The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—

trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  Genesis 2:9

I was sitting in our living room enjoying a time of solitude and silence when I was disturbed by the sound of a chainsaw.   I looked outside and saw a man cutting down some branches from a laurel bush so I suspected our neighbor was finally trimming his overgrown shrub.

Minutes later I heard the sound of the chainsaw again this time followed by a snap and then a boom.  It was the all too familiar sound of an evergreen tree getting limbed.

Then I took a look outside our picture window to see a lumberjack scurrying like a squirrel up a 100 foot tall evergreen.  You can see an outline of his figure just below the branches in the picture above.  

I watched him swiftly proceed to move up and around the tree methodically taking down each branch.  That’s when I realized he wasn’t just going to limb the tree he was taking it down.                                 

At that moment of realization, I found myself moved and emotional about the last old growth tree in our neighborhood, the tallest tree on our block and the tree I gazed at everyday from my window.   When it was fully limbed and finally topped, it still stood strong and tall with no bow or sway in the wind.  I found myself praying and thanking God…

Thank you, God, for this tree of life.  

As it soars high in the sky,

it has been a symbol of beauty and strength.

Thank you, God, for this tree of life,

a tall shelter and steady refuge.

Thank you, God, for this tree of life,

always a source of nourishment through its life.

Thank you, God, for you “made

all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—

trees that were pleasing

to the eye and good for food.”

Thank you, God, for this tree of life,

through this marvelous tree I see you, God,

and your amazing handiwork, love and grace.

Jesus was preaching at the shore of the lake of Gennesaret and there is an interesting detail contained in the scriptures.  There were boats pulled up on shore and the fishermen had gotten out of the boats and were scrubbing their nets.  This is not a gratuitous detail included by Luke in chapter 5.  Enter into the scene – Jesus preaching and these fishermen busy at work with His words in their ears.  I can only imagine that after a short while they gave up any pretense of scrubbing their nets and were listening intently to Jesus.  The nets however are what we want to focus here as they play and important role in the story that follows.  The nets can be seen as a metaphor to represent several important truths for these fishermen:

• The nets as  a means of livelihood
• The nets as a source of identity
• The nets are as a way of interacting with the world

Nets and Making a Living

Understand that these fishermen had worked all night and had caught nothing.  This wasn’t just bad luck, this was a crisis.  No fish, no money.  No money, no food.  These men were under stress.  Peters’ mother was ill.  These men had no safety net to fall back on.  We can imagine the conference these fishermen had as to why they did not catch any fish:

Peter – “John, it must be the nets.  Maybe they are dirty”

John – “How can they be dirty?  We haven’t caught a fish all night!  Besides, we scrubbed the nets yesterday”

Peter – “You might be right John.  But I think we should scrub them again anyway, just to be sure”

John – “Well if you say so.  Not sure it will do any good”

Peter – “Just humor me and get going.”

What Peter and John and their partners were engaged in is the classic response when things do not work out – “If at first you don’t succeed – TRY HARDER!”  Jesus breaks into this reality with a new reality – “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”   Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  Peter tries to explain to Jesus the foolishness of His request – “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.”  We know what happens next.  They catch so many fish that the nets begin to break.  They catch so many fish that their boats begin to sink.  Jesus called them not to trying harder, but to surrender – “Let down your nets”

Jesus did not need these fishermen to let down their nets.  He could have given a command and every fish in that lake would have jumped into their boat while singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.  Nor did Jesus ask them to let down the nets using a new and improved method.  The point is not the fish, nor the nets; it was who was in control.  Do we let Jesus control our nets?  Do we go into the deep water and let down our nets at His command?  He is inviting us see our work, our vocation, as a partnership with Him.

Nets and Identity

How do we know Peter and James and John and the rest of these men were fishermen?  We know because they had all the trappings associated with their trade.  Nothing says “Fishermen” like the nets, the boats, and the smell.  Their nets gave these men an identity and also defined their place and role in the larger society. Their occupation defined their expected contribution to the common welfare.   Although there is a sense of security in having everything in life defined, it is also a trap.  These men were fishermen, and it is all they would ever be.  Society expected no more and demanded nothing less.

