Lymington & Friends

Just travelled back from a delightful few days in Lymington with 2 close friends. 'Friends.' It is a word that carries immense meaning to me. I think it is because in the outworking of things in my life these people have proven to be the family members I have needed desperately to get me through this up-and-down journey.
In fact during our time in Lymington while sipping lovely local ales and munching on delightful steak we had a conversation (a word that again comes into fuller meanining when used in conjunction with the word friends-I think anyway) about family and its importance. There were varied views amongst us-true friends can have vastly varied views and still be friends- but for me I had to drive home the beauty of friendship.

As I have stated before I am a born again Christian and I would unhesitatingly admit that one thing that has kept me on this 'path of faith' has been friendship. Again and again they have come near, offered help, spoken strength, and given new hope to this weary soul and brought clear vision of the sheer beauty of this life lived in pursuit of the almighty God. One of the clearest definitions of impossible is this: Christianity without Community! Deepest community is Christian friendship. I have lived life on three separate continents now and one of the underlying foundations that has brought certainty to my existence is friendship.

In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis writes of Phileo which is the Greek word for love shared between friends. He says it is the purest because it is a love that does not need the other to live up to some unfair expectations (appearance, ability, beauty etc.). He notes that phileo is shared most strongly (and its strength is great) when a common goal or pursuit is shared by 'friends.' Well, it is marvelously clear then that friends sharing a common knowledge of and love for the great saviour Jesus will know most fully this phileo love.
One of the gospel writers, Mark, most clearly describes true christian friendship in the second chapter of the telling of Jesus' life on earth. The story is of four friends ripping off their nails and baring their knuckles in order to tear away the roof of a house TO BRING THEIR FRIEND TO JESUS! (Read it sometime)
This is friendship: living life to bring your friends closer to the one in whom they can most completely and fully live life-- Jesus.

God in History

"Most of us have a difficult time understanding history with God as the major and definitive presence. We have grown up getting our sense of history from so-called historians, scholars, and journalists for whom God is not germane or present in what they study and write. We are thoroughly trained by our schools, daily papers, and telecasts to read history solely in terms of politics and economics, human interest and environmental conditions, military operations and diplomatic intrigue. If we have a mind for it, we can go ahead and fit God in somewhere or other. But the biblical writers do it the other way around; they fit us into the history in which God is the primary reality."- Eugene Peterson

Been reading a brilliant book by Eugene Peterson over the past weeks reassuring myself of God's wonderful work in this world (most perfectly displayed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ). One of the things most 'reassuring' about Peterson's marvelous insight is the reminder he gives that God is fully at work in our every-day run of the mill lives. God does not need to work distinct from our reality He loves to be fully alive in us as we do whatever we do for most of the day.

The powerful words I have quoted above are a poignant challenge to not only secular society, but to Christians who are being won over by the views of said secular society.

Here is the call folks: If we are immersed in the information overload offered by those who will not include God (and I assure you He is not awaiting an invitation He is everywhere present) we will lose sight of God for ourselves.

Peterson calls believers to return the notion of sabbath, to rest in awe and wonder at the person of God and His work in creation. We must remove ourselves from 'history' sometimes and look fully and humbly at all that God is and has done. When we do not do this, when we do not stop and wonder, we will lose our connection to God, we will forget Him and be defined by secularity.

His word, silent meditation, and getting away to a place where we are confronted by the naked beauty of God's creation shouting forth the glory of God are all means of seeing God again, feeling Him, loving Him, dreaming Him, knowing Him and above all worshiping Him.

Please let us not be defined by those who for now have removed God from 'history' because at the end of this section of 'history' they too will bow the knee and confess that "Jesus is King!"

Genesis

Life seems to be all about beginnings. This is a beginning for me- the beginning of presenting my thoughts to a world that really may not want to know. This seems to be a risk that very few fear today. It may be that they think a lot of their musings, a kind of 'Of course the world wants to know' attitude. There are thoughts that count, thoughts that really count and then there are the thoughts of the one who really counts.
These are the thoughts of the one who thought before the word thought came into existence. In fact it was the speaking out of His thoughts that was Genesis- The Beginning. This is the one who possesses being within His very essence, unlike all of us who throw our thoughts on to this internet thingy who are all created, all with our own beginnings and ends while Him who lives without a Genesis of His own will have no end.
Anyway, there has been another beginning for me and this one of the most glorious ones I could ever be a part of. The beginning of fatherhood. Unto me a son was born some 6 Weeks ago- Malachi Jude a little 'Warrior prophet.'
This is something that I want to blog on often. For now the brith itself...
This may be one of the only remaining truly sublime experiences left to us as mankind. There are a lot of false ones, those presented by our modern consumeristic world, but they all fall short of this one that stands with purity in a category known as miraculous.
What a wonderful thing, a range of emotions that virtually leave you shattered, without anything 'left in the tank' so to speak. The joy, sorrow, pain, anger, frustration, wonder, excitement, love, concern, desire, expectation, and so much more. There is a thorough immersing in the event but also a radical disconnect as you do not get to be fully involved until that moment that the little one appears. Fragility, life, weakness, need, beauty, person appears and the heart is extended so to speak it gives birth itself to a whole new realm of love, an overpowering one as you and your beloved have a whole new avenue of expression as a couple extended towards this life that is from you. What a truly marvelous Genesis. Beginnings, rooted in Him who has no beginning. What a joy to participate and live life within His glorious reality and have beginnings of our own submitted to His glory and given by His startling grace!