Inspirational Thoughts

"Before, Now, and After"

2009-05-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Christianity is not alone in proposing answers to the mystery of our existence. Many philosophers and religious teachers have addressed questions about the source, meaning, and destiny of human existence.

What is unique about the teachings of Christianity is our claim that in the death and resurrection of one man--the Son of God--the veil has been lifted from our future destiny. For those who put away the weight of deadness (sin), and put on the life-giving Spirit of Christ, death is no longer a fearful enemy. By faith, we can joyfully embrace the short span of our present existence as kind of a small harbor open to the mysterious depths beyond.

For many in today's world, the Christian answers--perhaps worn smooth by too much casual handling--have lost their power to surprise and enlighten. For a culture and generations accustomed to media, internet, video games, and the flashing pace of music videos, the notion of eternal life--or eternal anything, for that matter--may sound unrealistic or even boring.

But there are people in our world today who have perhaps explored various philosophies and religious paths, and are now prepared to listen anew to the wisdom of Christianity. The benefits of Christian faith are made clearly visible to these seekers when they encounter powerfully alive, deeply passionate, genuinely loving saints of Christ who live and work together in peace, joy and love!

The Christian tradition teaches that the source of our existence is God, and God is our ultimate destination. Our task in life--whether it is short or long, heavy with sorrows or light with blessings, or, like most lives, a combination of the two--is to find the path that conveys us toward our true destination.

Material success, fame, or other great personal achievements will not cross with us to the other side. Sometimes we cling to resentments, bitterness, anger, and regrets as though they have some great value or serve us in the quest for our Godly destiny. To carry these weights of deadness with us is hell indeed. The Christian faith calls us to let go and be stripped of all that weakens our capacity to love with a single, pure, authentic heart. It is liberating to let go now and enter into life! If we don't, death will finish the job that we have left incomplete.

Christ followers learn from him that every day should be well lived. Some questions to help us know we are on the path toward our Godly destiny include:

- Did I offer peace today?
- Did I bring a smile to someone's face today?
- Did I share words of healing?
- Did I let go of anger and resentment?
- Did I forgive?
- Did I love?

Christ teaches us that what we sow in love now will bear many fruits, here in this world, and in the life to come.

St. John Vianney wrote: "The eyes of the world see no farther than this life....The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity."

Let's rejoice in traveling God's life-giving path together!

Duff

Weekly Inspiration

2009-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Jesus began to preach, and the message was one he repeated from the sermons of John the Baptist. He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

John was in prison, and Jesus made certain that his voice and message did not go unheard.

He began to preach: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Have we begun to hear? Hearing is an art, listening requires that our spirit is attentive. Who do you know that listens well? Few of us do. What happens when we do listen--when our spirit becomes attentive?

We hear the Holy Spirit's beautiful, inspiring, life-giving music!

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

In His renewing, refreshing love,

Duff

The Adventure of Becoming

2009-04-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Philosopher Bernard Lonergan once noted: "All religious experience at its roots is an experience of an unconditional and unrestricted being in love" (Quoted in Robert Wicks' "Touching the Holy"). Every authentic religious experience is an encounter with infinite Love. Brennan Manning notes that the recovery of passion begins with the recovery of our true self as the beloved (Abba's Child, 125). In discovering the infinite Love of Christ for us, we will also find our true self. If John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:20) were to be asked, "What is your primary identity, your most coherent sense of yourself?" he would not reply, "I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist," but "I am the one Jesus loves."

When I read the gospels, it seems clear that the disciples were truly crazy about Jesus. Theologian Raymond Brown utilizes more restrained prose: "Jesus was remembered as one who exhibited love in what he did and was loved deeply by those who followed him." As followers of Christ today, the love of Christ impels us. Our love for him grows out of the knowledge of his love for us. Living in this love relationship with Christ nurtures in us a growing passionate awareness. We are learning to release regrets, stunted emotions, passivity, and the random or haphazard dissipation of precious life energy that we've been pouring into fruitless relationships and projects. We can release the unproductive, life-draining ways as we begin to trust God more fully. When we live in a fearful mistrust of God, the world, and our self, we have little ability to make a passionate commitment to anyone or anything.

It's nearly impossible to grow and mature when we allow endless rational analysis to keep us from decisive commitment. According to Victor Frankl, a person finds identity only to the extent that "he commits himself to something beyond himself, to a cause greater than himself" (Frankl: Psychotherapy and Existentialism, 9). It seems paradoxical, but we gain a healthy self-awareness, not through self-analysis, but by courageously taking the leap of faith that leads to commitment. The meaning of our lives emerges in the surrender of ourselves to an ADVENTURE OF BECOMING who we are not yet.

In the glorious adventure of becoming we learn that the promised peace that the world cannot give is located in right relationship with God. Self-acceptance (the refusal to be at war with myself) and inner peace become possible only through radical trust in Jesus' acceptance of me as I am. The answer to the question, "Who am I becoming?" is discovered through personal commitment of our heart and life to the loving Christ. He says we can trust in the Father and also in Him (John 14:1), and He reminds us: "Behold, I make ALL things new" (Revelation 21:5).

Will you join me in surrendering to the love-based adventure of becoming who we are not yet--who God's love will grow us to be?

Duff Gorle

Spiritual Satisfaction Leads To Spiritual Service

2009-04-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

In Luke 10:38 we read that "Jesus went into a certain city, and a certain woman named Martha received him. She had as sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying."

Meister Eckhart notes three things that caused Mary to sit at Jesus' feet:

1. God’s goodness had embraced her soul.

2. Mary had a great longing, a yearning, a desire to know God intimately.

3. The words that came from Christ's mouth provided her with sweet comfort (consolation) and happiness (bliss).

The "masters" of the spiritual life have generally agreed that God is ready for every person's spiritual and physical satisfaction to the utmost degree that the person desires.

Richard Foster points out that the Mary and Martha impulses within us are to function in symbiosis. We first need the "one necessary thing" that Jesus spoke of. We first enter a loving, ongoing, ever-growing relationship with God. We learn to be a "branch," gaining our life sustenance from Christ, the Vine.

