tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31093836130793577172024-02-20T10:27:30.109-08:00Grace in All ThingsEllis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-28792173133367608112017-04-19T05:21:00.001-07:002017-04-19T05:25:54.935-07:00M'bird Preview 2A sermon by M'birder RJ Heimen was the genesis for this talk. RJ said that one of his parishioners suggested that divorce was a good thing, because the second marriage can be so much better given what you learn from the first. This set RJ to thinking about the changes in his marriage, and so it did for M'bird devotees Debbie and Ellis Brazeal.<br />
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This is their 30th wedding anniversary, and they wouldn't be together (and in Ellis' case, maybe even alive} but for the Law/Grace theology of Luther and M'bird. During their first marriage, Debbie and Ellis believed in a marriage based upon a "cause-and-effect" universe and a "self-created identity," as so poignantly described by David Browder in his M'bird Devotiinal of April 16.<br />
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Ellis was certain that, if he worked hard and led his family in all thngs Southern Baptist, he would have a good, even great marriage. But, as Browder explains, life doesn't work that way. Ellis' "chasing after the wind" left him in a year-long state of suicidal depression.<br />
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Debbie believed that, if she worked hard to make Ellis and others happy, then all would go well. Her self-created identity didn't work any better than Ellis'. Debbie wished that Ellis would die or that God "would take her home." <br />
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Then God, the rescuer and redeemer, stepped in. The "One whose property is always to have mercy" resurrected two dead and lifeless people and thereby their marriage.<br />
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Ellis learned that grace, not law, was the basis for all relationships.<br />
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Ellis learned that he couldn't use the law (it's hard for a lawyer to be a Christian) to bring about the type of marriage that he wanted. In fact, per St. Paul, the law creates rebellion rather than love.<br />
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Debbie learned that her identity was as a beloved child of God, an identity which she already possessed an didn't have to create.<br />
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This talk will lead us through Debbie and Ellis' three marriages. As they told M'bird: "if our talk gives hope to just one other couple, it will have been worth it. If our talk allows one person to forgive another person for 'being who they are,' it will have been worth it."<br />
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Their son-in-law is a huge Wes Anderson fan, and one of his favorite movies is "Rushmore." There's a song by The Who which Wes uses in the film to reflect the breath-taking forgiveness and reconciliation wrought by the law/grace experiences of the characters.<br />
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Enjoy: https://vimeo.com/204160661<br />
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<br />Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-22483700282378801412017-04-18T05:48:00.001-07:002017-04-18T05:48:04.094-07:00Mockingbird breakout previewNietzsche said that he would only believe in a "God who dances."<div>
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As Mockingbird devotees, and survivors of three marriages, Debbie and I have come to believe in a dancing god. Yet, this view of God only came after years, many years, in which we didn't.</div>
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A romantic courtship, with breathless excitement and anticipation of an American-dream marriage, quickly turned into a marriage of unmet expectations from both sides. Indeed, each of us hurt the other (albeit unintentionally) in the very fashion that would cause the most pain. We unknowingly tread upon the past hurts and expectations that each of us brought into the marriage.</div>
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Our marriage devolved into separate lives with no hope of reconciliation--none. We certainly didn't believe in a dancing God--in one who could bring dance into our marriage. We believed in a God who rewarded effort and wise decisions. We thought we had married the wrong person. In fact, we each wished that the other was dead or that we were dead.</div>
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But then, the dancing God, the M'bird God, stepped in. By God's limitless grace, we both began learning of a God who knew the depths of our dark hearts--the true extent of our sinful flaws, but loved us nonetheless with His limitless, eternal love.</div>
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Over the years, as we became more convinced of God's unfathomable, eternal love for us, we began to love each other.</div>
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My favorite parable is the kingdom one concerning the "treasure in the field." Virtually always, the "treasure in the field" is construed as the Kingdom of God. Yet, when you review the parables surrounding it (the lost coin, the lost sheep), it becomes abundantly clear (as I first learned from CI Scofield) that we are the "treasure in the field" that Christ sold everything (gave His life) to purchase. The character of a kingdom is determined by the character of the king.</div>
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This King is the savior and redeemer of individuals, of marriages, and of all creation. As Sally Loyd Jones writes in "Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing:"</div>
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"God made everything in his world and in his universe and in his children's hearts to center around him--in a wonderful Dance of Joy! It's the dance you were born for."</div>
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-63056501134410500832017-03-18T06:30:00.002-07:002017-03-18T11:32:10.580-07:00"Closer to the Heart"--Why I love "Trailer Park Boys" (and Tomas Halik)"Trailer Park Boys" has been around for ten seasons. (Please note that TPB is NSFW--no sex or nudity, but the language might even be worse than mine.) Yet, I just learned about it from my sons. My son James told me that his favorite episode is "Closer to the Heart" (named after the Rush song of the same name), and it's mine as well. For someone who grew up in the rock era of the 70s and 80s and attended many concerts, I can understand why the Rush concert is so important to one of the main characters--Bubbles. Having graduated high school in 1979, this is a song that brings memories of that era of my life rushing back. <br />
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While high school brought many hurts (mostly in the area of love--I hardly had any dates), it also brought moments of wonderful camaraderie. When I finally got a date to the Homecoming Dance (I was SGA president and was largely responsible for the dance), she then dumped me for her older sister's boyfriend. Her older sister and I were both left out in the cold. It took me years to get over this.<br />
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The camaraderie was as special as that found in Stephen King's works. My favorite memories from high school revolve around our church league softball team--only, it wasn't composed of many church-go'ers. I've never been much of a fan of church go'ers, or maybe more correctly, they've never been very enamored with me! We were kind of like the Bad News Bears. We even had one player who, like the character played by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_McConaughey">Matthew McConaughey</a> in "Dazed and Confused," had already graduated high school. We would stop by his apartment after practice for a Busch beer and to watch baseball on the TV. We took our softball seriously and like the Bad News Bears were ultimately pretty successful.<br />
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Like my high school experience of camaraderie, that found between the three main characters of TPB is both endearing and unlikely and, therefore, that much more endearing. The three protagonists (Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trailer_Park_Boys,_April_2009.jpg">File:Trailer_Park_Boys,_April_2009.jpg</a>) couldn't be any more different, but they love each other--they have each other's back--no matter how idiotic the other's conduct.<br />
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They were drawn together, because they all grew up in the trailer park--not because they had anything else in common. Julian is sort of the swashbuckling, good-looking one. He constantly, literally in every scene, is holding a cocktail (a rum and coke) yet he's never drunk. It's Julian's way of appearing cool. Julian is also the one who drives a sports car, although each one that he drives is antiquated--just plain old.<br />
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Bubbles loves cats, really loves cats. (I think he's called Bubbles, because his glasses are so thick. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Smith,_Bubbles,_April_2009.jpg">File:Mike_Smith,_Bubbles,_April_2009.jpg</a>)<br />
One of my favorite episodes involves Bubbles starting a cat daycare. Bubbles creates a merry-go round and other rides for the kitties. Over the years, I've gone from hating cats to loving cats. So, I love Bubbles' love for the cats.<br />
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Ricky is the one who is probably most like me. He's always willing to start a fight, or to get in the face of someone. Ricky is always trying to grow a new marijuana crop or otherwise come up with a way to sell drugs and make money--whether its selling drugs to the prison guards or selling at the Rush show. However, importantly for his character, the most potent drug that he ever sells is hashish and that's just a one-time sale. You are left with the idea that Ricky wouldn't sell anything harder, because he does care for people.<br />
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Each's loves and personalities is brought to the fore in my favorite episode "Closer to the Heart"--named after the Rush song of the same name.<br />
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Let's start with the introductory scene and song to set the stage. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj-ns6qn-DSAhXLRSYKHWLZDF8QtwIIPjAF&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1bhC0cbmre4&usg=AFQjCNGRHupzngffYB2_KEz_BFDc1cxp3Q&sig2=bG7sSrgPvU9-iZ3S_mdPNA">Trailer Park Boys Theme and Opening Credits - YouTube</a><br />
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How could anyone create a nostalgic mood concerning a trailer park? Yet, the creators of TPB nailed it--at least for me.<br />
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In this episode, Bubble's love of cats is almost his undoing. Rush is coming to town, and Bubbles wants to buy a ticket. But his sick cat takes precedence, so he has Ricky PROMISE to buy him a ticket. Ricky's confrontation personality is always creating problems. In this episode, his nature creates a series of events which leaves Bubbles without a ticket.<br />
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Yet, given their love for Bubbles, Ricky and Julian go to great lengths to get Bubbles into the Rush concert. As it turns out, their efforts are recognized by the lead guitarist (Alex Lifeson) who lets Bubbles act as his guitar tech during the show, because he recognizes the lengths to which Ricky and Julian went to get Bubbles into the show.<br />
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The episode ends with Bubbles and Alex Lifeson playing together: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiRvoDvy-DSAhUKgiYKHVNaC74QtwIIIzAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0X_wUflADA8&usg=AFQjCNHSxJv8gplgN58sQIlS5NzxLfAFww&sig2=VGYrAZ81HRrG476jbm8YsA">Greatest Trailer Park Boys moment - YouTube</a><br />
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So, this is where Tomas Halik comes in. Halik says that:<br />
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"I can't help thinking that God doesn't particularly care whether we believe in him or not. What really does matter to him, however, is whether we love him. Or more precisely: he doesn't care about our faith in the sense that the term is often used, namely that to 'believe in God' is to be convinced of God's existence."<br />
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"To assert that Christianity is not primarily about faith in God but about 'love'--love of God (and one's neighbor)--might come as a surprise. . . One doesn't become a Christian be believing that 'God is' but by believing that 'God is love.'"<br />
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Halik points out that Augustine and medieval theology asserted that "when people truly love anything, they are ipso facto already on the path to God, even when they don't realize it." <br />
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Halik says that "only in the experience of love do we find the space to glimpse the meaning of the word 'God.'" "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4:8.<br />
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If Halik is right, then Julian, Ricky and Bubbles are on the path to God, whether they know it or not!<br />