Jesus launches a paradigm bomb into this closed and constraining system – “ ‘There is nothing to fear.  From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.’  They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.”  Jesus redefined what it means to be a fisherman.  He called them into a new identity, a deeper reality of who they were.  Our true identity is received not from listening to and following the world’s expectations.  Our true is identity is received as we follow Jesus.

Following Jesus into our true identity can seem daunting.  There is fear in leaving behind our false self.  This is the self that is identified by the surface, by the externals – money, position, family, occupation, material goods.  The world wants us to identify ourselves using its terms.  Jesus calls us to base our true identity on our relationship with Him as He leads us.  When asked “What do you do?” our natural tendency is to reply with what we do for a living.  Peter also would have said at first that he was a fisherman.  However, after walking with Jesus we see a profound change as he opens his last letter (2 Peter 1:1) “I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Nets and the World

Nets defined the way the fishermen interacted with the world.   The nets that they used needed to small enough for them to handle.  Fishing in the shallows suited their equipment and was safer and perhaps even more productive.    Jesus called them to push out into the deep water.  This is dangerous territory.  Storms happen in the deep.  Fish can swim around and under your nets in the deep.  You cannot control what happens in the deep.  This is precisely the place Jesus calls us to be – not in control.  If sin is defined as self in control then Jesus is calling us to a place of dependence.  It is a place of freedom where we can escape the entanglements of the world’s nets and walk in the freedom of Jesus.

However, most of the times we like to fish in the shallows – greed, power, ambition, comfort, outward religion that is socially acceptable.  These fish prosper in the shallows.  Jesus calls us to the deep water where love, generosity, and life from above are found because it is where Jesus lives.

It has been said that all oceans have shores and therefore we cannot escape living in the shallows.  The shallows serve a purpose in our lives but they are not where we are intended to live for eternity.  Perhaps there is an area where Jesus is calling you out to the deep waters, to push out in faith.  The only reason it makes sense is because the Master says so.  We may have good reasons to stay in the shallows.  If we do we will miss what Jesus has for us in the deep.  Let us cultivate the attitude of Peter who was willing to follow Jesus – even if it meant walking on the water

Prayer of Response:

Father, show me how I draw my identity and my sense of worth and identity from the nets of my life – my occupation, material possessions, my comforts.  Help me to renounce the false self that finds its identity in these shallow things.  Open my eyes, my ears, my heart to hear you invitation to push out in faith to the deep water and let the nets down at your command.  Help me to receive my true identity in the depths of your love.

The Psalmist is asking “Who will show us any good?”  This same question is still being asked by many today.  As we prayed through this Psalm, the Lord opened our hearts to see that David’s  question still captures the cry of our human hearts.

“Who will show us any good?”  Most of us, if we dare to admit it, would answer David’s question that the only good I am shown is the good I earn.  This becomes our modus operandi to control how we live.  Out of pride or fear we believe there will be no good unless we bring it.

This striving to be our own good manifests itself in many destructive and harmful, soul crushing ways.  In our families it is exhibited in performance.  In our workplace it is exhibited as career ambition.  In our personal lives as materialism and busyness.  In our churches as programs.

Is there a better way?  That is what the Psalmist is asking.  That is what we are searching for.

The way does not lie within us.  The better way is a person.  This person is Jesus…the way, the truth, and the life.  David affirms that the answer to his question about the source of goodness is not found in ourselves:

“Let the light of your face shine on us,  O Lord!”  Psalm 4:6b

David is speaking of an intimate relationship with Jesus.  One where we can look Him in the face and the light of His presence invades and overwhelms our darkness.  In this light we are revealed for who we truly are.   This is why we are afraid of the light.  We are afraid because there are things about our lives we do not like.  There are things that are broken.  Things that are soiled.  Things that cause us shame.