Once this reality has worked its way deep within us then, out of the abundance of this life, we serve others, freely and joyfully. Even the clarity about which services to undertake and the means for accomplishing them flow out of the "one necessary thing."

Jesus' encounter with Mary and Martha reminds us that sequence is important in our developing spirituality. Spiritual satisfaction gained through the "one necessary thing" precedes authentically joyful, helpful, Spirit-led service to others. Mary and Martha illustrate these two aspects of the Christian life--spirituality and service. These two inseparable twins are interlinked and powerfully influence one another.

Living out of Circle One (the "one necessary thing") will provide the spiritual satisfaction that empowers us for loving service.

Isn't it great to be crazy in love with Jesus?!

Duff

Easter Celebration

2009-04-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

There are so many reasons why I love Easter! It reminds me that if I believe God is the giver of life, then I can trust him when this life he has given comes to a close. We've heard the counsel, "Let other people finish their own sentences." Easter shows us how God finishes his sentence relating to the gift of life! I also find meaning in facing the harsh reality of death. As Randy Pausch has written, "Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something." The non-negotiable reality of our impending death--that life as we know it will end--provides you and me with the opportunity to decide how badly we desire to live this life full-out! We can enjoy investing each precious moment as our gift of loving, healing, inspiring presence in the lives of people we are connected to in this God-given journey we call LIFE!

Let's celebrate God's gift of life this Easter! And let's trust God to finish the sentence when our life comes to a close!

I invite you and any others to participate in Easter Weekend at Phoenix Light & Life. Here's what we have to offer for your blessing and inspiration:

1. 24-hour Prayer Vigil--The prayer chapel will be open from 7 pm Friday until 7 pm Saturday with beautifully prepared "stations of prayer" to help guide our hearts and thoughts into alignment with God's heart and thoughts. We invite you to come and "be" in God's loving presence. We're praying to more fully know God's presence, and God's guidance, personally and in the faith community.

2. International Prayer & Praise 2009--4 pm Saturday in the Worship Center. See the poster to the left--it gives information about this powerful movement of God's unifying and healing love! The music is going to be awesome! Don't miss this event.

3. Easter Breakfast--Beginning at 8:45 am Easter Sunday. Come and enjoy a delicious, complimentary (donations accepted) breakfast as we celebrate God's gift of life in Christ.

4. Easter Celebration--10:30 am, join us for a special Easter service in the Worship Center.

Looking forward to seeing you on Easter Weekend! Bring a friend or two and let's receive and share God's loving kindness in community together.

With blessings and love,

Duff Gorle

Weekly Inspiration

2009-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

This Easter we will again dedicate ourselves to an intentional focus on living the life of prayer. We invite all to participate in the 24-hour prayer vigil, April 10 through 11, at Phoenix Light & Life Church. Our prayer team is serving us by carefully preparing the prayer chapel with "stations of prayer" that are designed to give us opportunities to open our hearts and minds to God's presence and guidance. We will celebrate an International Prayer & Praise gathering Saturday, April 11 from 4pm to 6pm featuring Prayer, The Word, Worship, Music, and Friendship with loving Christ-followers from around the globe! You are invited to participate in this life-changing, inspiring experience.

The Psalmist prayed, "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long" (Psalm 25:4-5). Our life flourishes when we're touched by the Holy Spirit during our times of opening to God in prayer. The presence and power of God are released into our reality in the experience of prayer. God shows us, teaches us, and guides us.

Last Wednesday night in our weekly adult Bible Study, a precious member of our church prayed for her pastor that God would bring people alongside him to "hold up his hands" as was done for Moses when he prayed on the hilltop for Joshua to defeat the Amalekites. This prayer strengthened my heart and encouraged me to follow Christ more fully into the life of God. Let's pray for each other!

When the early church was developing in the first century, 120 disciples prayed during the days between Jesus' ascension and the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4). On the day when the Holy Spirit come with special power, a simple fisherman named Peter gave his testimony, and 3,000 people were converted!

In 1949 Billy Graham and his team held an evangelistic campaign in Los Angeles that reached thousands of people for Christ and lead to a new era of mass evangelism. Graham had conducted similar campaigns but with much smaller results. He later realized that the main difference between the L.A. crusade and all the others before it had been the intention and amount of prayer he and his people had invested in it.

John Wesley recognized the power of prayer when he said: "Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergy or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer." Through prayer God makes the impossible possible. Through prayer, God focuses and greatly multiplies our efforts. C. H. Spurgeon said, "Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray." Spurgeon had recognized that neither his sermons nor his good works accounted for the spiritual impact of his ministry.

Prayer changes us by drawing us closer to God's heart.

I feel convicted that God desires us to increase our intake of spiritual nourishment that comes through the experience of prayer. Will you join me in this exhilarating adventure of opening our lives and our church to God in prayer? God will bring us and our church revival and the joyful energy to reach the potential he has for us!

Joyfully in the mission of God!

Duff Gorle

Finding Joy In the Mission

2009-03-19T08:25:00.001-07:00

In pastoral ministry I've occasionally had the experience of a person coming to me with the message that they are feeling burned-out from doing too much. They generally describe how much pressure they are under through "over involvement" in church, on the job, and in the community. These precious ones usually state that they "just need to cut back."

I generally feel I am being cued to say to them, "I'm so sorry. Please feel free to drop your commitments at the church. We'll find someone else." And this is often the approach I've taken.

It's beginning to dawn on me that there might be a different approach that could sometimes be preferable. This would be a response that tells the person it might be a great mistake to keep quitting things. Such a response would not be because we desperately need the person to continue in their ministry role; quite frankly, that is not usually the case. Rather, it would be a recognition that quitting might simply add to the person's burden of guilt. They feel like an exhausted runner. They are fretting over dropping the messianic baton they have never actually been asked to carry.