Fortunately, over the last 20 years, I've shed many of my dogmatic views about Christianity and come to love my neighbor so much more. God had to wrestle those dogmatic views out of me. He replaced it with a sense of wonder at and about the love that God has for His created beings and order. This newfound love 'in God' has given me a greater love for my fellow man. Halik says that, in loving our neighbor, we love God. Amen to that!Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-47374845161721619582017-03-18T06:08:00.001-07:002017-03-18T06:08:08.697-07:00Lenten Discipline versus "It is Finished"--which leads to sanctification?<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The only time I've heard of a true Lenten discipline was when a friend of mine read Forde's "On Being a Theologian of the Cross" for Lent. He had started it two previous times but couldn't finish it, because of its devastating diagnosis of the human condition. He found that the Good News is the Best News Ever once we are confronted with and apprehend the libidinal, recidivistic nature in all of us. Then the proclamation from the Cross of "It is finished" rings like the bells on our wedding day with the hope of everlasting love.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Forde's book dealt with Luther's Heidelberg Disputation of 1518 which is simply daunting, yet breathtaking. It is both the greatest insult to human freedom, to our thought that we can change, to our desire to control our lives to make them good; and the Best News Ever--Christ has done it all--there is nothing left to be done. According to Luther, sanctification comes when we experience thankfulness for the love that God has bestowed upon us while we were yet and are yet a sinner. Luther said that we were and will be unto our death "simul justus y pecator"--simultaneously "justified" and "sinner." As we recognize again and again that this is true, we actually become more and more thankful to God for his acceptance of us in our sinful condition. This leads to sanctification over time--to an ever deepening understanding of our own fallenness which leads to empathy and love for others who are "sinners like us" (remember the Chase/Akroyd flick). Indeed, we are all sinners--we are all together in this "thing called life." (Prince)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">At a recent Mockingbird Conference, a former seminary student of Paul Zahl's introduced him by telling a story about the first day in a class that Zahl was teaching. The class was entitled "Spiritual Formation 101," so it was filled with students eager to learn how to become more spiritual, how to become more holy, how to become closer to God, and (whether they acknowledged it or not) they were seeking favor with God.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Zahl's student said that Zahl started the class by saying: "It is finished." You would have thought that Zahl had uttered an expletive-laced diatribe, the response from the students was one of such offense. They were offended, because it is hard for human ambition to die--particularly for those who think they are sacrificing to do "God's will." Needless to say, I wish I had been there to see it. Like those students, Zahl and Luther had the same effect on me. Like the students, Forde's book had the same effect on my friend who had to force himself to read Forde's book as a Lenten discipline.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">But my friend and I both agree that this theology saved our lives. In fact, at the Mockingbird Conference, person after person told stories of how this theology changed their lives.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">After Paul spoke Friday nite, a woman sitting by herself got up during the Q&A and asked: "I've been in church all my life, why have I never heard this before?" Debbie and I went to dinner with her afterwards. Her husband had passed away this past summer, and she was devastated and didn't know where to turn. She found Mockingbird online, and it gave her a way forward. She drove several hours to be at the conference. It gave us such joy to hear her story--how the pure, unadulterated Gospel had given her a reason and the sustenance to live.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">We then had lunch with a couple of sisters in their early to mid-20s from Houston. We </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">happened to have a couple of extra seats at our table for lunch, and the restaurant was packed. The older sister teaches at UofH, and she had found Mockingbird online. So, she and her younger sister had driven the four hours from Houston for the conference.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">During Sarah Condon's talk, she talked of coming very closing to quitting seminary when she became frustrated with the primary focus being that of social justice and social programs, as opposed to Christ. Then a friend suggested she attend the Mockingbird conference. She did and stayed in seminary and now is an Episcopal priest. Now, because of this message, she's one of the best young preachers in the country (maybe one of the best regardless of age).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Finally, the gentleman who started holding a Mockingbird conference in Tyler, Texas, told a similar story of suffering a setback in his life, not knowing where to turn, and then finding Mockingbird.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The founder of Mockingbird, David Zahl, chose this title for his ministry, because a Mockingbird sings the same song over and over and over again. That's the job of Christians--to tell the "old, old story of Jesus and His love" over and over and over again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">This is the power to save. This is the power to sanctify. This Best News Ever has saved people for millennia--it certainly saved me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">One final note. When Paul Zahl spoke, he said that his 40 years of parrish ministry had taught him that everyone has some deep down hurt, some deep down issue which, if unremedied, can plague us for our entire lives. He queried: "What's the greatest movie ever?" Matt Magill responded: "Citizen Kane." That movie illustrates what Zahl is saying. Paul went on to say something to the effect that he has heartburn towards God, because so many, many people go through life with their issue unremedied. A woman queried: "What happens when you find your issue?" Zahl: "Just finding it is about 75% of the work. It will resolve itself thereafter."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I found my deep down issue in the early 2000s. God, thru Paul Zahl's teaching and preaching, brought me face-to-face with my issue. Then, through PZ's preaching and teaching, God gave me great liberty from this issue. Not that I will ever be truly free from it, but I'm so much better.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">So, what gives me heartburn about God is that, like the lady from Houston, I wonder why this message of God's radical grace to inveterate sinners is so seldom preached. It's this message which brings liberty and life. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I'll close with this. From the Cross, Christ said: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Christ was forgiving those who hoisted him up on the Cross. He was forgiving the religious leaders, the political leaders, and the crowd--the crowd filled with people like me and you--who chose to kill Jesus over Barabas. My hope for my readers is that this sounds like the Best News Ever and that you get to hear it more and more and more. And that this will dredge up whatever deep down issue has been plaguing you and give you abundant life.</span></span></div>
Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-53336474909204692122016-09-23T07:08:00.000-07:002016-09-23T07:08:24.032-07:00Zero and Agatha, PZ, Scofield, the Kingdom, and DebbieA kingdom is defined by the character of the King. The King's disposition towards his subjects reflects the character of the King. So, to understand the Kingdom of God (one of Jesus' favorite topics), we have to understand the character of the King.<br />
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C.I. Scofield says that, in the "treasure in the field" parable, we (not God) are the treasure. <br />
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Paul Zahl says that romantic love most clearly reflects the love that God has for us.<br />
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God told Hosea to marry Gomer to demonstrate God's love for His people.<br />
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Jesus is often spoken of as the Bridgegroom of His people.<br />
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For years, I thought Zahl, God and Jesus were a little crazy in likening our relationship to God to the romantic love of a man and a woman. Then, I came across Scofield's interpretation of the "treasure in the field" which, in conjunction with The Grand Budapest Hotel, has given me a much greater understanding of God's love for us.<br />
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For the past couple of years, I've told my wife that I'm shocked that I've been faithful to her for so many years. It sounds weird to say this (shouldn't my being a Christian be sufficient to keep me on the straight and narrow), but I'm shocked that I haven't wanted to have an affair, given that I struggled with lust for many years. In fact, in around 2002, one of my law partners came to me and said: "Ellis, what's happened to you? You were the most lustful person that I knew, but now you're not."<br />
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In preparing a Sunday School lesson, it finally hit me that it wasn't duty or morality that had kept me from having an affair--that had freed me from lust--it was that my lust had been replaced by the love of Christ. I was and am so enamored by His love for me that I don't have to seek that love from other women or even from my wife.<br />
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The beauty and magnitude of Christ's love has allowed me to put my love for my wife in its proper place. I'm no longer grasping so for her love that I'm strangling that love--think of a child loving a kitten to death--hugging it so much that it's life breath is squeezed out.<br />
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Christ's love has stolen my heart. How did this happen? <br />
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Christ first began working on me when I found out within a six month period that: 1)my wife wanted to divorce me; 2)my best client was possibly a crook; and 3)I had an auto-immune liver disease which would necessitate a liver transplant in about 10 years. This all happened around 13-14 years ago. Thankfully, I had been attending Paul Zahl's bible study where I was hearing that: 1)grace, not the law, is the only thing that can change our hearts; 2)that I brought nothing to God but my sin; 3)that God's love was made manifest in weakness, not strength. I had never heard these truths before. They were such a "breath of fresh air," and I was at such a low spot, that my heart became captivated by this God.<br />
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Yet, I still didn't get the bridegroom idea. Frankly, it sounds weird when applied to a man's relationship to Christ. <br />
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Then, along came Scofield's interpretation of the "treasure in the field" parable and the love of Agatha and Zero in The Grand Budapest Hotel.<br />
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The Kingdom of God is like: "a man who found a treasure in a field and sold everything he had to buy the field and therefore obtain the treasure."<br />
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I had always thought that this parable was likening the Kingdom of God to a treasure, but the parable doesn't say that. It says that the Kingdom of God is like a man who sells everything to buy the field, because that man wants the treasure. The parable is telling us the character of the man who is running the Kingdom of God--the character of the man who is the King. Who sold everything? Jesus. Would we ever really sell everything to obtain the Kingdom? No, but Jesus sold everything (on the Cross) to obtain us. If Jesus is the man in the parable, then Jesus views us as His treasure. If that's true, then we live in a kingdom where our King views His subjects as His treasures. <br />
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This is a love that goes beyond parental love. This is a love reflected by the quickening of our hearts by romantic love. Cue The Grand Budapest Hotel and the love of Zero and Agatha.<br />
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The love of Zero and Agatha is young love at its best--fresh, new, exhilarating and to its observers--intoxicating. Zero is the lobby boy at The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Agatha is a baker at Mendl's where they create the most beautiful and wonderful sweets--think Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory--except even better.<br />
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Zero and Agatha fall in love--they are all of 16 or 17. They marry, then the movie goes silent on their relationship. In fact, their love and relationship is like a "treasure hidden in a field." It's not the main relationship or even the main story of the movie. The main relationship and story is between Zero and his boss--the head concierge--Mr. Gustave H. So, the love relationship is even that more compelling, because it has to be teased out from short vignettes amongst the overall prevailing story.<br />
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At some point, we learn that Agatha has died in child birth. At the end of the movie, we learn that Zero has sold everything for love.<br />
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When Zero was a lobby boy, he had a tiny room in the hotel where he stayed--where he and Agatha stayed. We learn that Mr. Gustave H inherits many amazing properties from one of the hotel's longtime customers and that, when Mr. Gustave H dies, he leaves all of these properties to Zero. Zero, as a young man, becomes the wealthiest man in the country!<br />
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Then, the fascists take over--fascist communists. They nationalize all of Zero's properties, but they allow him to keep one. Which one does he keep? The least of the properties in terms of its value--the Grand Budapest Hotel which had become run down and lost its splendor.<br />
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Yet, Zero keeps the Grand Budapest Hotel, because it is a treasure to him. We learn why.<br />
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When Zero in his elder years continues to visit the hotel, he always stays in the tiny room that he had when he was a lobby boy--the tiny room which he and Agatha shared. Zero gave everything (sold everything) but kept the rundown hotel (the field with the treasure)--the treasure being his love for Agatha who was long since dead--dead for many a year but still captivating Zero.<br />
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This love was so beautiful that it broke my heart. It was so beautiful because Agatha and Zero were each other's treasures--just as we are God's treasures--just as my wife, Debbie, is now my treasure.<br />
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But Debbie is only my treasure, because I am Christ's treasure!Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-11673945986569253612016-05-23T05:44:00.000-07:002016-05-23T05:44:54.553-07:00My Many MarriagesPaul Zahl, in Grace in Practice, says that our marriages are begun with a spark of grace. <br />
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"Wow, that beautiful girl loves me."--Ellis<br />
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"He bought me a white linen Ralph Lauren dress. He really cares about me."--Debbie<br />
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Then, Zahl points out that the law comes creeping in. We all know that "law is death"--it almost killed our marriage.<br />
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For the first ten to twelve years of our marriage, I tried to establish marital and familial relations which were consistent with my upbringing and my personality. Debbie did the same. (Of course, we can also reject what our parents had, but then we still bring the law into our marriage trying to do the opposite of what our parents did.) In other words, our view of what a marriage and family should be like became instruments of judgment over against our spouse. This almost resulted in a divorce.<br />
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Then, as I've written before, I began attending PZ's Bible Study and began learning that God, rather than judging us, was graciously loving us. This knowledge of God's demeanor towards me allowed me to begin displaying (in some part) this same demeanor towards Debbie.<br />
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Thankfully, Debbie found a wonderful Bible Study at Covenant Presbyterian. Debbie wanted to fix our marriage and family. Like me, instead of finding a Bible Study that focused on how to fix yourself and/or your family, she found one in which the grace of God towards His beloved children was taught.<br />