We come to this place where we know Jesus has what we need but we are hesitant to come.  This is where we must be still and hear His voice.  His voice inviting us to come.  His voice saying “You are My Beloved.”  His voice is saying “I have chosen you for Myself.”   We only hear this voice while we are in the light where all pretense is  exposed and stripped away.  It has to be this way if we are to respond authentically with our true self.    In this place of being exposed and vulnerable we live from our true self.  As we learn to live from our true self with Jesus, we can learn to live from our true self with those around us.  In the light of His presence we begin to grasp that our true self is made in the image of Christ.  We begin to understand that we are His, that He takes care of us, that we are secure.  This is good news that puts gladness in our hearts.

“You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.”  Psalm 4:6

Father, Who will show me any good?  You have shown me good in the light of your presence.  You have put joy and gladness in my heart.  Help me to live out this joy for your glory.  In Jesus name.

TJ, a burly middle aged man, lived a life of trouble with the law, women and alcohol. This unfortunate combination led to multiple arrests and time in and out of prison. About 4 years ago, TJ finished serving time at the penitentiary and was back at the beach. Soon after he got out of prison, Rob had a conversation with TJ which concluded with Rob praying for him, for a new life and new start.

We got to the parking lot just after TJ who comes over to us and asks, “Hey, are you the ones who go to that Asian American Church?”

“Why?”  we ask.

“Do you believe in miracles?” TJ asks us.

We were all ears.

“About 4 years ago,” he say, “ I was completely inebriated. My life was a mess. I was watching this show on miracles. I desparately needed a miracle. So I called the number listed on the show and an African American woman answered and prayed for me. This women prayed violent prayer over me. I have been clean ever since.”

“Wow!” we said with our jaws dropping.

“I’ve spent 30 years of my life drunk” said TJ. ” I’ve been in and out of jail, the penitentiary and Walla Walla. I would dead if it weren’t for this miracle. Now I have heart problems but hey this nothing compared to my old problems. It’s a miracle!”

Rob and I left TJ amazed at the power God to rescue a poor and broken soul. We remember the little prayers we uttered when we would see TJ at the beach every year. We think of the Holy Spirit leading this unknown African American woman to violently pray to deliver TJ from bondage. She may never know the outcome of her prayers.

We have prayed many prayers for people, families and nations. Often times we do not know the immediate outcome. But every once in awhile someone comes around out of the blue to tell us a story like TJ on power of prayer. TJ may not know or remember our part in praying for him but this doesn’t matter. For some reason he was lead to share his story with us. This is God’s gift to us and urges us to violent prayer.

Thank you, Jesus. We do believe in miracles.

“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses ?” Jeremiah 12:5

We have all heard the saying that “Everybody loves a Winner!” But as I read this passage from Jeremiah this morning I had to confess to my Heavenly Father that I am a plodding footman. Oh I long to be that strong horse, full of power, fleet of foot, leading the charge; but my ordinariness has a way of keeping me stuck in what feels like first gear, choking in the dust of the great horses that run ahead of me. I find myself wondering if there is a place in this world for the ordinary, plodding footman like me. In a culture that values success and winners where do servants and the suffering ones fit in? In a world that promises to satisfy our every need by drowning our every want where do the poor and oppressed belong? Does God remember those that the world would rather forget? Does God love the Nobodies?

If ever there was a horse it was Jesus. If ever there was someone in front, “large and in charge;” Jesus could be that person. But what do we see when we look at Jesus? He made himself a nobody that we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). He wasted His life in the backwaters of Galilee amongst the uneducated fisherman, Romans, Samarians and other “undesirables.” It was in this context of the ordinary life that a paralytic is brought to Jesus. I have always been struck by His words in Mark 2:5 when he first says to the paralytic “Son your sins are forgiven.” What was Jesus thinking? How would this help this man become a strong horse? He was less than a plodding footman. He was a cripple and should be left behind lest he slow down the rest of the horses. Yet Jesus saw through the physical issues to what His Heavenly Father was after in this paralytic before Him – Jesus saw a beloved son whose issue was not his broken body but his broken soul.