Why is it that so many of us who claim to be disciples of Jesus are always tired, while others, who are still getting so much good work done, seem energized and are experiencing tremendous joy? Some Christian workers live in a cycle of perceived failure. They fail again and again in a game they should not be playing in the first place. This is the "playing Jesus" game.

Most of the mistakes we make in our commitments to compassionate service and mission-related work are rooted in a far more serious mistake we make about Jesus, namely, thinking of him in the past tense. The Gospels clearly tell us Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of his Father, where he continues to intercede on our behalf. Jesus is no longer dead! He is still the Savior--and we are not.

Could it be that the followers of Jesus who find joy in the mission recognize that they aren't the ones getting it done? We are simply beholding and wondering at the salvation of Jesus, whom we see at work in every part of their lives.

We are never anything more than his witnesses. Any courtroom judge will clarify it is not the role of a witness to make things happen. Christ is alive and at work in this world! It is his mission and work to bring in a whole new kingdom. We are invited to actively participate, not through trying harder or learning more right answers or passing better legislation, only through prayer. Prayer places us where we can see and recognize Christ's activity in the world. We begin to see all the quiet miracles Jesus is creating. When the church prays, it puts the world back into the hands of our risen Savior.

St. John introduces us to Jesus by stating: "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being" (John 1:3). St. Paul describes Jesus in similar terms: "In him all things in heaven and on earth were created....In him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus started all the work, and it is still being done by him. "The one who began a good work among you," Paul reminds us, "will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

The challenge in the Christian life is not to do less, but to see the risen Jesus at work in every aspect of our living and serving!

Prayerfully finding joy in the mission!

Duff Gorle

Entering Through A Narrow Door

2009-03-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Jesus always invites us to the place where he is, but, as he warned his first disciples, the door leading into this holy place is narrow (see Luke 13:24). Jesus explained that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Luke 18:25).

The problem with being rich is that we have too many things in our hands and so much weight on our backs that we become bent over from the burden of it all. Because the door into the holy place is so narrow, we must let go of everything--absolutely everything--in order to slip through.

You may not feel you are rich, but think about it for a moment.
--RELATIONSHIPS. Some of us are rich in relationships, but there is no group ticket into the holy place. We must release our identities as daughters, sons, friends, lovers in order to enter the lonely place of solitude where the Holy Spirit makes us the beloved of Jesus' Father.
--WISDOM. Many of us are rich in wisdom; some in theological knowledge. To enter the holy place, according to St. Paul, we must drop all of our "wisdom" and become "fools" (1 Corinthians 1:27). This is a clear warning to which we must resist trying to add a little sophistication.
--POWER. Some of us are powerful. We must become weak--the strong must become frail.
--SUCCESS. The successful must drop every achievement until we are no greater than those the world regards as failures.
--ANGER & HURT. Some of us are rich in the abundance of anger and hurt that we nurture and continually carry with us. Those who are limping through life will have to let go of anger, hurt, fear, skepticism and sin.
--RIGHTEOUSNESS. Even our righteousness--especially our righteousness--must fall from our hands. None of it will fit through the narrow door.

At last, stripped of everything, we can encounter Jesus and his invitation to come to the holy place where living water is waiting for us. Nothing is holy apart from Jesus.

Why does it cost so much to enter his holy place? Because we cannot see that the place is holy until we see Jesus there. If there is anything in our hands or on our back, it will distract us from seeing our Savior. Once we see the Savior, we will then see that all the things we have dropped are now in his hands, which, of course, is the best place for them to be.

"Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Your cross I cling."

On the adventure together!

Duff Gorle

Weekly Inspiration

2009-03-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends on this great Adventure!

The theological basis for your and my spirituality is when we cry "Abba! Father!" St. Paul claims that when we do this, "it is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:15-17).

In Christian spirituality, the starting place is not our own thirst for God, but God's loving decision to enfold us into his family. While our decision to receive the grace of God that establishes our relationship with him is essential, the gospel does not begin with any of our decisions.

Most of us can remember saying to someone, "I love you." It seemed like time stopped as we waited for a response. Only one response would be the right one. In saying these words, we put ourselves in a vulnerable position. We hoped to hear in reply, "I love you too." Through the work of Christ and the Spirit, the Father has taken the initiative to tell us that he loves us. The theological term for this initiative is "prevenient grace." God's grace precedes and anticipates our faith in his love for us. We cannot even claim to love God apart from first discovering how much he loves us.

When we see the love of God demonstrated in the cross of Jesus Christ, our response is a deep, life-changing gratitude. We gain a new identity as beloved sons and daughters with whom God is also well pleased.

St. Paul told the believers at Rome, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). The Greek word "syschematizo" translated as "conformed" is in the middle voice, which signifies something we do to ourselves. Through our own efforts we are able only to conform to the imperfect loves of the world. The Greek word "metamorphoo" translated as "transformed" is in the passive voice, which signifies something that happens to us. As our minds are renewed by remembering God's love for us, the Spirit changes our lives. By God's grace, we start to look like God's will--good and acceptable and perfect. In other words, we begin to look more like Jesus Christ.

By the grace of God we are now his children, so, when we revert back to our old addictions to sin, the Spirit reminds us, "No, no, that's not how you act in this family." Once we discover that by grace we have been brought home, we find it irresistible to make the changes that align us with the values and culture of our new family. We will never make these changes by trying hard to get life right on our own. Only God's love is powerful enough to change our lives.

In the home of our Heavenly Father we learn how to give our lives to something greater than a self-absorbed, shallow, empty, dry and thirsty existence. When we come to see what God has done for us in sacrificing his Son because he loves us, and what he has done and continues to do through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then everything about our lives begins to change. Changing our lives is as easy as falling in love!

Your Friend,

Duff Gorle

Relating to God as Father and Friend

2009-02-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

When we refer to God as FATHER, many of us think first of his high expectations for us. Perhaps the image of God we've had since childhood is one that stresses how much he has done for us and how little we have done for him. We've been trained that falling short of expectations makes Daddy very disappointed.