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Debbie and I learned to forgive each other. We began to see each other, albeit only dimly, as God saw us. This brought about a metamorphosis in our marriage. Our first marriage died, and a second one was born.<br />
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During our second marriage, we had learned to forgive each other for our weaknesses. Debbie forgave me for my temper, and I forgave her what I perceived to be stubbornness--but which was actually Debbie protecting her heart.<br />
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As the years have rolled by, God has brought further changes in our marriage.<br />
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First, we began to appreciate one another for our strengths--appreciation which we had when we married but which had been subjugated by recrimination over the years for all the things we do wrong. Debbie's empathetic nature gave her the ability to minister to my mother--who can be off-putting. Debbie's tireless care towards my mother changed my mother and dramatically improved my relationship with my mother.<br />
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Second, we began to understand that you don't get certain strengths without the concomitant weakness. Since Debbie was so empathetic, she was disorganized. Her focus was on people, so she was not good at setting and accomplishing tasks. On the other hand, I am task-oriented, which means that tasks come before people. We realized that her strengths offset my weaknesses and vice-a-versa. We realized that the marriage is to be a partnership--a symbiotic relationship--that, as written in Genesis, we were to be One.<br />
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Third, when reading Zahl again recently, I realized that the "leave and cleave" language in Genesis refers not just to putting our new family first (in some sense) but that it also means that one's marriage should be, and has to be, different from the one that my parents had and from the one that Debbie's parents had. Our marriage is to be a new entity--formed by the meshing of my strengths and weaknesses with Debbie's strengths and weaknesses. In other words, we are not to "do" our marriage like our parents "did" theirs--no matter how good our parents' marriages were.<br />
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Where will our marriage be in another five years--if God lets me live that long, I can't wait to see.<br />
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<br />Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-6917280866208626112016-03-12T08:37:00.004-08:002016-03-12T08:37:45.558-08:00Fifty-five (55) and Counting...Grace in DeathI was checking out at the doctor's last week, and they give you a printout with your prescriptions and it has your name, address, and there it was: 55 (my age). How did it get to be 55?<br />
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What's it like being 55? Well, I've been thinking about death a lot. The last time that I spent this much time thinking about death, I was 36 and in a state of deep depression. I was considering taking my life. Then, I heard about a Jesus that I had never heard about...the Savior of sinners--deep-down irrepressible sinners...sinners who would be sinners until they died. A god who would love His children even if they never changed!!! It saved my life.<br />
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Now, at 55, my thoughts of death aren't depressing, but they do make me ponder about the God that I began learning about in January, 1998.<br />
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I've heard a couple of sermons lately that deal with death. The first was by Bishop Sloan at the Advent on Ash Wednesday. This man is full of grace. From what I can tell, he is more liberal than the Advent. Yet, he appreciates and supports the proclamation of the Gospel at the Advent. The Bishop is a true Christian--he is not put off by others with different views. Instead, he supports those that proclaim Christ's grace to mankind. He doesn't group people.<br />
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At the end of his sermon, when he was talking about man returning to dust, he proclaimed: "We are returning to that from whence we came--love."<br />
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The second sermon was given at the funeral of a friend dating back to 5th grade. The pastor said that, when he was talking with David about the state of his cancer, David said: "When I was first diagnosed, I thought I was on a path to recovery." Three weeks before his death, David learned that his "path wasn't headed where he thought." His cancer had taken a turn for the worse. "I won't recover, but I wouldn't change anything--I have Jesus." <br />
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As the pastor continued, he read verses from the Scripture dealing with our afterlives. He kept reading verses which said that "all" would be saved. After the funeral, I asked him if he believed in "universal redemption." What? "The salvation of all by virtue of Christ's death on the Cross." I replied. No, he doesn't believe in that, but he had not considered it before. I told him that I had only come across this idea about 3 years ago.<br />
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So, at age 55, I take heart that, when a friend is facing death, he says that he wouldn't change anything. He, like Bishop Sloan, understood that he was going back to pure love. <br />
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At age 55, I take heart that Jesus came to redeem everyone and, if that's Jesus purpose, then it denigrates Christ when we claim that only those with faith will be saved.<br />
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At age 55, it hurts me when I hear a person thanking Christ for saving him and others with faith. It's that group thing--our group is okay, our group is preferred, and yours is not.<br />
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Thank goodness that God knows nothing of groups---Jesus came for both the Jews and the Gentiles. In other words, Jesus came for the believers and unbelievers. God wouldn't have it any other way--after all, He is love, and we are day by day getting closer to our reunion with that love.<br />
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Thank goodness that my thoughts of death are no longer about suicide but about reunion with our one, true Father.<br />
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Thank goodness for those who, wittingly or unwittingly, proclaim these truths, truths which allow us to enjoy each day of our lives--whether in health or illness, whether in riches or poverty--and which give us the basis for proclaiming God's love to all.<br />
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-611246782028813282016-02-21T06:18:00.002-08:002016-02-21T06:18:31.529-08:00A "Hamilton" Weekend--Anger at God turns to HopeA dear friend turned me on to Hamilton a couple of months ago. "Ellis, my entire family is listening to and loving this play--it's so beautiful."<br />
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After I finally succumbed to paying monthly for iTunes Music, I began listening. Each time I listen, I learn more about the Founding Fathers (not just Hamilton), how our country was established, am amazed by the genius of the author, and finally I became mad at God.<br />
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I became mad at God, because Hamilton cheats on his wife, loses his eldest son (who seems to be a "spitting image of him") to a duel, and finally loses his own life in a duel. If you believe in "free will," you can be mad at Hamilton. As one who believes like Luther (as confirmed by social scientist Jonathan Haidt) that we all have deep down libidinal urges that frame our actions, I lay all of this at the feet of God.<br />
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God made us the way that we are. You can't get around this fact. Sure, some folks try to lay the blame with we humans--the "fall in the Garden"--but it's difficult to be an observer of humanity and not question whether we actually have "free will."<br />
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How many times have you vowed to make changes in your life? to lose weight, to love your wife better, to spend more time with your children, to spend more time with your elderly parents, to love the sibling that you has hurt you, to banish anger from your life, to do more for your neighbors. Well, how's it going?<br />
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And for men, how's it coming with porn? Enough said.<br />
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So, then God is responsible for the sad state of affairs of this world. For what it's worth, if God is not in control, then that means we are (and the Devil) and that's even more scary.<br />
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As I was brushing my teeth yesterday, and contemplating my being mad at God, two things hit me:<br />
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1. If God allows (or causes) the world to be in such a mess (and it always has been), and if God is just, then God must be eternally loving to everyone that ever lived. Given how difficult life is on earth, the only way for God to make it right is to save everyone for all of eternity. That is--if God is just. If God isn't just, well, we're all screwed.<br />
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2. God raised Jesus from the dead. This seems to actually have happened. First, there were over 500 witnesses, many of whom were still alive when the Gospels were written. Second, this miracle is the only way to explain the tremendous growth of Christianity. Third, the Apostles all died martyr's deaths. Sure, we might give our lives for a good person, for a good reason--but for all of these men to give their lives based upon a lie (that is, if the resurrection didn't happen)--so, I take it that the resurrection happened.<br />
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If God actually raised Jesus from the dead, and if God is a just god (a god whose love trumps our sin and the Devil), then God will also raise us. God will bring us to be with Him eternally!!!<br />
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This is the hope that I have in the God who created a fallen world inhabited by fallen humans. This is the God who had an answer all along for death, sin, and the Devil.<br />
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This is a message that I can share with a friend who is dying. This is a message that allows me to persevere in this world.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-76886081706452863302016-01-10T12:31:00.001-08:002016-01-12T06:31:01.580-08:00Christ--the Stumbling Block--Unequivocal Love to the Immeasurably Unlovely<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: 3pt;">2 2 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10pt;"><b>For Jews demand signs </b>and <b>Greeks seek wisdom</b>, </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: 3pt;">2 3 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10pt;"><b>but we preach Christ crucified</b>, a <b>stumbling block</b> to Jews and <b>folly</b> to Gentiles, </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: 3pt;">24</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10pt;">but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: 3pt;">25</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10pt;">For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">"The man stands in front of [Pilate] with his hands tied behind his back. You can see that He has been roughed up a little. His upper lip is absurdly puffed out and one eye is swollen shut. He looks unwashed and smells unwashed. His feet are bare--big, flat peasant feet although </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">the man himself is not big."--Frederick Buechner, "Telling the Truth, the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: '\'AldaOT\''; font-size: 13px;">"He uttered nary a mumblin' word." Negro Spiritual</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">We Christians are a strange bunch. We worship a man who, when arrested and beaten and standing before Pilate with his "big, flat peasant feet" "uttered nary a mumblin' word." We are unlike the Jews (the religious people), who "demand signs," (miracles for the benefit of the religious people) or the Greeks (the intelligentsia), who "seek wisdom" (a better way to live.) No, instead, we follow a man who suffered the most ignominious death ever devised by we cruel humans. We follow a man who, rather than calling down the wrath of angels upon his oppressors, went silently to His death on a cross. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Why? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because it is true. Because what was foretold in the Garden--that the serpent would nick the heel of Eve's offspring (hang Jesus on the Cross), but that Eve's offspring would crush the head of the serpent (through His death and resurrection)--came true.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">We don't follow Jesus because he will perform miracles on our behalf (give us better lives, happy families, job promotions, victory for our country in war). We don't follow Jesus because he will give us wisdom so that we can live better lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">We follow Jesus, because the Cross (not signs or wisdom) speaks the ultimate truth about man and about God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Cross first is a mirror for each of us--we stare at it and into it--and realize that, like the Jews and Romans, we would have crucified Jesus. Our innate sinfulness leads us to hate love, and Jesus was that--the embodiment of perfect love. We don't like the fact that He chose the thieving tax collector over the upright, successful businessman. We don't like the fact that He saved the adulteress. We don't like the fact that He loved the non-religious people of his day and upbraided the religious. We don't like the fact that, instead of throwing out the Romans occupiers (the enemies of His people), He allowed himself to be killed under their governmental authority. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Cross second is a reflection of God's response to our innate sinfulness. God didn't prevent the death of Jesus. God didn't seek retribution after His death. Instead, God forgave those who crucified Jesus. For, from the Cross, Jesus exclaimed:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." If Jesus asked His father to forgive those who murdered Him, would His father not heed his Son's wishes? If God forgives them, will He not also forgive us?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Cross is the victory of God over man. It says to us that we are immeasurably unlovely, but nonetheless unequivocally loved. Praise God for giving us the Cross, rather than signs or wisdom. Praise God for not giving us what we desired or deserved, but rather for once and for all expressing His infinite love to us while we were yet His ultimate enemies--the murderers of His son.</span><br />