Healing a broken soul is a far more difficult thing than healing broken bodies. We live in our bodies in a state of what Oswald Chambers calls “unconscious unreality.” We are highly tuned to the needs of our bodies but largely ignorant of the true condition of our souls. We are a disconnected, disjointed, dislodged, and disorientated people and we sometimes only see this when our bodies give way. We bury our vague sense of nothingness in busyness, in pleasure in wealth, in comfort, and in the approval of others. These are not soul healing pursuits. It was the paralytic, a helpless nobody, whose soul was healed.

So how do I fight that sense of shame and inadequacy when I look at my life and see a plodding footman and not a race horse? How do I respond to the disappointments of life, of frustrated ambitions, and unreached goals? I think the paralytic offers me some insights. The first is to choose my helpers wisely. I am glad that our Father has placed around me those who can speak to me and carry my pallet when I am broken. And sometimes I get the privilege of carrying them as well. The second truth I learn from the paralytic is choose my Healer wisely. The paralytic and his friends chose Jesus. The third truth I learn from paralytic is perseverance and faith. The first word’s from Jesus may not have been what he was wanting, but they were far more powerful than he could ever have hoped for. Jesus speaks to me and leads me in ways not always make sense at first. If I am horse and try to run ahead of Him I will miss what He is after. I need to learn to watch with Jesus

Prayer of Response: Father, thank you that you love the plodding footman and the fleet horse. You love me, a nobody. You love nobodies so much that You became a nobody to bring all of us nobodies to Yourself. You lavish us with your love and You have spoken words of healing into my life. Help me to walk with you and do the same.

“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17

I came down with a bad cold on the December 22nd and sniveled, snuffled and wheezed my way through family gatherings over Christmas. I was sleeping on the couch so as not to disturb my wife at night and even stayed home from church on Christmas Eve. As my body recovers from this cold I feel wrung out, depleted; like an old wine skin in Matthew 9. I am looking forward to enjoying the next week off with my family but in the back of my mind there are deadlines looming at work and I am wondering how much I will really be able to relax.

Today is December 26, Boxing Day; a traditional holiday in much of the world, the origins of which are not clear. I always thought it was the day you were supposed to box up all of the Christmas decorations, sort of a Christmas buzz-kill developed by Ebenezer Scrooge designed to get people back to work. Whatever the true origins of Boxing Day are, it is good to pause on the day after Christmas and ask “What Next?”

What is next for me? Is my life just a series of deadlines, family gatherings, sickness, health, joys and disappointments flowing in seeming random order? If it is, then the preacher in Ecclesiastes was right and life is just “Smoke, nothing but smoke…There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke” (Eccl 1:2, The Message). But Jesus gives us something larger, something greater. Jesus tells us that He will pour “new wine into new wineskins;” new life into new creations.

The question to me is the same one that Jesus poses to the two blind men later on in Matthew 9 “Do you believe that I am able to do this.” Do I believe that Jesus can take me out of my modern, materialistic, smoke filled box I call my life and give me a new life filled with a new spirit? This is the power of Christmas lived out. God came down to us, into our messy world, into our messy, boxed-in, lives and brings “good news of a great joy…for today… there has been for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…” I want to respond to Jesus question the same way as those two blind men did: “’Yes, Lord.’ Then He touched their eyes saying, ‘Be it done to you according to your faith.’ And their eyes were opened”

O Father – Help us to pause to hear the voice of Jesus calling to us to a deeper faith, a deeper obedience, a deeper living. Help us to respond to his voice and to know His touch that would open our eyes, open the box of our lives, to live out the new creation You have prepared for us.

“When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  John 10:4 (NASB)

Have you ever been put out?  Are you part of the “out” crowd in school or work or even ministry?  Or perhaps you are “in” and life is good.  You partaking of the “American holy trinity of wealth, pleasure, and comfort¹” and it is well with your soul.  Whether we are in or out Jesus has good news for us.