When our primary vision of our relationship with God is about constantly striving to appease a father who can never be satisfied, no matter how good we may be, our efforts at righteous living can become little more than codependent striving. A recent session where Denise and I were counseling an outwardly highly successful person reminded me that even in adulthood, too many of us continue to be more afraid of God than in love with him.

The Bible does tell us to fear God, but not because of his high expectations. Interestingly, it tells us to fear his love. King David explained: "The friendship of the LORD if for those who fear him" (Psalm 25:14). This is no ordinary friend we have! He will not tell us only those things we want to hear. This friend will take us places we never saw ourselves going; he will give us passion for things that we weren't formerly passionate about. This friend will certainly be hard to control.

A few short hours before Jesus was arrested and crucified, he told his disciples, "I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father" (John 15:15). I wonder what went through their minds. Were they surprised? Honored? Confused? They were certainly not his peers, and neither are we, so it does mystify us that Jesus would identify us as his friends.

Servants simply do their jobs. Maybe it would be easier, clearer and much less demanding to remain servants! Friendship is frequently confusing and mysterious; it requires a great deal of trust, and it is all too easy to get burned along the way. I think the greatest challenge in friendship is learning how to give and receive in relation to someone else. In friendship we learn to serve each other.

The Creator of heaven and earth demonstrated his great love for us in the passion of Christ on the cross. When we believe that this Friend was dying to love us, then we can begin to believe there is something worth loving in ourselves. Once we trust our lives to this Sacred Friendship, we can begin to set free our other friends and family members from trying to provide the wellspring of genuine love only a Savior can offer. Human hearts are simply not deep enough.

Having freed our loved ones from the burden of loving us as only a Savior can, we will begin to delight in them as God's beautiful blessings in our lives!

What a health-giving privilege to know the Friendship of the LORD!

With love and friendship,

Duff Gorle

A Spirituality of Joy

2009-02-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

The ultimate purpose of Christian spirituality is to fall deeply in love with God. What good is an ever-increasing sophistication in the principles and practice of the faith unless there is an accompanying passion

The goal of a healthy spirituality should not be merely our own personal development. Such a focus would preoccupy us with our self and our perceived progress or lack thereof. But if our goal is to love God, we preoccupy ourselves with him and the things that are the passions of his heart

When the Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well and caught a glimpse of who he was and the passion of his heart to bring living water to desperately thirsty people, she ran back to town and excitedly communicated: "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" (John 4:29.

When we encounter Jesus we cannot help but echo her excitement as we run joyfully alongside her. We too have been found by One who knows us--who knows everything we have ever done--and yet, in mercy, kindness and love gives us the Holy Spirit who helps us become who we are; beloved sons and daughters of God

David reflected on God's strong hand of protection over him, and he responded by praying: "I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love" (Psalm 31:7). To exult is to be overwhelmed with more joy than our bodies can contain. When we experience this exulting type of joy, we simply must leap to our feet and scream, "Alleluia!"--or something like that.

We talk about this love of God in worship all the time, but we don't always see a lot of exulting. Time and again we encounter the Word of God offering a sacred "I love you." How can anyone hear these amazing words and think, "I know God loves me. Why does the pastor keep saying that?"

In India, the fable is told of a tiger cub that lost his mother and was adopted by a family of goats (See Frederich Buechner's "The Magnificent Defeat"). The goats raised the tiger to speak their language, adopt their ways, and eat their food. Soon the tiger believed he was just a funny-looking goat. One day a king tiger appeared, and all the goats scattered in fear. The young tiger was left alone, feeling afraid, yet somehow unafraid. The king tiger asked him what was meant by this masquerade? All the young tiger could do was bleat nervously and eat grass. So the king carried him to a pool and forced the young tiger to look their reflected images. Side by side, the truth was made clear in what they saw mirrored in the water. Lashing his tail and digging his claws in the ground, the young beast raised his head high, and the jungle trembled at the sound of his exultant roar.

Jesus restores our dignity by forgiving us for all those ways we have settled for being the goat, so that we can spend the rest of life expressing gratitude and roaring with delight!

Thanks for our joyful journey together to God's heart!

Duff Gorle

Inspirational Thought

2009-02-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend,

Our church's mission statement is: "Connecting People to God and Each Other Through Jesus Christ." The desire of our collective heart is to know God intimately through Christ, and to help others know God intimately through Christ, in the context of our loving community of faith.

It is difficult to get to know someone whom you cannot see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or intuit. Through these six senses we take-in information from the universe around us that helps us know reality. In the case of Jesus Christ, how do we get to know and feel personally connected to someone who lived two thousand years ago, and hasn't been seen since?

An agnostic found himself in trouble, and a friend suggested he pray. "How can I pray when I do not know whether or not there is a God?" he asked. "If you are lost in the forest," his friend replied, "you do not wait until you find someone before shouting for help."

Earnest seekers have asked for centuries: "How can we meet, personally connect with, and truly know Jesus?" I'd like to bring forth a few thoughts based in Scripture that suggest how we can come to know God.

1. God initiates our meeting Him. We can notice evidence of God's presence in nature and within our own heart and conscience. John 3:16 states that God sent his Son so that we would know God's love and salvation. John 6:44 notes that God the Father draws us to Himself. 1 John 4:10 tells how God lovingly takes the initiative to establish a relationship with us.

2. Those who want to find God can. Scripture suggests God provides some points of light that are visible to those who choose to look and see. As we've mentioned, there is the light of nature (Romans 1:18-20), and the light of conscience (Romans 2:12-16). There is also the light of Scripture that points to the greatest light, Jesus Himself (1 John 1:7).

3. God is not limited to what is visible. The second of the Ten Commandments tries to help us find God by forbidding us to think of him in visual terms (Exodus 20:4). It forbids us to use images as representations of the divine being. Jesus said, "No one has ever seen the Father." He also said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (John 20:29). Dallas Willard notes how God's spiritual invasions into human life "seem by their very gentleness almost to invite us to explain them away, even while soberly reminding us that to be obsessed and ruled by the visible is death but that to give one's self over to the spiritual is life and peace (Rom. 8:6)."