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-6588977923916633272016-01-09T15:08:00.002-08:002016-01-10T06:16:18.107-08:00God works "sub contrario"<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">2 2 </span><b>For Jews demand signs </b>and Greeks seek wisdom, <span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">2 3 </span><b>but we preach Christ crucified</b>, a <b>stumbling block</b> to Jews and folly to Gentiles, <span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">24</span>but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. <span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">25</span>For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Cor. 1:22-25</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">18</span>So the Jews said to him, "<b>What sign do you show us</b> for doing these things?" <span style="vertical-align: 3pt;">19</span>Jesus answered them, "<b>Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up</b>." John 2:18-19</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"And he said not a <span style="font-family: \\AldaOT\\;">mumblin' word..."--Spiritual</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"God works 'sub contrario' ('under his opposite')."--Martin Luther</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In order to determine whether God was at work, the Jews demanded "signs"--they wanted to see miracles to prove that the person claiming to be acting for God was telling the truth. Moreover, they wanted the miracles to be positive actions--actions for the seeming good. We modern day Christians are no different. We want to see "signs" that God is at work--healing someone from cancer; having our country prevail in war; providing us with a loving spouse, healthy children, and job promotions. Indeed, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: \\AldaOT\\;">Jesus had </span><span style="font-family: \\\\AldaOT\\\\;">already</span><span style="font-family: \\AldaOT\\;"> performed numerous "positive" miracles. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: \\AldaOT\\;">Yet, when the Jews asked Him for a sign, He didn't refer to any of them. He didn't refer to restoring sight, or curing leprosy, or even raising the dead. Each of these was more than sufficient to demonstrate that Jesus was "acting for God." Instead,</span></span><span style="font-family: \\\\AldaOT\\\\; font-size: xx-small;"> Jesus answered: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The "sign" that Jesus pointed to was His crucifixion and resurrection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: \\\\AldaOT\\\\; font-size: xx-small;">Death at the hands of the Jews--death at our hands--death from those who want God to work in strength.</span><span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Instead, God works "under his opposite"--through death, rather than life; through weakness rather than strength; through loss rather than success. This is why Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jews and why, so often, He is a stumbling block to us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\;">This is our God--one who is acquainted with the suffering of His people; one who went to His death while saying "nary a </span><span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\;">mumblin' word;" one who could have called down angels to kill those who would kill Him but instead withheld His power; one who we can always turn to </span><span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\;">in our times of sorrow, suffering, and grief. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\;">He is a god unlike any other. </span><span style="font-family: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\AldaOT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\;">God's "sign"--"Christ crucified"--was unequivocal love to the immeasurably unlovely.</span></div>
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-90965921739155905472015-12-25T05:47:00.000-08:002015-12-25T05:47:18.660-08:00Debbie--My "Dancing Queen" (Abba)--Our Marriage after "Waterloo"I had dated two women that I had seriously considered marrying. I realized that the first was not the "one for me." Unfortunately, I didn't break off the first relationship as definitively as I should have. When it reared it's head again, the second relationship didn't survive. I was despondent. Both of these women--particularly the second--had met my definition of a woman to be married--they were both attractive and they came from a certain background--they had successful fathers. Then, I met Debbie.<br />
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The first time that I saw Debbie I was out with friends at the old Upside Down Plaza--the one which is now occupied by Hot n' Hot Fish Club. I was instantly mesmerized. Debbie was the most beautiful woman that I'd ever met. As we talked, I realized what an amazing, kind disposition she had. To me, she was "young, sweet, only seventeen"--a "Dancing Queen." I recall trying to get her phone number, but she wouldn't give it to me. She had some excuse (true I'm sure) of having recently given it to someone else, and he wouldn't stop calling her. She told me that we would see each other again--out on the town. Well, one of my friends got the phone number from Debbie's roommate (this was before cell phones--all they had was a house phone). The next day I called and invited Debbie to lunch. Debbie: "I'm sorry, I'm running out the door to have lunch with a friend."<br />
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So, rebuffed TWICE by Debbie or, at least, that was my perception. I was crushed and mad.<br />
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That Sunday, Debbie and her roommates were having a housewarming party. I went to see Debbie even though I didn't see much chance with her. When I got to the party, I found out that Debbie's sister was there, and I immediately began talking her up--"hitting on her" in the vernacular of the day in hopes of generating a reaction in Debbie. After 10-15 minutes, Debbie came over. She swears that it wasn't because she was jealous. Maybe so, but I was intent on getting Debbie, which was the only reason that I was "hitting on" her sister.<br />
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We went to dinner Monday nite, and then had a second date Tuesday nite. I had to work fast, because she was the "one for me," and I was leaving Birmingham to work the rest of the summer in D.C. and then back to law school.<br />
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So, I PROPOSED, on our second date. Debbie thought that I was crazy. She was right. I couldn't imagine life without her. Over the next three weeks, she met my family, and I met hers. My father approved, and Debbie's grandmother approved. From what I recall, the other family members didn't say anything--I'm sure they thought we were crazy as well.<br />
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Marriage is rough. Your wife goes from being your "Dancing Queen" to being your chief enemy. I had a picture in my head of what I wanted our family to be like--a good Southern Baptist family--with a successful husband, dutiful wife, and respectful kids. I did everything I could to achieve this goal. In doing so, I killed my "Dancing Queen." We had a picture of Debbie as a 3 or 4 year old in which she had a mischievous grin--a really mischievous grin. I lost this person over the first 12-13 years of our marriage.<br />
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Even though my friends would have told you that I was a passionate person who cared about others, I was screwing my marriage up terribly. Rather than letting Debbie be who she was, I was trying to turn her into a Southern Baptist "Stepford wife." Sometimes, I did this with express admonitions, and sometimes with only implicit ones. This was death. <br />
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Over time, I learned that Debbie didn't have a very high opinion of herself and I was making it worse. I was squelching the life out of her--so much so that in 2000 or so--she told me that she was "plotting her escape" for when the kids graduated from high school.<br />
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I was floored. I had no idea that I was her "prison guard." Thankfully, we had both been going to life-giving Bible studies for a couple of years. This allowed us to pray together, and from that day forward, things began to change.<br />
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I had come to my "Waterloo." In addition to learning that I had screwed up my marriage and family, along about the same time, I received a diagnosis of a rare auto-immune liver disease, and I learned that my efforts for one of my best clients had all been for naught. I had lost. My efforts to create a good Southern Baptist family had failed. In retrospect, I'm so thankful that I failed. I finally learned that I had no control over anything and that my efforts at control were damning, not helpful.<br />
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Over the last 12 to 15 years, Debbie and I (through nothing but the grace of God) have begun accepting each other as we are. I'm so thankful for her strengths that her weaknesses pale in comparison. What's more, you don't get certain strengths without the concomitant weaknesses.<br />
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Over and over, we lose--we give up expectations--we accept failure--and we forgive. To the world, failure and forgiveness are an anathema. They feel that way to us at the time. But over time, they are the work of the Holy Spirit. It's only when we give up trying to achieve our aspirations, that we receive those as pure gifts from God.<br />
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Debbie is my "Dancing Queen" once again and even more so. She has the mischievous grin from her picture as a 4 year old. She has the best sense of humor of anyone that I know. She's like Tina Fey, but her humor is simply natural. She and I have a marriage that we never thought possible. We're "having the time of our lives." I see Debbie as "young and sweet, only seventeen, (my) Dancing Queen, feel(ing) the beat from the tambourine--oh yeah." <br />
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At the same time, we're still deep-down sinners, which is not cause for despair. Because we're both sinners, we get the opportunity to forgive one another daily (on minor and major things). We daily meet our "Waterloo." This opportunity to forgive allows us to exhibit (albeit in a small way) the forgiving love of Christ to one another. It gives us a present taste of the Kingdom which, according to Christ, has broken through partially, and is breaking through, but isn't yet present in all of its fullness.<br />
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Praise be to God who makes all things new, and gives us the desires of our hearts, but only after He has killed us. So, God, bring quickly death--death to control; death to our aspirations; death to our self-birthed identities, and then give us life--life sensitive to the control of the Holy Spirit; life that gives birth to our aspirations; and life that breathes new identities into our dead selves.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-9543427081087593282015-12-24T15:45:00.002-08:002015-12-24T20:02:35.718-08:00Shymalan's "Wide Awake" and where we really find ChristmasIn "Wide Awake" (one of Shymalan's first movies), the protagonist, a fifth grader named Joshua, loses his grandfather. Losing his beloved grandfather sends him on a "mission" to find God. (This movie is corny, but I get choked up every time that I see it. Last nite, I had to fight back the tears since Debbie and Mathis were watching with me.) (BTW, "Wide Awake" is also, and importantly, full of humor with Rosie O'Donnel as a nun, and Denis Leary as Josh's father.)<br />
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Like us, Joshua seeks advice from religious figures. In his case, since he attends a Catholic school, he seeks guidance from a nun, a priest, and a Cardinal--all to no avail. He also seeks God through Judaism and Islam. Again, no luck.<br />
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His best friend, Daredevil Dave, sees that Josh is despondent in his failure to find God. Daredevil Dave: "This whole mission business is getting out of hand. You're wigging man. People are talking. In all this time, in all that you've done, have you one sign, any sign, that there's a god?" "No." To Daredevil Dave that means: "either there ain't no God, or He doesn't care that you're looking for him. Either way, I'd stop."<br />
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Joshua thinks about discontinuing his mission--it's been a failure. Then, he reminisces about his life with his grandfather and his unqualified love for him. Josh asks God for a sign. One day in class "crazy Robert Brickman" takes the picture of the Pope off the wall and begins showing it to the kids in the class. One student says in a hushed tone: "Robert's touching the Pope." Robert not only touches the Pope but takes him out into the rain and sits on the top of the jungle gym, holding the Pope as high as he can. Everyone else thinks it's just another crazy antic by Robert, but Joshua thinks it's a sign. <br />
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The movie then moves forward to Josh sitting on a bench outside the nun's office. He's thinking: "something strange is about to happen." Indeed it does, but like the Gospel, what happened next isn't what Josh was looking for. As he sits on the bench, he hears a commotion in the nun's office. Freddie: "I'm not going to go. I can't leave." Josh learns that Freddie, the bully who put him in a school locker and put cherry jello in his shoes, is going to have to leave the school given his parents' financial straits. Josh thinks: "This should be the happiest day of my life, but it isn't." Josh is able to empathize with Freddie's pain and offers his hand in friendship to Freddie when he leaves school with his parents, for the last time. <br />
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Then there's Frank, the class "fat kid" who no one likes. Obviously, Frank desperately wants to be liked, which makes him all the more unlikeable. Throughout the movie, to put Frank off, Joshua promises Frank that he will play with him "tomorrow," but tomorrow never comes because, well, "today" is always "today." When they go on a museum field trip, Frank tries to go through the turnstile with Josh, and they get stuck for 20 minutes--20 minutes of embarrassment in front of "300 people who stopped by to watch." Josh: "I hate field trips." After they are extricated, Josh sees Frank sitting alone on a bench and overhears a classmate: "that fat turd, he's going to weigh 5000 pounds when he grows up." Instead of joining in with his classmate's ridicule of Frank, Joshua thinks: "I better complete my mission soon. I think I'm really losing it." Josh then goes and sits down next to Frank who has been crying and is still sniffling. "Frank, you know what?" "What?" "Yesterday is yesterday and today is tomorrow. Do you want to go and make fun of those ugly statues?" Frank's face brightens, he breaks a grin, and they go off together in camaraderie to endure the field trip to the museum.<br />
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Finally, Josh discovers his best friend, Daredevil Dave, passed out in the aftermath of a seizure. (Earlier in the movie, Josh tells us that Dave is the bravest kid he knows. "If Dave says it can't be done, it can't be done." So, to see weakness in Dave is particularly troubling.) Thanks to Josh, Dave is taken to the hospital where he is found to have a broken arm from thrashing his arm against the confines of the closet where they play Galactic Battlecruiser. Visiting him, Josh says that his mission to find God is over--that it was a failure--how can there be a God when his courageous friend has epilepsy? Surprising, Dave (who before has told Josh that his mission is a waste of time) says: "Josh, you need to stick to your mission. It was a miracle that you found me when you did." <br />
