Godgrown

Posts Mentioning RSS Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  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…

  • 
   

  Reply Click here to cancel reply.

  Name (required)

  Email (required)

  Web Site

  Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

   
• 

  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…”

  • 
   
• 

  Mark 9:58 am on April 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Eckhart Park   

  …Only Family Can 

  I spent yesterday morning doing some work out in our sunny neighborhood park, pulling weeds and weeding-out trash from blossoming bushes and flowers.  There was quite a crew there yesterday too – some folk coming from the far-corners of the city to help out (about a dozen from a global consulting group showed up for “Earth Day.”)

  I’ve been given a section of the park with a few patch-gardens!  This has been a dream of mine for quite awhile, both to do some real-deal urban gardening, and to break into the neighborhood’s action group (volunteering gardeners, park council, etc).  There are more plants than I can give names to, or certainly more than I can spell.  There was even a secret stash of mushrooms hiding beneath a bale of hay over in one corner of my garden.  It wasn’t until THIS year that I finally saw my first flowers bloom from seed.  I planted some bulbs last fall and to see tulips popping up this past week has been tremendous.

  Being a part of such a tangible day of transformation in my own neighborhood reminds me a bit about why we’re here – we’re here to see vibrant families of Jesus grown in every people group in Chicago!

  Vibrant families centered on Christ is not only critical for individuals living the abundant life, but whole cities are desperate for it too.  No city law can make its citizens love each other – only family can.  No religious creed can reconcile broken marriages, or end homelessness – only family can.  No gang can decrease violence or increase High School graduation rates – only family can.

  Watching folks come together for park transformation pointed me back to this truth – that our goal is to see vibrant families of Jesus in close reach of every person in Chicago — but the OUTCOME of that goal is personal and city-wide transformation.

  •