God is not insensitive to our problem of overcoming the power of the visible world. He invades the visible.

Spiritual people, and particularly people touched by God's Holy Spirit, are those who draw their life from an intimate relationship with God. We do not live our lives merely in terms of the human order in the visible world; we have "a life beyond."

4. The "still, small voice"--the interior or inner voice--seems to be held up by Scripture as the most valuable form of individualized communication for God's purposes. In contrast to the noise and frenzy of the so-called "real world of the visible" the spiritual world whispers to us ever so gently. Generally speaking, God will not compete for our attention.

When we seek God earnestly and are prepared to examine every possible thing that might be his overture to us--including the most obvious things like Bible verses or our own thoughts--then he promises to be found (Jer. 29:13). We will find God only if we honestly believe that God will address us in ways suitable to his purpose in our life.

May we be attentive as God continually, gently, mysteriously guides us into a deeper knowledge of himself.

In His Love,

Pastor Duff Gorle

Time For Change

2009-01-21T14:43:00.000-08:00

TIME FOR CHANGE

On this historic day, with the inauguration of our new president, we're all aware of the theme he carried throughout the campaign: "Change." I'd like to suggest a specific change you and I can pursue this year that will revolutionize our lives for the good.

Martin Luther King, Jr had a dream that his four children would grow up in a world where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. What if we focused on developing a deeper personal experience of that classic Christian virtue known as "Chastity." Chastity is a virtue that helps to build us in spirit, so we can look past a person's skin and into her or his character, insight and depth. Chastity leads us to know the God who is the source of the lovely things in this creation.

Simply put, chastity is the opposite of lust. Chastity recognizes that, though sexuality is part of everyone's being, we are all also spiritual beings. Because we are all created by God we must treat our self and others with respect and dignity. If lust leads to using people for our pleasure, then true chastity, as an attitude of heart, leads to protecting people for the sake of their wholeness and wellbeing.

Lust is deceptive because it looks and feels like intimacy. It can be tempting to accept this substitute intimacy, because meaningful intimacy requires hard work. True intimacy requires that we listen, respect, forgive, encourage, support, affirm, accept, and give unselfishly for the good of the other. Intimacy also requires that we learn humility, patience and perseverance.

Healthy relationships shape us into healthy people! The virtue of chastity makes rich and satisfying relationships possible.

St. Paul warned us that in our fallen state, we are tempted to worship the created rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). While ancient societies worshipped the stars and the moon, in our culture there is commonly the worship of washboard abdomens, tight derrieres, and shapely legs. Becoming captivated by fleshly realities is a form of idolatry. When we lack inner spiritual strength, our natural appreciation of beauty can descend into destructive obsession with external physical realities.

Thomas Aquinas in his Summa pointed out that "those who find no joy in spiritual pleasures turn to the pleasures of the body." Aquinas also noted that an aversion to sex is a vice, not a virtue. So we should never confuse chastity with a prudish attitude that holds sex to be distasteful or dirty. The Biblical book, Song of Songs, celebrates the near intoxication of physical passion. Sexual enjoyment and celebration is not the same as the misdirected fire of lust. Lust is an emotionally violent act that degrades and reduces another persons' value. Lust is a shortcut that leads to the destruction of intimacy and the destruction of self.

We will begin to experience the freedom of chastity as we cultivate an awareness and thirst for the loving, holy presence of God. Let's get to the core of the matter--we need a passionate and heart-enriching relationship of intimacy with God.

Freedom is found when we cultivate a taste for the long-term meaning God gives our lives, as opposed to the short-term excitements gained through pursuit of bodily pleasures. Most of us are aware that sin has a tendency to over-promise and under-deliver. Gary Thomas suggests we try the following experiment: "Compare the twenty-four hours after making a holy choice with the twenty-four hours after the last time you gave in to lust." There's no comparison! The peace and dignity we feel after re-directing our desire is part of the empowering experience of God giving us our life back.

Chastity offers a deep, quiet, peaceful stability to replace the empty, restless personality that is always looking for the next high.

Learning to change our lives away from lust and toward chastity requires that we begin to consider others--not that we just become a little more thoughtful, but we ask God to grow in us a respectful reverence for the people he has made. We must ask God to change our heart, releasing us from the desire to control and use others.

As we change from being a person driven by lust, to a person who lives the discipline of chastity, we'll make the joyful discovery that living a life that reverences others has fewer regrets, deeper friendships, and ultimately much more satisfaction.

Don't we really want a deep, quiet love with God and many strong, healthy relationiships with others? Will you join me in a renewed quest for the interior strength of chastity? In this quest, God will change and grow us in the direction of becoming the person we truly want to be. We will be men and women who are building healthy, mature, and respectful relationships with God, our self, and the people God has placed in our life.

"God is such a stickler about morality, not because he wants to control our behavior, but because he wants us to become the kind of people who can see him and thus experience infinite joy" (Peter Kreeft).

May God change our hearts so that lust gives way to chastity. In this process, we will celebrate beauty without worshiping it. We will be transformed away from domination into respecful self-givers as we begin to live a beautiful, immensely meaningful life.

Here's to a year of beautiful CHANGE!

Thoughts at Thanksgiving Time

2008-11-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

This week we will celebrate a most wonderful holiday that reminds us to value thankfulness. It has been pointed out by others that Thanksgiving is special in part because it has not been overrun by consumerism and commercialization--these sort of go against the spirit of the day!

My hope is that each of us will remember God's endless goodness and respond with gratitude.

In a little prayer book published by the General Conference of American Rabbis, I discovered the following: "Let man see how abundant is God's goodness, and his soul will be filled with the light of genial kindness. He will discover that the motive law of life is not selfish grasping, but generous blessing. The warming sun, the fruitful rain, the abundant earth and the magic seed, are God's messengers, carrying gifts to the children of man. The very will of man, his persistence of purpose, the energy to toil, all come unearned from the Beneficent One. Man indeed labors--that is his destiny, but without God's gifts, he would not have the power to work, nor would his work bring blessing. Let man think of God's endless goodness and be aware of the constant debt he bears his heavenly Father."