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In one of the last scenes, each fifth grader reads their essay about what fifth grade meant to them. Here's Josh's:<br />
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"Before this year, bullies were just bullies, for no reason.<br />
weirdos were just weird; and<br />
daredevils weren't afraid of anything.<br />
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Before this year, people I loved lived forever.<br />
I spent this year looking for something,<br />
and wound up seeing everything around me.<br />
It's like I was asleep before and finally woke up.<br />
You know what, I'm wide awake now."<br />
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This corny, but profound, movie beautifully illustrates a sermon that Bill Boyd preached at Covenant Presbyterian on the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, after John leaps in Elizabeth's womb over Mary's pregnancy. God came in lowliness to a poor unwed girl who wasn't expecting to be pregnant. Indeed, it was shameful for her to be pregnant, even a stoning offense. He came to a barren older woman who also wasn't expecting to be pregnant, yet for Elizabeth it was a cause for anything but shame. Elizabeth was the wife of a priest, and she had experienced shame for decades due to her barrenness. Given her decades of shame, Elizabeth was able to empathize with Mary--to encourage her in her time of difficulty and shame. Bill explains that: 1)we find God in lowliness, in shame; and 2)when we find God there, we then have empathy for others and can exhibit God's love towards them.<br />
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So, it was with Josh. His loss of his beloved grandfather sent him on a mission to find God--to settle and quiet the pain. And Josh found God. He found God in Freddie, the bully; in Frank, the pesky, uncool, needy "fat kid;" and in Daredevil Dave who had epilepsy. Joshua found a God who is acquainted with our sorrows and is most powerfully found there. He is a God unlike any other. A God who is not first present in our triumphs, but in our defeats; not first present in our joys; but in our sorrows; not first present in our good works; but in our sin. He is a God unlike any other. He has a heart for the unlovely, the rejected, and even the victimizers, which then gives us a heart for them.<br />
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When we find God in an animal feed trough, follow him through an arduous life where He had no place to lay His head, and then lose Him to crucifixion, then and only then can we love our family, ourselves, and sometimes even our enemies.<br />
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Thanks be to our God!Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-51761617247556437042015-10-18T06:47:00.001-07:002015-10-18T06:47:20.050-07:00PZ, Pope Francis, and Oprah--What Happens When you DieZahl is at it again--dealing head-on with the facts that: 1)our lives are more like the Book of Ecclesiastes than "Our Best Life Now" or The Oprah Show; and 2)we're all going to die--as Axl said: "No one gets out of here alive."<br />
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Zahl says that he's been around more than a hundred people when they were near death, and they don't talk about their careers! They don't even talk about their children. Yet, this is what men and women focus on--our careers and our children. Zahl says that, for decades, women were free from the anxiety and heart attacks wrought by obsession with careers--but no longer. <br />
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Zahl says that he failed in his goal to change the Episcopal church. He says that 90% of them are concerned with social justice, but have nothing, nothing at all, to offer to hurting people--nothing insofar as the pain of this life or the apprehension of death. After hearing Zahl's talk, I turned to a clip of Oprah on Colbert's show. Oprah says the same thing that Osteen and most churches say now.<br />
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Cue Oprah: "I just love Psalms 37:4--'Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.'" Oprah says that, if we embrace love, compassion, empathy (which she equates with the Lord), then we will receive the "desires" of our heart. Hearing her caused me great pain. Debbie says that Oprah is trying to understand and explain why she has so much money--because she embraced "love and compassion," she received the "desires of her heart." Sadly, Oprah has no word for anyone (let alone herself) about death, and her word for this life (embrace love and you will be rich) is simply untrue.<br />
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Zahl says that dying people talk about one person--the romantic love of their life. (If you haven't seen "Red Oaks," fly to it. The opening episode depicts this perfectly, yet poignantly, when the father is having a heart attack on the tennis court.) <br />
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Zahl goes on to say that love is the only thing from this life that will follow us into the next. Indeed, this is what St. Paul said. Zahl believes that romantic love gives us a view into eternal life.<br />
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He also says that nostalgia points us to remembrances of joy, which also gives us a view into eternal life. Zahl says that one of his favorite sermons by Pope Francis concerns the nostalgia that the Jews felt for their former lives--while they were in captivity. Francis said that, without nostalgia, we can have no joy.<br />
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When Debbie heard this, she said: "That's why our son doesn't want the Ginko tree cut down. He has wonderful memories of climbing it when he was little."<br />
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So, if Zahl is correct, here are the views that I have had into heaven:<br />
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Debbie--it was truly love at first sight. I proposed to her within a week of meeting her, on our second date. She thought I was crazy, and she was right. Thankfully we have stayed together through "thick and thin," and there were many, many "thin" years in our marriage, but God has restored what the "locusts" (in my case, the locusts were my career and pride) had stolen. <br />
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bike rides in elementary school and junior high with my good friends;<br />
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playing army with my sister and Dean Harrison's grandkids when they came to visit every summer.<br />
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driving "up into the country" with my Dad and stopping at the same gas station every time for an "RC (or Mountain Dew) and moon pie--no lie, that's what kids in the South actually did.<br />
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Church softball games in high school with a "Bad News Bears" cast of players--mostly organized by me (it gladdens me to bring together disparate people and foster their relationships);<br />
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pre-game and post-game parties with my college friends at Derric's apartment (particularly those before and after the games at Legion field);<br />
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road trips with friends in law school;<br />
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beach recruiting trips with my old firm;<br />
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seeing GnR at the B'ham racecourse with Brian Bonds (and giving people rides out in the back of his old pickup);<br />
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going "clubbing" with my brother-in-law David:<br />
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coaching all three of my kids in soccer;<br />
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ski trips with my kids--particularly the one to Mt. Hood --James and I had an adventure getting back to the lodge after a storm rolled in;<br />
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Tuesday nights at Jackson's with a varying group of people to drink beer, and the talk inevitably turned to Jesus;<br />
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when my mother, at age 90, finally told me how she used to antagonize her high school principal.<br />
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According to Zahl, all of these events give us a glimpse into heaven. If God is who I believe Him to be, Zahl is "spot on."Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-40961280821209907682015-10-03T05:13:00.000-07:002015-10-03T05:20:53.052-07:00Let's Talk About Sex (and men's need for affirmation)--and FreedomTwo interactions with slightly older friends are the genesis for this blog post First, I was discussing church and how virtually all churches tend to segregate us based upon age--whether it's Sunday School classes or small groups--the "Seniors Class," the"Young Marrieds," the "50 Somethings," etc. So, this one church is having a marriage class for "Young Marrieds," and my friend was encouraged to attend another class. But this post isn't about that--it's about a better understanding of sex in light of the love of God.<br />
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Here's the wisdom that my female friend said she would give to a class of "Young Marrieds:"</div>
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"Men like sex a lot. Men think about sex a lot. It's a God-given desire so that the human race doesn't die out. For women, not so much. The problem is that men believe a woman's desire for them reflects how much the woman loves the man. This simply isn't true."</div>
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Second, during lunch with a male friend, he furtively glanced at pretty much every woman in the restaurant. This confirms my other friend's comments that "men like and think about sex a lot since they need affirmation." I felt for him, because I know what it's like to be trapped by continual thoughts about sex and the concomitant need for affirmation. Yet, I still felt like his distraction was disrespectful to me and our time together. If I found it disrespectful, how must his wife feel? It also was significant that he thought he had to do it furtively, because honesty about men's desires is the first step on the path to freedom. </div>
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The second step to freedom in the area of sex is gaining the knowledge of God's infinite love for mankind and each and every man, woman, and child. We are indeed "children of God." God has given me some freedom in the area of sex due to one thing--knowing that Jesus loves me infinitely. Jesus accepts me just the way that I am. I don't have to prove anything to gain Jesus' love.</div>
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Knowing that God feels this way about me means that my desire to be loved by Debbie doesn't have the iron grip on me that it once had. So, I'm not nearly as demanding about sex. When I'm not demanding about sex, Debbie is free to love me.</div>
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Finally, I'm not saying that I've got it all figured out or that I ever will. I'm not saying that I don't still look at other women some times. But God's love has given me freedom that I never thought I would experience and that's good for me, Debbie, our marriage, and our family. As I told Debbie: "It was pure bloody hell to be bound up in sex as a way to affirmation--pure bloody hell."</div>
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-68408514225406464892015-05-15T04:26:00.001-07:002015-05-15T04:26:44.932-07:00Back to the Bible (Pt. 2)--Where the Insiders are "out" and the Outsiders are "in"<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">1 Corinthians 1:18-25
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<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God. </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">1 9 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">For it is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the
discerning I will thwart." </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">2 0 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">Where is the one who is wise? Where
is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world? </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">21</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">For since, in the wisdom of
God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">2 2 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;"><b>For Jews demand signs </b>and Greeks seek wisdom, </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">2 3 </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">but we preach
Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">24</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God. </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">25</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">For the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">John 2:18-19</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">18</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">So
the Jews said to him, "<b>What sign do you show us</b> for doing these
things?" </span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 6.000000pt; vertical-align: 3.000000pt;">19</span><span style="font-family: 'AldaOT'; font-size: 10.000000pt;">Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up." </span><br />
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These are the verses from the BCP for a recent Sunday in March. They related directly to a conversation that I had with a friend the following Thursday nite.<br />
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In the Birmingham community, at least in the last 20 years, there's one preacher who has done more to re-direct the Christian community to a true reading of Scriptures than any other--Paul Zahl. That's not to say that Birmingham is now a truly Christian city--it's not. Like every other city, most church-goers (myself included) still work awfully hard to be "good people" so that we can be pleasing to God, rather than resting in the One Way Love of God (as revealed in Jesus)--a restfulness which allows the Holy Spirit to direct our feet and hands instead of our egos, our pride, our fears, and our anxieties.<br />
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That Thursday nite, I was recounting to a friend the testimony of a preacher who said that PZ's teaching had not only allowed him to stay in the ministry but also allowed him to stay in the faith. This preacher had fallen on hard times as a youth minister--the hard times being that "he couldn't be the Good Samaritan," and "he wasn't able to get his youth to be Good Samaritans." This same preacher later taught that Jesus is the Good Samaritan--a truly novel, but correct and liberating idea.<br />
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This preacher was not the only one. Tullian named his most recent book "One Way Love" in honor of Zahl. He says that "Paul Zahl saved my life." I've heard this same testimony from at least six other preachers. Indeed, God used Zahl to save my life. His teaching and preaching of the Scriptures dealt a death blow to my ego--at least for a time (it still rears its head). During that time, I understood grace for the first time. <br />
