:42 pm on May 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Strawberry Revolutions 

  The Gospel is a strawberry plant.

  Plants are generally grown from seed, or by transplant.  We’ve got a nice healthy basil in our kitchen window, but it was bought full-grown at Home Depot and we started enjoying it immediately.  It fills our little ceramic pot and our Italian dinners are made even more special when we simply pluck a leaf or two off to enjoy with pasta.

  But strawberry plants are different.

  They don’t generally grow from seed, or through transplant – though it can happen.  That might be how a strawberry field begins, but it propagates naturally with “runners.”

  Strawberry plant runners are like little arms of the plant that shoot out from its base, and find a nice healthy spot of soil about 6 inches away from the original plant.  There may be 4-8 runners coming off of every plant.  The interesting thing about these runners is that they are not extensions of the plant, or branches off the plant, but a brand new plant! Even if you were to cut off a runner, if it successfully embedded itself in some good soil, it would start a new strawberry plant and begin spreading all over the place.

  

  Christians fear that their mission work, their sharing of the Gospel, has to be bought at a Home Depot of sorts.  They spend all their resources in evangelism on getting their friends to “come to church” so that the moving church service will convince them to become a Christian too.  This is like buying your basil at Home Depot. Nothing wrong with it – basil tastes great on pasta!

  But basil will never cover the earth on its own…only strawberries, mustard, and maybe kudzu can.

  Sharing the Gospel like a strawberry plant means putting out feelers into your local context (don’t try stretching too far at first!) and planting the full Gospel in the soil all around you.  You are never too far from your mission field, and you’ve got it in you to plant not just seeds, but whole new plants in God’s garden. Where are your feelers now?  Where are your church’s feelers planting themselves to make new churches?

  Plant strawberries – don’t buy basil.

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  Godgrown » Blog Archive » The Insidious Infection of Love, and Rusty Wimberly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Rusty Wimberly 8:11 am on May 28, 2010 Permalink

    very interesting! Isn’t it great how God speaks to us, declaring his purposes and plans through nature? This is a great illustration and not to mention good explanation about how to plant strawberries! I like the vine illustration Jesus uses better though….its a lot more wild, un-predictable and puts a tight grip around its everything it comes into contact with. lol