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, may the words of the Psalmist be in our hearts: "How can I repay the Lord for all his generous dealings with me?" While we can never begin to repay God's bountiful gifts on our behalf, we can bring him our offering of authentic gratitude. We can express our gratitude by living lives that are good, kind, encouraging, helpful, happy, loving and generous. Our hearts and lifestyle can reflect God's endless bounty.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Duff

The Grace of Humility

2008-10-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus tells a parable about how guests often tend to choose the places of honor at the banquet table. Jesus counsels us: "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor....But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'....For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was educated in Cambridge, England and gained fame as an outstanding scholar. He was ordained in 1633 and became the chaplain to Charles 1. Later in his illustrious career, he was consecrated bishop of Down and Connor, Ireland. Taylor was a prolific writer with deep insights into human behavior. In this blog I am drawing heavily on excerpts from his book: "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living."

Christ calls us to learn to live our lives in humility. Humility is a grace with which God gifts our hearts. This grace must become our habit of life. We can live the grace of humility in the following ways:

1. Maintain a realistic opinion of ourself. This means recognizing that we are spiritually unworthy persons. This suggests we should not judge ourselves according to outward circumstances or what happens to us. All the goodness we experience is God's gracious gifting for our benefit and for the benefit of others. We are merely human--and fallen humans at that. The only thing we can offer that merits worth is our making good choices. But we are not the source--we continue to be hungry when we go without food. When we accept that we are flawed and not fully wise, we should not be angry if someone else agrees! When we know we are unworthy, no one can undervalue or hurt us.

2. Do good things in secret. We will find great satisfaction in being content to go without praise. Let's nurture a love of doing good things in secret. Goodness is its own reward!

3. Never be ashamed. There is no shame regarding our parents, our occupation or present employment, or any reality of our life. Do not be shy about who you really are--speak openly the truth with an indifference to what others might think of you. It is said that Primislaus, the first king of Bohemia kept his old work shoes by his side so that he would always remember his humble upbringing. Do not let praise for yourself be the design of your conversations.

4. Reflect it back to God. Always give God thanks for making you an instrument of his glory for the benefit of others. Be like Moses, whose face shined brightly for others to see, but he did not make it a looking-glass for himself.

5. Focus on the strengths of others. Never compare yourself with others unless it advances your impression of them and appropriately adjusts your impression of yourself. St. Paul encouraged us to think more highly of others than we do of ourselves. It is healthy to focus on the strengths of those around us in order to see our own weaknesses more clearly. In this process we can work to strengthen those areas that are weaker, and we become increasingly whole. Knowing our own weaknesses helps us forgive the weaknesses of others.

6. Enjoy the success of others. It is told of Cyrus that he would never compete in any sport with his friends in which he knew himself to be superior to them. Instead, he would always compete in sports in which he was less skillful than his opponents. He did not want to prove his superiority by winning. He placed more importance on learning from those who were more skilled while at the same time sharing in the joy of their success.

7. The Grace of Humility increases with exercise. Humility always begins as a gift from God, but we can increase our use of this precious gift through exercising the development of a habit of humility. The habit of humility is strengthened through exercise. This exercise includes confessing our sins often to God. This exercise recognizes our impatience, anger, lust and pride as not an occasionally scattered offense in the course of our long life, but rather as one continuous representation of our fallen state. If all our faults and failings were placed next to one another (rather than spaced throughout our long life) we would clearly see the vicious misery of our natural self. This awareness can help when applied as an exercise to the soul, to increase our habit of living the grace of humility.

Our world today hungers for the presence of people who are genuinely humble, because a genuinely humble person is a genuine person! To be humble is to be real. As we learn the habit of living the grace of humility our relationships will become more constructive, healthy, and positive as we interact with one another in a new way of beautiful, life-giving holiness.

With love,

Duff Gorle

Adoring Our Lord

2008-08-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite spiritual mentors over the past twenty years has been Henri Nouwen. Unfortunately, I never had the privilege of knowing him in person, but his writings have provided Spiritual Direction and encouragement for my heart journey.

Dr. Nouwen writes of an opportunity he had to meet with Mother Theresa of Calcutta. He was struggling with many things at the time and decided to use this occasion to ask Mother Theresa's advice. He sat down with her and began immediately to explain all his problems and difficulties, trying to convince her of how complicated it all was.

When, after ten minutes or so of elaborate explanation, he finally became quiet, Mother Theresa looked at him and gently said, "Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything that you know is wrong...you will be fine!"

Nouwen writes: "When she said this, I realized, suddenly, that she had punctured my big balloon of complex self-complaints and pointed me far beyond myself to the place of real healing."

So much of the time we tend to respond to questions from below with answers from below. Mother Theresa's answer was a brilliant flash of light in the darkness of such a futile approach. Nouwen had asked some questions from below, and Mother Theresa gave him an answer from above--from God's place rather than from our human place.

In our humanity we might be susceptible to a superficial search for easy answers and shallow meaning. It is important to remember that God's Spirit is ultimately the sole source of spiritual guidance, comfort and knowing.

Sometimes, in living the questions, answers are found. More often, as our questions and issues are tested and matured in context of our practicing the disciplines of solitude and worshipful adoration of our Lord, the questions simply dissolve.

In our spiritual journeying, let us move forward with a continual openness to the disclosure of the transcendent mystery of God, before whom all questions cease. When we "adore our Lord and never do anything we know is wrong," we will be fine!

Seeing Into The Realm Of The Real

2008-08-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

Unless we call our attention to what passes beyond what is right before our eyes, we simply won't see it. Sometimes seeing in the realm of the real requires letting go of the ever-present, dominating tyrrany of the tangible. Annie Dillard writes of seeing reality by letting go as becoming "transfixed and emptied"--seeing as "an unscrupulous observer."