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Any way, my recounting of this preacher's changed life thru PZ's teaching caused my friend to question whether PZ was tending towards universal redemption in his latest book. <br />
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Ellis: "I don't know whether PZ believes in universal redemption or not. However, I think PZ has gotten to the essential element of the Christian faith--if God isn't 100% merciful then we're in a world of trouble. As I have dwelt on God's mercy for the last 10 years, I have become convinced that Jesus is saving everyone." <br />
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Friend: "What about the parable of the sheep and the goats?"<br />
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Indeed, what about the parable of the "sheep and the goats?"<br />
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Jesus tells that one group, the goats, will approach Him and say: "Lord, Lord, didn't we heal and prophesy in your name?" Jesus will say: "Be gone from me. I never knew you."<br />
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What is "healing and prophesying?" It's "signs." Jesus was teaching, exactly as the Prophets had taught, that the religious Jews weren't right with God. The Prophets taught that this would lead to the destruction of Israel. This, indeed, led to the Exile. Jesus taught that the unrighteousness of the Jews would lead to Jesus' destruction. Indeed, the Jewish religious leaders did kill Jesus.<br />
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As the Prophets did, Jesus spoke in polemics--he spoke metaphorically. From my viewpoint of a being like Paul "the chief of sinners," Jesus' parable about the "sheep and goats" wasn't meant to describe who would be in and out of heaven, but rather to abjure the religious Jews for their self-righteousness, their self-satisfaction, their lack of love for the "poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners." If indeed Jesus wasn't being polemic, then we all need to quit going to church, proclaiming God, and helping others--for these are the people that Jesus rebuked. <br />
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Most Christians teach that, in order to be saved, one must accept Jesus as their God and King. They also teach that one hasn't really accepted Jesus as God unless they are engaged in some "Christian" religious pursuit--attending church regularly, praying and reading the Bible, and working at "soup kitchens." In other words, Christians seem to think that one has to be "inside" the religious order. This is exactly what the Jews of Jesus' day believed.<br />
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This isn't what Jesus lived or what he taught. Jesus consistently rebuked the "insiders" and loved and accepted the "outsiders." Jesus' kingdom is upside down. The "have nots" have, the "unlovely" are loved, and the dirty are made clean.<br />
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If Jesus is dividing mankind into those who are redeemed and those who aren't, then He's damning the insiders (the Jews of His day--those who believe in signs; and the Christians of today) and redeeming the outsiders. For insiders, like me, to have any hope, I have to believe that Jesus is a universalist--not that praying to other "gods" has any significance whatsoever, it doesn't. But universalism in the sense that Jesus is saving everyone, because He's good, inestimably good.<br />
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Debbie was telling her mother about Jesus possibly being a universalist. Her mother began crying and said that she didn't even want Hitler to go to Hell. Debbie: "Is not God even more compassionate than you?"<br />
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Yes, God is more compassionate, unfathomably more compassionate, than any of us. <br />
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-83603515791679686232015-05-09T07:02:00.002-07:002015-05-09T07:02:48.879-07:00The "Kung Fu Hustle" GodWhen Paul Zahl was invested as the new president of Trinity Episcopal seminary, there was a cocktail party the night before. The party napkins were imprinted:<br />
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Law v. Grace<br />
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Strength in Weakness<br />
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Free Will? Not<br />
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The author of the napkins encapsulated PZ's teaching of the Gospel in three short phrases that I use to analyze everything in life--my life, my family, my job, my relationships, books, movies, everything!<br />
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"Kung Fu Hustle" is one of my favorite films, because all three strands of Christian truth are woven throughout the movie. The heroes that take on the murderous, glamorous gang come from Pig Sty Alley. There's even a resurrection scene. I love the movie for its amazing humor, but I love it even more because it reflects the truth of these three Christian doctrines. <br />
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The writer and producer is not a Christian--his heritage is Chinese which is even older than Christianity. This movie, to me, is further proof of these three Christian truths, because those same truths have apparently been part of the Chinese culture for thousands of years. "Truth is truth."<br />
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As I said, I examine life through these three truths. This morning, Debbie and I were discussing God being at work in our weakness.<br />
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Some weeks ago, I was asked to read at a church service. No big deal, except that that sort of thing--recognition from a church body--used to fill me with pride--not a good thing for me. So, I told them I would do it, but only if Debbie could join me. At this point in my life, if I have anything to take pride in, it's not me, it's my wife and marriage. But for her, we would long be divorced. I suggested that we do it on a Sunday when there were back-to-back readings. Such a service came up, but Debbie couldn't be present, so I went ahead and did it. <br />
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But you need to know that Debbie didn't want to do it. She perceives public speaking to be a real weakness. She was going to do it for me. So, when she couldn't be present for the reading, she thanked God for getting her out of that jam!<br />
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Fast forward, a couple of months. We're having a campaign to raise money, largely to pay off the Children's building. I had already expressed to the Church elders that I wasn't going to give to this particular campaign. By and large, I'm against specific fundraising campaigns. I give money to the church towards the general fund, and they can do with it what they deem best.<br />
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Well, when Debbie realized that the money was going towards the Children's building, she decided that we needed to give. But for the Children's building, our kids would not have been at Covenant Day School. But for our kids being at Covenant Day School, Debbie would not have gotten into Kathy G's Bible Study (where Kathy told them on the front end: "we're going to talk about your relationship with God, not your bad marriages"). But for Kathy G's Bible Study, Debbie and I could well be divorced. When Debbie pointed all of this out, of course we should give to this campaign.<br />
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I told one of the leaders of the campaign about Debbie's testimony, and he wanted to videotape Debbie to share with the church. As Debbie said this morning: "I thanked God that He got me out of reading the Bible verse. Now, He's got me giving a testimony. God loves working in our weakness. Thank goodness I can see the humor in it."<br />
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So, all praise to the "Kung Fu Hustle" God who uses our weakness to reveal His strength--indeed, His strength at work in us.<br />
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<br />Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-28476953645694144882015-03-14T06:08:00.001-07:002015-03-14T06:08:37.360-07:00Back to the Bible (Pt. 1)--Trustworthy, not InerrantI grew up being taught that the Bible was the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God." This made me want to read the Bible to obtain righteousness. I wanted to know more than others, and I wanted to demonstrate that I knew more than others. I probably even wanted to "save" others. I wanted to be an "insider" with God. However, reading the Bible as the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God" didn't cause me to love others. Instead, it fueled my innate self-righteousness and caused me to believe that God was lucky to have me on his team. <br />
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Somehow, inexplicably, I read the Bible to say that God was damning the "outsiders"--the Philistines, the Amalekites, and the other "ites"--even though Jesus, God Himself, teaches us to "love our enemies." If the Bible is "inerrant," then God was telling the Jews to kill the "outsiders." The logic of this to the Jews was that, if they didn't kill the others, then the Jews would become like the others. The logic to modern-day Christians is that God was exercising his divine justice through his chosen people--the Jews. <br />
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Love your enemies (Jesus). Kill your enemies (God of the OT). Is this somehow correct?<br />
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When I saw the Bible as speaking with a forked-tongue, I didn't love it. Loving the truth, I couldn't deal with the inconsistencies in the Bible that I had been taught was the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God." I read other books about Jesus (many, many, many other books about Jesus--Jesus is captivating), but the Bible had lost its appeal. As God dealt with my self-righteousness, the book that had cultivated my self-righteousness lost its luster.<br />
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Recently, one of my favorite pastors described the Bible as "trustworthy." This I can believe. Seeing the Bible as "inerrant" was a huge problem for me. But "trustworthy"--that I can wrap my need for truth around. We have a new Sunday School teacher for whom the OT is his friend. He brings it alive--dispatching with the rote, uninspired teachings of my upbringing and, instead, bringing the Word to life with a sense of wonder. This I want to hear. So, now I can go "back to the Bible" and hopefully read it correctly.<br />
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Our SS teacher explained that, after the Jews killed the "outsiders," the Jews then became exactly like the "outsiders." To my way of thinking, then, there was no point in killing the "outsiders." The Jews were sufficiently sinful in and of themselves, even without the supposedly corrupting influence of "outsiders." So, maybe the God of the OT wasn't telling the Jews to kill the "outsiders" in order to maintain their purity? (Indeed, this is the very thing that ISIS--murder your enemies to maintain your purity.) Maybe the Jews wanted to kill the "outsiders" anyway and were just using God as a justification? Maybe the Prophets weren't just upset with the Jews because they were immoral, but rather because they didn't love their fellow man. Maybe Jesus came to correct the incorrect views of the OT Jews and of modern-day Christians.<br />
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Our SS teacher also taught that there are four groups of people that God was greatly concerned about and, accordingly, the Prophets were concerned about--the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners. These were the folks outside the Jewish religious order, outside the mainstream of society, outside the love of God--according to the insiders. <br />
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If God wanted the Jews to be concerned about the "outsiders," is not God even more concerned about them? If the "outsiders" are special to God, you could read the OT to say that redemption lies with the "poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners." But this isn't what the Jews believed. They believed that redemption lay within the Jewish religious order, just as we Christians believe today. <br />
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So, as for me, I'm going with the Bible as being "trustworthy," not inerrant. I'm going with God as the friend of sinners (not their judge), the lover of His enemies (not their murderer), and the deliverer of all--even the self-righteous like me. For, indeed, this is my only hope!<br />
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-75569784143034472172015-03-12T06:32:00.001-07:002015-03-12T06:40:28.785-07:00GNR--Take 2--my heroes Bryan and EmilyTo get the background for this post, you may want to read my other GNR post. <br />
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When reading "A Mess of Help" by David Zahl, and his gracious treatment of Axl, I began weeping. God has been so gracious to me. He has rescued me from binge alcoholism, partying, and worse yet self-righteousness. I will still have these tendencies until I die, but God has given me a tremendous respite from them. Back when I saw GNR twice--1987 and 1992, I was a full-blown alcoholic and self-righteous prick. Most people knew about the drinking and partying, but I disguised the self-righteousness pretty well. </div>
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Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I understood that Christianity was all about my performance. So, if I was performing good at church--attending multiple times per week, teaching SS, and helping my wife to become a Southern Baptist Stepford wife, then it was okay to "party hearty." </div>
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As I read David's gracious treatment of Axl, I also began weeping for a friend--Bryan Bonds who attended the first GNR concert with me. Bryan has ALS. Bryan is one of the strongest Christians I know, as is his wife Emily. They have faced Bryan's disease with courage that can only be found in a deep-seated appreciation for the love that God has bestowed upon his created beings--his sons and daughters.</div>
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I don't know why Bryan has ALS. I don't know why children starve and die from Aids in Africa. However, I do know that the only god out there who has demonstrated His heartbreak over human suffering is Jesus. Jesus demonstrated solidarity with mankind by living in this difficult world and then entering into death in the most painful way known at that time.</div>
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Emily told me that Bryan still talks about the 1987 GNR concert which we attended. So do I. It was outdoors at the Birmingham Race Track, and it was raining cats and dogs. We were knee-deep in mud, and Axl was having problems with his voice. Even with the discomfort and the breaks in the show for Axl to treat his voice, when GNR played, it was like magic. Their music wiped away, temporarily, any tears, fears, discomforts, or problems that we had.</div>