John 10 is the familiar story of the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.  He may be good, but if you read verse 4 closely he does not sound like he is a kind shepherd.  Vines dictionary provides alternate translations for this verb “put forth” (ekballo) such as “DRIVE, EXPEL, LEAVE, PLUCK, PULL, PUT, SEND, TAKE, THRUST.”  The good shepherd will thrust out his sheep from the sheepfold.  How can this be good?  How can this be kind?

Jesus gives two reasons why it is both good and kind for Him to put us out of the sheep pen: 1) We will starve to death if we stay in, and 2) We will thrive if we follow the Shepherd out.

Many of us are content to stay in the pen where we have gates and fences to protect us.   Yet the sheep who refuses to follow the shepherd out into the world for fear of the wolves will starve to death.  The world is not a nice place and bad things happen out there.  It is better to stay in my little bubble where I am comfortable surrounded by people like me.  Yet this sense of comfort and protection is an illusion.  It is the sheep pen where the thieves break in.  They will steal and kill and destroy.  We will be left with nothing and come to nothing.

So what is the alternative that Jesus offers?  He calls us out of the sheep pen into the world, for it is here that we were created to live, not only to survive, but to thrive.  Jesus leads out His sheep to find pasture.  It is in this dangerous world outside the sheep pen, filled with wolves, that we thrive under the provision and protection of the Good Shepherd.  Jesus gives us a choice – Thieves or Wolves.  Your money or your life.  We must choose.  We are on our own against the thieves.  He promises to handle the wolves.

I find myself lingering in the pen for fear of crossing over the threshold to a life of faith and obedience to the Good Shepherd.  Yet Jesus reminds me that I am built for the open range, that though I am a weak sheep, and the dangers real, He will be with me.  To remain in the pen is to die a slow death.  The Shepherds’ voice will fade in the distance and I will no longer hear Him.

O Father, you lead me on and call me forth.  Grow my heart to trust in Thy Great Shepherd who leads me to green pastures and holds me in His hand.

1. Pastor Scott Dudley, First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue

“These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”  John 1:28 (NASB)

How often have I read over this verse and not given it a second thought?  But it is in the Bible for a reason.  We had been studying the story of the life of Jesus to see how He planted himself amongst the unconvinced and the marginalized of His day.  Somehow this simple verse suddenly gripped me in a new and surprising way: Jesus was baptized outside of Israel!   I had always pictured Jesus walking out of the Judean countryside to be baptized in the river; He was after all sent to the lost sheep of Israel.  But now the picture was all re-arranged in my mind.  It seemed that this detail was significant although I was not sure why.

As I meditated on this picture that thought came to me that by being baptized beyond Jordan Jesus was saying He was not just for Israel only, but for the entire World.  John the Baptist affirms this when he testifies of Jesus in verse 29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  Jesus had passed out of the boundaries of Israel and was being manifested to the entire world.  For thirty years He had been hidden in the backwater village of Nazareth; now He was proclaimed by a voice from Heaven as the Beloved Son of the Father.  This voice from Heaven declares to the Prince of the Power of the Air that in Jesus the Kingdom of God had come to overthrow the domain of darkness.

Thinking more about the story and the setting I asked “What is significant about this location -Bethany beyond Jordan?”  I looked at the map in the back of my bible and realized that this was the exact place that the Israelites crossed over the Jordan when they invaded the Promised Land centuries before.  The Land of Israel had been the incubator for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”  Jesus was proclaiming the blessing fulfilled; the Kingdom of God had come to bring the light of salvation to men sitting in darkness.  By His baptism beyond Jordan Jesus was proclaiming that this blessing was not just for Israel, but also for those beyond Israel, into all the Nations.

But this Kingdom would be unlike any kingdom ever known before because Jesus was a King unlike any other.  Jesus the King was:

• Unknown, yet Known by the Father
• Before all, yet servant of all
• Filled with the Holy Spirit, yet poured out for all
• The Son of God, yet the Lamb of God who died for the sons of men
• The Looked for One (Messiah), yet overlooked (Can anything good come from Nazareth?)