Spiritual masters have repeatedly spoken of the mind's polluted river--a seemingly ceaseless flow of trivia and trash that we desperately try to dam-up, but to no avail. We must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness, acknowledging its presence without particular interest while we raise our sights and gaze beyond it to the realm of the real, the pure, the silent, the beautiful! "Launch into the deep," says Jacques Ellul, "and you shall see."

The secret of seeing is the pearl of great price.

Think for a moment on Jesus' famous words that "they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not...But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:13, 16, KJV). How frequently I fall into the trap of looking only with the eyes, listening only with the ears, and fail to look and to listen with the heart. My seeing is too often limited, fragmented, and partial.

I pray to learn to see God's reality ever more truly, ever more fully. May I--may we--SEE, in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, that "The world is charged with the grandeur of God."

Duff Gorle

Growing In Love

2008-07-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

Early morning reading today invigorated my heart through the contemplation of St. John's life of growing in love.

The one theme that constantly runs through John's writings is the theme of LOVE. John sums it all up by telling us that Jesus gave to his followers a "new" commandment, and it was to "love one another." (It was "new" because Jesus added the "love others" line to the Shema of Judaism).

But John's own "story of love" is not completely pretty. It appears that John did not learn very much about love from his biological family. He learned love from Jesus!

As a young man, John was crusty and cranky. The gospels tell the truth of at least three significant "love failures" in the life of St. John:

1. John and his brother James (scholars believe they could have been Jesus' cousins) request: "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." If love is service, as Jesus explained it, then John fails in love.

2. John's love for others is tested when he doesn't recognize the validity of someone exorcising demons in Jesus' name. John tries to stop the person from doing miracles and reports him to Jesus. Jesus' loving heart would never denounce someone who is breaking down demonic strongholds. He responds to John: "Whoever is not against us is for us." John failed in extending Christ's love to others--in this case, someone who was doing God's work.

3. John hears that some Samaritans refuse hospitality to Jesus "because he was heading for Jerusalem." John's response is: "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" Ouch! This "disciple of love" prays for hell to fall on these people. Jesus explains to his followers that they are not to think of Sodom and Gomorrah, to call for "ash in a flash," (Scot McNight's words) every time they encounter someone who doesn't respond properly! John's love for the Samaritans is tested, and he fails.

How does John grow into the apostle of love? Even though, when tested, he goes belly-up, the love he experiences in his relationship with Jesus eventually transforms John's story from Thunderbolt to an apostle of love. The would-be MVP becomes the anonymous loved one. Then he writes for us a theology of love.

Nothing is more important for the development of love than being loved. We may be taught the importance of love, but to experience it is to know it. John spent plenty of time with Jesus and in the context of this relationship, he comes to know what it is to be loved. John begins to refer to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

Like John, you and I can grow into "apostles of love." I'll close today's entry with Henri Nouwen's powerful, practical challenge: "Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do....As long as 'being the Beloved' is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence...."

It is said that, as an old man, all John wanted to talk about was love. His own students were amazed at how loving he was. He would have been the first to remind them "it was not always so."

Your becoming loving friend!

Duff

Same Sex Marriage and Religious Freedom

2008-07-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

This is shaping up to be a fascinating political year. As you undoubtedly know, for the first time the California Supreme Court recently upheld the legality of gay marriage in that state. Massachusetts was the first state to approve gay marriage.

It deserves repeating that the Bible affirms the value of human sexuality expressed in marriage between a man and a woman. We also uphold the gospel teaching that Christ died for all, and that his love is inclusive. Christ-followers do not hold hostility toward homosexuals, neither do we have a heart to tolerate unfair discrimination, intolerance, or a breach of any of the gospel principles of love to all God's children.

The issue I'm raising is the emerging reality that religious freedom has less legal protection than gay rights. The California Supreme Court held that homosexuals shall enjoy the same legal status as race--protection as a fundamental right. Yet the same court has refused to recognize that religious liberty is a fundamental right and has ruled against religious freedom interests. According to Alan J. Reinach, Esq., a religious liberty attorney, there is now a "legal imbalance" where gay rights receive maximum protection, while religious freedom is granted less protection.

Now that homosexuality is equated with race, we can expect a wide variety of challenges to religious organizations that adhere to traditional Biblical interpretations. The city of Boston required adoption agencies to serve homosexuals, and refused to accomodate the religious objections of Catholic Charities. Although Catholic Charities accounted for most of the adoptions in Boston, it closed its adoption agencies rather than compromise its religious convictions. Thousands of children are now "stuck" in foster care as the city itself has not chosen to provide adoption services to gay couples.

I read that cases have been filed against wedding photographers who refuse to film gay wedding ceremonies. Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption because its policy against interracial dating was inconsistent with public policy. Similar challenges to the tax exempt status of churches and other religious organizations are expected.

This past May, the California Supreme Court heard arguments that two doctors and a medical clinic discriminated against a lesbian couple by denying them artificial insemination services. The doctors argued that they properly referred the patients for services that they could not conscientiously provide. Lawyers for the patients insist that religion not be allowed as a defense.

No matter where you or I come down on any of these issues, the point is that our long-held assumption that religious liberty enjoys a preferred status in the USA as a fundamental constitutional right is no longer necessarily true. In its 1990 peyote decision, the Supreme Court discarded the First Amendment's protection for the free exercise of religion as a "luxury that a well-ordered society can no longer afford." One legal observer noted the court has ruled against religious freedom in every case since that time. For example, in 1995, the Court held that Evelyn Smith's Presbyterian faith was not a good enough reason to refuse to rent one of her four duplex apartments to an unmarried [heterosexual] couple, despite the fact that in her city, Cal State Chico maintained hundreds of housing units exclusively for married couples.

The issue of gay marriage may be resolved this November when Californians have the opportunity to amend the state constitution to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. But this will not change the legal status of homosexuality as a fundamental right, given more protection than the right to practice one's faith.

It appears the trend in America is that religious freedom will mean the freedom to hold one's faith in private, but not to practice it publicly.

Let us pray for courage to honor Christ regardless of the cultural and legal environment we may encounter in the days ahead.

With love and hope!