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The camaraderie that we experienced at that show is something that we will get to experience in heaven. In heaven, all of our relationships will be direct and not affected by sin--such as alcoholism or self-righteousness. For Jesus, the friend of sinners, will reign supreme. He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more fears, discomforts, or problems. And "the grass will be green and the girls will be pretty." Even me, a 54 year old, overweight balding lawyer will be pretty. </div>
Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-2868092297338872132015-03-12T06:26:00.000-07:002015-03-12T06:37:22.094-07:00"A Mess of Help" and GNR (Is "Paradise City" a guilty pleasure or picture of heaven?)"Take me down to Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty;<br />
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Oh won't you please take me home." (Guns n' Roses--1987) <br />
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A rock anthem for the ages, or it should have been. With GNR making such a sudden and complete exodus from the rock scene in 1992, they somehow lost the respect of music critics and even fans--even a fan like me.<br />
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From other's accounts, it sounds like the band self-destructed after their 1992 world tour. Axl's self-destructive tendency was perfectionism. This contributed to the band's breakup and kept him from putting out another album until 2008.<br />
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Folks at work still give me grief for liking GNR twenty years later--even the younger folks at work know that I was a GNR fan. The Bible says that our thoughts are directed by our hearts. So, I guess my heart was pretty attracted to and infatuated with GNR.<br />
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The band's sudden breakup and terminus caused even me to look down on them. How could they not get it together to make their amazing music again? If they couldn't control themselves, then maybe their music wasn't that great after all. This is where I wound up--disenchanted and feeling like a rube for ever having liked GNR. <br />
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Then, I read "<b>Mess of Help</b>" by David Zahl. David applies grace to band after band--from the Beatles to GNR. The grace that David Zahl heaps upon Axl is not to be believed.<br />
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David explains that Axl was raised in a very fundamentalist Christian home to which Axl responded with rebellion. He and his band mates wrote their first album "Appetite for Destruction" while all five were living in a one room apartment in LA. David notes that they gave song-writing credit to all five of the band members--which is rarely if ever done. They were living in a state of thankfulness for one another--a state in which each was humble about his own role in the band.<br />
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Than, after the remarkable success of Appetite--the largest selling debut album of all time--they were faced with the law of performance--"how're you going to top that?' Living under this burden, it took them several years to put out "Use Your Illusion 1 and 2." (By the way, I bought this album when it went on sale at midnight and went home and listened to it right away.) UYI has multiple types of music--from hard-edged rock to ballads to even rap-like songs. UYI was loved by the fans, but panned by the critics.<br />
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After their world tour to support UYI, they broke up. Axl wanted to control everything, and other band members thought he was getting away from their roots.<br />
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David points out that Axl's desire for control over the band in his pursuit of perfection was probably derived from the control which was modeled to him in his family growing up. Sin begets sin. God doesn't curse future generations-- we do. So, the band's breakup is now more easily understood. David gives grace to Axl. Rather than condemning Axl as the media and fans like me have done, David explains where Axl's actions came from.<br />
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David ends his article with a crescendo of grace. David says that Axl wears a large cross whenever he performs. Of course, David points out, this could merely be a fashion statement. But David doesn't think so. For you see, Axl has a collection of antique crosses. Axl seems to understand that, in the midst of the "mess" of this world, all he has and all he needs is God's grace.<br />
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If God is as gracious to us, as David Zahl is to Axl, then heaven is probably going to be more like Paradise City than the monastery or the clouds or the golden streets promoted by American evangelicals. There will be rock guitars rather than angel's harps. The grass will be green, and the girls will be pretty. Indeed, we'll all be beautiful--reflected in the glow of Jesus' love.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-56571248502944381872015-02-20T04:01:00.002-08:002015-02-21T05:29:30.941-08:00Lent, the Two Trees, and St. JudasThe Cathedral Church of the Advent (the "Advent") is where I learned grace. The Advent was God's instrument of grace for saving my marriage, my career, and even my life. The Advent has faithfully called preacher after preacher who actually understand and proclaim the Gospel. This proclamation is God's instrument of salvation.<br />
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Yesterday, one of the preachers whose Gospel explication meant so much to me, came back to preach at the Lenten series at the Advent. As one of my law partners, Ed Ashton, said: "Paul Walker never disappoints." In ushering in the Lenten season, Paul referred back to a letter which he received from the priest who officiated him into the Episcopal church. Paul recalled anxiously opening the letter to glean the wisdom of a man who had been in the ministry for 30 plus years. He began it with: "Don't give up beer for Lent." This may seem odd, at best, but it's actually deeply profound. For, as Paul preached, giving up beer or chocolate or whatever is okay, but it isn't sufficient, not anywhere near sufficient. It isn't our actions, our minor addictions, which need to be remedied--it's our hearts. Our hearts which are the root of anger, lust, control, self-righteousness, judgmental attitudes, and all other manifestations of evil--that's what needs mending, and there's only one solution--the Gospel.<br />
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Before Paul came to town, I listened to one of his recent sermons on the Mockingpulpit entitled: "Let's Get it Started in Here," which dealt with the parable of the ten vestal virgins--those who went into the party with the bridegroom and those who didn't. Paul ended his sermon in a way that left me floored by God's grace. Paul said that Judas was at the party--the great eternal party with his friend and savior Jesus. Now, I've know of only one other person who takes the position that Judas is in heaven--Garry Wills. Quite frankly, although I love Wills' writing, I thought Garry was going too far when he called him: Saint Judas. Now, I don't. Now, I think that Paul and Garry are right--he is Saint Judas.<br />
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At the end of this sermon, Paul read the lyrics to a song: "The Judas Tree." The song tells that, per the Apostles' Creed, Jesus descended into Hell after he was crucified. The song says that Jesus cut Judas down from the tree on which he had hung himself and liberated Judas from Hell. Could this be? Could the person who committed the most grievous sin in the history of man be at the eternal banquet with God? Like Garry and Paul, I think so.<br />
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Garry points out that, when Judas sold out Jesus, he likely had no idea that Jesus would be killed. The Jewish authorities had no authority to commit anyone to death--without the say of the Romans. That's why he hung himself--he was so aggrieved that his selling out of Jesus had ramifications far beyond what he had imagined. Judas thought his sin would have certain repercussions (which he was prepared to deal with), but he had no idea that his sin would result in the death of his friend.<br />
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What we learn from the Judas Tree is that the world is a deeply broken place. The world can take our lesser sins and wreak devastating, never intended or imagined, consequences. This is one tree that we should consider entering into Lent--into the season where we contemplate the human condition and then God's response. The Judas Tree reflects that this world is not our home--it is not friendly towards us--it can be damn unfriendly--wars, rumors of wars, the plague, ebola, famine, hunger, murder, adultery, incest, crimes committed in the name of religion, etc. The list of problems with the world is endless.<br />
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The second tree--the Cross--is the primary focus of Lent. The Cross first diagnoses the condition of the human heart. We are bloodthirsty. We are bloodthirsty like ISIS. As my current pastor said: "Jihad was committed against Jesus." The religious fervor of man caused them to spill the blood of an innocent man, and we are no different. We are all jihadists in our flawed religious hearts.<br />
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But, the Gospel doesn't end with the diagnosis of the world and the human heart--it flips to God's grace. God's grace is borne out by these two trees. God has triumphed over the world and over our hearts. God raised His son from the dead. God liberated Judas, and indeed all of us, from the Hell of this world and the eternal Hell. <br />
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As I enter into Lent, I have hope for God's salvation. I've long said that, if God saved me, He could be saving anyone and everyone. If there's hope for me and Judas, then there's hope for mankind--hope for liberation from the vagaries of this world and our inward-looking, twisted hearts.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-1762594914517321572015-02-08T06:54:00.001-08:002015-02-14T05:37:13.399-08:00Sanctification--a few thoughts1. Sanctification is occurring if you see yourself as more and more sinful. The only person who can see sanctification in you is someone else, and it has to be someone who's known you for a while. Sanctification is about change. I may not seem sanctified to those who meet me now. But those who've known me for years remark about positive changes in me. Yet, I see myself more and more as a sinner. I am much more in touch with my motivations--most of which are selfish. Becoming more and more acquainted with my selfish motivations does lead to change, over time, but ONLY if you feel forgiven for those sins. This is where grace comes in. Grace is the fuel of sanctification.<br />
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2. You can't approach sanctification "head on." You can't view the law as a good way to live. If you do, those who tend towards self-righteousness (like me) will compare themselves to others and feel better about themselves. For those who tend towards self-judgment (like Debbie), they will compare themselves to others and despair. However, as you know more and more about the love of God for His created beings, change actually occurs. As you come to understand God's boundless love and grace for you, you begin to exhibit love and grace towards others. Grace is intoxicating--it can't be held in, held back, or squashed. True 100% grace is infectious.<br />
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3. Gerhard Forde--"True antinomianism is watering the law down so that we can keep it."<br />
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4. Jesus didn't water down the law. He said: "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."<br />
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5. The best way, at least for me, to interpret Jesus' view of the law is as a Second Use--it brings us to our knees so that we cry out to God for His grace.<br />
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6. St. Paul's words about what a Christian looks like are 'descriptive,' not 'prescriptive.' In other words, over time, others will say that you are becoming more like Jesus. Occasionally, you will discover that you are more like Jesus--but it will be like a thunderbolt out of the blue, not a reasoned analysis of your qualities. Reasoned analyses of one's qualities leads to self-righteousness or despair, neither of which is desired by God, neither of which is more holy, neither of which is more sanctified.<br />
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7. At the risk of appearing to "toot my own horn," I'm going to share a couple of thunderbolts.<br />
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8. The first thunderbolt occurred about 12 years ago. A friend, although not a close friend, came to me with a sexual issue. He wanted help with the issue. He thought I might could help for this reason: "Ellis, you used to be the most lustful person that I knew. Now you're not. What happened?"<br />
My reply was the message of grace that I had heard from Paul Zahl. I gave some of my Zahl cassette tapes to my friend. A month later he came back and said: "Are you sure this is right? I've never heard anything like this." I said: "When I first heard it, I hadn't either, but I think it's simply the 'old, old story of Jesus and His love which has been squelched by the Church." Another month went by. He came back again: "Ellis, this is life-changing. I'm beginning to experience freedom from my issue." His story is even more remarkable than this. While I can't tell it without possibly revealing his identity, the message of grace changed him as radically as it changed me.<br />
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9. Other thunderbolts have happened over the years. Two recent ones: I took my mother-in-law to lunch. I know this doesn't sound like sanctification, but if you'd known me before, you would say: "Wow," at least that's what Debbie said. So, yes, I was an a.....e before. A second one was an email from a new friend--someone that I've only interacted with briefly. Yet, he could tell that I loved him and cared about his issues. So, he poured out to me his trials and triumphs. Sometimes, indeed most times, listening is the best we can do for one another. Well, listening and speaking grace.<br />
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10. Finally, here's my favorite quote on sanctification. Sanctification isn't about trying to follow the law, but rather knowing that our transgressions are covered by the blood of the Perfect One, the All-Compassionate One, the God who's property is ALWAYS to have mercy:<br />
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<span style="color: #1f497d;">It is instructive, in this connection, to remember that God’s appointed place for the tables of the law was within the ark of the testimony. With them were “the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded” (types, the one of Christ our wilderness bread, the other of resurrection, and both speaking of grace), while they were covered from sight by the golden mercy-seat upon which was sprinkled the blood of atonement. The eye of God could see His broken law only through the blood that completely vindicated His justice and propitiated His wrath (Heb. 9: 4, 5).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;">It was reserved to modern nomolators to wrench these holy and just but deathful tables from underneath the mercy-seat and the atoning blood, and erect them in Christian churches as the rule of Christian life.</span></div>