Jesus lived in the margins and chose the marginalized.  He recruited His followers in marginal places like Bethany beyond Jordan, and Galilee.   He did not pursue the wise, the learned, the wealthy; yet all were welcome to Him.  When Andrew began to follow Jesus the first question Andrew asked was “Rabbi, where are you staying?”  Jesus replies “Come and you will see.”   Jesus leads us to our margins, beyond Jordan, and holds out this invitation of intimacy to all who follow Him – “Come and you will see”

Our pastor was preaching a message titled “Born to Thrive” on Genesis 1, a passage I have read and meditated on many times; but this time it was different. This time it was personnel. God was hovering over my chaos, over my emptiness over my darkness. He was breathing His life into me. Why had I not seen this before? God is taking my unformed substance into his hands, filling the emptiness, and ordering the chaos. Over the next few days I pondered this picture of God hovering over and looking intently into the chaotic emptiness. He was not perplexed about what to do. He was looking into the unformed substance and seeing the story unfold. He was able to look into the darkness and see light and call it forth. What does the Father see when He hovers over my emptiness, I wondered? What is he calling forth from my unformed substance? And why is it so hard for me to hear it and see it?

Two weeks earlier I had read Psalm 139 where David exclaims “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” To be honest I had not been feeling to spectacularly formed of late. Did God’s hand slip when He was making me? Did he forget some key ingredients in me? If He would have asked I would have told Him to add a dash more of brains, get rid of the extra pounds, and keep my hairline from receding. Maybe throw in some Alpha male genes for worldly success and power while your at it. He didn’t seem to be listening to my advice.

That same morning I was also reading Luke 17 about the healing of the 10 lepers. These lepers were defined by their disease. There was no unformed substance about their lives – life was completely prescribed for them by the society they lived in. It was a virtual prison. Their means of livelihood and their families had all been ripped from them by their disease and a new life of uncleanness imposed upon them like an iron yoke. Most people, including the lepers themselves, saw only the hopeless chaos of an incurable disease and the emptiness of separation. When the lepers cried out to Jesus for mercy He spoke over them saying “Go show yourselves to the Priest.” As they walked they were healed.

The Father used these passages to show me that there is much in my life that He is still hovering over, still speaking to, still forming. Like the leper, I often think my life is set in stone, that there is little that can be changed. I am like a pinball bouncing back between two bumpers marked “Chaos” and “Emptiness.” But when Jesus shows up He changes everything. He reaches down and holds me in His loving hands. He draws me close and looks intently, He speaks truth, gives light and fills the emptiness.

Take time to reflect on His goodness in your life and let Him speak into the unformed substance.

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

“I become busy for two reasons; both are ignoble: I am busy because I am vain,…I am busy because I am lazy…”
From “The Contemplative Pastor” by Eugene Peterson

We may not ascribe our busyness to these ignoble roots as Eugene Peterson does but I find the dynamics of busyness in my life run true to Peterson’s assessment.
The vanity of busyness leads me to find worth in how jammed with activities I can make my schedule. If I am busy then I must be important. I draw my sense of well being from being busy. My busyness is all about meeting my needs. This is vanity.

I can also be busy because I have not taken the time to understand God’s calling on my life. This is the busyness of being lazy. It can be easier to make decisions in response to the pressures and demands of others rather than to make choices based on our understanding of God’s purpose for our lives. We must learn to do the hard work of saying no to anything but what comes from our Heavenly Father.

How do we develop this ability to move from busyness to action that flows from the workings of the Spirit of God on our lives? Peterson offers us practices of unbusyness:
1) Pray – Learn to listen and respond to the voice of God
2) Preach – Soak in God’s Word and give it voice – first into your own life – and then into the lives of others
3) Listen – Develop the habit of listening to God and to others.
4) Calendar – Manage your schedule and demands on your time by keeping a calendar. Include extended times with the Father

“Be still, and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)