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Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-3011434763389794902015-02-01T14:10:00.002-08:002015-02-01T14:10:32.452-08:00Gracious Providence in Provision and GrievingWe can't grieve until we realize that we've lost something. I'm very fortunate--I've only lost two people in my life that were close family. One was my father, and the other was my children's godmother--Butch Smith. Oddly, it took me 12 years to truly grieve for my father, and 2 years to truly grieve for Butch. I was struck by grief in two peculiar ways which leads me to believe that it was brought about by the HS.<br />
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First, one of my dear friends at work, Walker Wells, told me that I had to read "The Road." Given Walker's faith and intellect, I knew that it had to be good. But, as always, I find it hard to take recommendations from anyone. Then, I came down with a pretty significant bug and had to go home from work. That afternoon, I finally read "The Road" in its entirety. I couldn't put it down. The picture of the father's love and provision--and the fact that they were "carrying the light" in a post-apocalypse world full of cannibals--brought me to tears over my father. This was some dozen years after his death. Clearly, Walker's suggestion was providential.<br />
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That's what my father did--he "carried the light." He carried the light of grace. He spent his last 15 years working as the chaplain at Partlow, the former state home for those who were mentally retarded. (I'm sure that's not the PC word, but it was the word used at the time.) My father loved those at Partlow. I remember one in particular, Wayne, who came to our house frequently and was my father's unofficial assistant. My father loved them, and me and my sister, without condition. Yet, he had his issues. In his last years, he was often hateful towards my mother. <br />
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I'm not besmirching my father's name by admitting this, but simply being honest which allows for grace. Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast with Barnabas Piper, John Piper's son, and he was relating the story of when he found out that his baseball hero was a philanderer. It knocked him right off Barnabas' pedestal. This is where we go wrong as humans and Christians--we want to put people on the pedestal. This is not grace. Grace is seeing and acknowledging all aspects of a person and, yet, loving them.<br />
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As to Butch, she filled a role in Debbie's life for which I will ever be thankful. For many years, I put work above my wife. (That's why, as it's told in Genesis, God "cursed" work--to redirect our attention from work to God, our spouses and families.) During those years, Butch was "there" for Debbie. Debbie could not have had a better friend, indeed mother-figure, than Butch. Butch also exhibited one-way love to me and my children. It was nothing short of breath-taking to see such love.<br />
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And yet, Butch had her issues. I think the parent-child relationship is perhaps the most difficult one to navigate. Indeed, none of us can navigate it successfully. Indeed, another person, one who is not a "blood parent" can provide one-way, unconditional love more so than the blood-kin. It's something about the way that God set up the parent-child relationship. It's not flawed, but it's sure peculiar. This is what Butch did for Debbie. But for Butch's support of Debbie, Debbie probably would have left me during those years that I was so selfish.<br />
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As with my father, my grieving for Butch struck out of the blue. I was at lunch with a man that I'd met at a Christmas party. We were both in the same industry and wanted to get together for lunch. He reminded me at lunch that, not only was he a member at Trinity, but he was also on the Admin Board--meaning that he had to know Butch. He did. As he recalled his fond memories of Butch, tears of grief and thankfulness began welling up in my eyes--sitting at Bettola restaurant.<br />
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So, thank you to my father and to Butch for the one-way, unconditional love which you showered upon me and my family. Praise be to God that you were both Saints and Sinners and, therefore, real and, therefore, persons that I could love instead of worship--for there is only One worthy of our worship.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-84560886084891794752015-01-25T06:02:00.002-08:002015-01-25T06:02:18.290-08:00A Shout out to Jesus--for Breathing New Life into the Bible Belt<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I was born a Pharisee. My natural inclination is to think that I'm better than others. This is how I justify myself. To compound the problem, I was raised in a church that taught that Christians are better than others. Oh sure, the pastor paid "lip service" to our being sinners, but there was always this idea that, once we "accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior," we would lead good, moral lives--become pillars of the community. This teaching just made me worse. Of course, based upon what most of my friends from that time tell me, I covered it up pretty well. But then, I got married. You can't hide it from your wife. The problem with thinking that you are better than others is that you have to keep proving it to yourself. You lie to yourself, over and over again. The anxiety of performance is a death sentence. I was headed to suicide. We were headed to divorce after about 10 years. </div>
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BUT THEN GOD, WHO IS RICH IN MERCY...I got invited to a Bible Study of Paul Zahl in January, 1998. Zahl said that we were inveterate sinners, full of libidinal urges, and that we had no "free will." He said that God met our inveterate sinfulness with boundless, confounding grace. I didn't get it at first, but as I fell on hard times in my life, I finally came to hear with new ears, to see with new eyes--I was a Pharisee. My efforts to be good (Deacon, SS teacher, generally moral person), were SIN. I was WITHOUT HOPE IN MYSELF. I HAD NO CONTROL WHATSOEVER OVER MY LIFE. BEING A SUCCESSFUL LAWYER WHO GAVE MONEY TO BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSIONS WAS NEVER GOING TO SET ME RIGHT WITH GOD.</div>
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As I write this, you must think I'm crazy--I certainly do. To think that Christianity was about being a good Southern Baptist (primarily giving to foreign missions) is so facile, so dishonoring to the God of the universe. I'm not alone in my view of Bible Belt pulpits. I have friends from the Florida panhandle who tell me that there's not a church there that they can attend.</div>
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BUT THEN GOD, WHO IS RICH IN MERCY...put Tullian Tchividjian in the pulpit at Coral Ridge Pres. Tullian, like Zahl, has returned to that old, old religion that was so brilliantly described by St. Paul, Augustine, and Luther. Their message is impacting tens of thousands of people in the Bible Belt. There are preachers stretching from Texas to Alabama to Virginia to Kentucky to New York to Florida who have been influenced and blessed by Zahl and Tchividjian. </div>
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Thank you Jesus for saving me. Thank you Jesus for breathing fresh life into the pulpits of the Bible Belt.</div>
Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-4825829027583653882014-12-27T05:17:00.003-08:002014-12-27T05:17:41.528-08:00God "lays all His love" (ABBA) on us--the Incarnation and the ResurrectionWe will never fully understand God, not even close. We won't ever fully understand Jesus even though he walked amongst us for 33 years. But what we can understand deeply and unequivocally are two basic truths about God, probably the two most important truths: a)God is "with us;" and b)God is "for us." Two basic truths about God that are reflected by the two most important facts of Christ's life--his odd birth and his ignominious death.<div>
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First, as one of my sons said: "Dad, Jesus was born lowly so that all could come to Him." This "lowly birth" meant that persons of any social status would not feel that Jesus was above them. More importantly, the fact that God deigned to live amongst us--in this difficult sometimes seemingly God-forsaken world--reflects God's solitary with mankind. God is not "above" our station in life. God is not some distant puppet-master. God is not dispassionate towards his creation. No, God knows and experienced the troubles and travails, the pain and heartache of being human. God is "with us" in a way that seems unimaginable, in a way that is unique in world religions.</div>
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Second, the Cross is a further reflection of God's solidarity with us (we all must die), but it also reflects that God is "for us." Certainly God need not have died on the Cross. From His divine standpoint, He could have been miraculously rescued. From His human standpoint, it seems that Pilate would have let Him go if He had just responded to Pilate--if He had uttered a "single word" in His defense. But no, He remained mute in the face of the religious persons who wanted Him dead and the bureaucrats who wanted to placate the religious persons and, thereby, maintain peace.</div>
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Christ went to the Cross to demonstrate the blood-lust, the inveterate sinfulness of mankind. He went to the Cross to demonstrate that, even in light of our hopeless sinfulness, He forgives us. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." To me, these are the most comforting words ever spoken by a man. Since they came from God, they give us hope--hope beyond compare--hope with no boundaries--hope of limitless duration.</div>
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Praise be to the God who is "with us" and "for us."</div>
Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3109383613079357717.post-13795830986124152542014-11-27T06:20:00.001-08:002014-11-27T06:20:59.249-08:00Candid Camera, "Signs," and SanctificationA few years ago, a pastor was invested as the new rector at Christ Church Charlottesville. Paul Zahl's sermon topic at the investiture--"Just Give Up." During the sermon, PZ said that, if he had any advice to give to Paul Walker as the new rector, it would be to "give up." You could hear nervous titters of laughter from the congregation. If these words shocked me, someone who's listened to PZ for years, I can't imagine what the poor congregants were thinking. 'Just give up' doesn't sound like any Christian admonition or advice that I've heard before.<br />
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Yet, this is what Jesus was trying to convince the Pharisees to do. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear that we can't keep the Law. He analogized hate to murder, lust to adultery, and said that we are called to be "perfect as our father in heaven is perfect." Jesus did the same thing in His parables. Not one of us would act like the Good Samaritan--becoming unclean to help an enemy, then providing over-abundantly for him. Like the Rich Young Ruler, not one of us would sell everything and give it to the poor. So, if Jesus is trying to convince us to give up, what implications does this have for our Christian life? Can we finally law down our merit-badge list of things that Christians do? If we lay that down, are we called to do anything?<br />
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This morning, Debbie and I were discussing that life is not random. Last Sunday, our SS teacher was teaching about sovereignty, and I asked him if he had ever seen the movie 'Signs.' Yes, he had and he said: "Ellis, the longer I live the more I realize that life is not random." Not to spoil the movie, but God uses weakness, quirkiness, and even death for redemptive purposes. Shymalan (acting in his own movie) says: "It's as if it was meant to be," when he's asked about a tragic event in the movie.<br />
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Debbie and I were discussing how, if we just acknowledge that life is non-random, we see God working everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Last week, our cleaning guy was coming, and Debbie told him not to clean our son's room since he left it in a mess. Debbie and I were discussing how to deal with this--take his car, ground him. Our intentions were actually good. We wanted to prepare him to live by himself at college. We hadn't decided what to do. We had discussed this with our son before, but he didn't think that cleaning his room mattered. That nite, we were watching 'Raising Hope' with him. 'Raising Hope' can be inappropriate at times, but the love that the characters have for one another, and the humor that they share with one another, is simply amazing. <br />
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In this episode, the father and grandparents of Hope, a 2 year old, were debating about whether to spank her to deal with the 'terrible 2s.' The discussion turned to whether the grandparents had spanked their son, Hope's father. They claimed that they did, but it turned out that they hadn't. "No wonder he never learned to keep his room clean." "No wonder he's still living at home with his parents." Our son then understood why we wanted him to clean his room. It came from an outside source. It is so difficult for teenagers to hear or receive any advice from their parents. Keeping your room clean obviously isn't that big of a deal, but lack of self-control can bleed over into other aspects of your life.<br />
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Obviously, this a mundane example, but God lives in every aspect of our lives, mundane or otherwise.<br />
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Debbie recalled a Candid Camera episode where the flowers on the table were rigged to move. Rather than trying to figure out what was going on, or marveling at the moving flowers, the people got up and moved to another table. Debbie recalls being saddened that the folks were ignoring the wonder in their lives. Debbie then said: "How can we ignore the wonder of Jesus in our lives?"<br />
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Which brings me to sanctification. Per Jesus, we are called to 'just give up,' and look for God's actions in our mundane lives--the entry of God's kingdom into this world. It can't help but gladden our hearts. It can't help but cause us to be thankful. With thankful hearts, we can love our difficult families. With thankful hearts, we can face difficulties such as sickness, job loss, and death. With thankful hearts, we can even forgive ourselves, and then others.<br />
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Happy Thanksgiving.Ellis Brazealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08102090098973550288noreply@blogger.com0