Duff Gorle

War From A Biblical Standpoint

2008-06-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is a tiny part of a much larger discussion in which many Christians are engaged relating to how to view the issue of war from a Biblical standpoint.

The Bible presents war as a disciplining action reflecting the judgment of God. When people obeyed God and lived by his principles, they were rewarded with peace. When war was waged, as a dire necessity, against corrupt states, God's faithful people suffered few losses. Repeatedly we see instances where God's people, even though terribly outnumbered, could successfully rout many.

How does war in the Bible square with the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill?" John Calvin pointed out that followers of God's law should not be part of unjustly doing violence to others. By this standard, hundreds of political and economic wars and badly labeled "revolutions" in our world's recent history are wars that Godly people should oppose. Unjust violence can be terrorism under the guise of liberation.

On the other hand, is it ever right to kill? It seems that according to the Bible defensive war (and capital punishment) are legitimate because they react to the unjust deeds of criminal terror, whether that terrorism is conducted against individuals or a nation.

God's loving people have a passion for preventing violence. We who would not ourselves "harm a fly" cannot stand aside watching when a neighbor is being savagely beaten by criminals who have no respect for human dignity or God's rule of peace. We are committed to peace and serving the Prince of Peace.

Two examples of Bible teaching on war stand in juxtaposition to each other which suggests the need for a balanced approach to understanding the Biblical perspective:

1. Psalm 68:30 "Rebuke the company of spearmen....Scatter the people who delight in war."

2. Proverbs 24:6 "For by wise counsel you shall make war...."

I'm interested in hearing what you think about the Bible's teaching on war. Our nation's participation in war is one of the most important themes in this year's election. Let's help to sharpen one another on the Biblical standpoint of war.

In peace,

Duff Gorle

An Optimistic Future

2008-06-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's summer and our church family has a healthy habit of taking vacation and traveling to refreshing places. I affirm this "Sabbathing" behavior and hope to emulate it more in my own life!

This past Sunday, about ten of our precious families were away, and we felt the diminished size of the worshipping community. The Lord was present and our time together was sweet, but I'll confess that when I stood up to teach, I noticed that the crowd was smaller than usual.

It bothered me that I noticed, because I recognized just a touch of disappointment in the part of me that naturally looks for indications of things moving forward well and being "successful!"

My mind tends to look toward the future wondering what God is doing and what it will look like. I've been called a "dreamer!"

I love our church's mission: "Connecting people to God and each other through Christ!" The natural outcome of being connected to God is being optimistic about the future.

The Lord spoke to Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and reminded him that he knows the plans he has for us, plans for a future and a hope, plans for our welfare and not destruction.

The church of Jesus Christ is always looking forward. Obeying Christ's call, we live our individual and corporate lives in the context and reality of three primal essences: faith, hope, and love.

Erwin McManus points out: "People are looking for something worth believing in, somewhere to belong, and something to become." He goes on to remind the church that when we live in the context of the "apostolic ethos"--produced through living in faith, love, and hope--the intrinsic longings of the human spirit will be called out and find their fulfillment.

Faith, love, and hope are wellsprings that supply the church with the soul of authentic spiritual life. Faith, hope, and love build a church that just can't be stopped! There's no challenge or struggle too great for these Godly realities to overcome.

Praise God that his gifts of faith, hope, and love continually move us toward optimism. As we live in these Godly realities, we'll find they are the fuel that ignites our lives and our church, just as they ignited Christ-followers in the first-century!

Let's do it! Let's live by faith, be known by love, and speak with the voice of hope.

For God's glory, and our blessing!

Sincerely,

Duff

A God-intoxicated Life

2008-05-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kelly in his spiritual inner-life classic, "A Testament of Devotion" shares about his journey into a "God-intoxicated life." Through much personal struggle in life's crucible of failure and pain, he came to the experience of "arising to gently float in the grace of God with a simple childlike obedience and trust."

Richard Foster writes about Kelly's heartache and pain relating to two major life experiences. The first was his failure of the oral examination to complete the Ph.D at Harvard. Kelly was rejected for the Ph.D with no opportunity of reconsideration. He had pursued this second doctorate at great personal cost, both financially and physically (he had previously earned a Ph.D in philosophy from Hartford Theological Seminary).

The second experience came in the summer of 1938 when Kelly went to Hitler's Germany. Sharing in the suffering of the German people immeasurably deepened his heart. He reported that during this experience he had been "literally melted down by the love of God."

Later he told several close students of a particular experience in the great cathedral at Cologne where, on his knees, he seemed to feel God laying upon his heart the whole congealed suffering of humanity--a burden too terrible to be borne--andyet somehow bearable with God's help.

These two experiences brought enormous power to Kelly's writing in the final years of his life.

His pursuit of the "God-intoxicated life" led him to venturing into the inner sanctuary of the soul, where God meets each individual in a profoundly intimate way. He called this a journey to "Love at the center." He wrote: "In awful solemnity the Holy One is over all and in all, exquisitely loving, infinitely patient, tenderly smiling. Marks of glory are upon all things, and the marks are cruciform and blood-stained. And one sighs, like the convinced Thomas of old, 'My Lord and my God' (John 20:28)."

He equated this inner encounter with God with Paul's experience when he wrote, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20).

The next step Kelly took was a conscious emptying of self into God, and receiving God's in-filling. "In glad, amazed humility we cast on Him our little lives in trusting obedience, in erect, serene, and smiling joy. And we say, with the writer of Psalms, 'Lo, I come: in the book of the law it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God' (40:7-8)." Our attitude becomes one of being ready to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint.

Kelly observed that "The Hound of Heaven is on our track, the God of Love is wooing us to His Holy life." He discovered that holy obedience is beginning where we presently are. Obeying now. "Use what little obedience you are capable of, even if it be like a grain of mustard seed." Begin where you are--live this present moment in utter submission and openness toward God.

I enjoy Kelly's practical suggestion in learning holy obedience: "Don't grit your teeth and clench your fists and say, 'I will! I will!' Relax. Take hands off. Submit yourself to God."

May our experiences of personal failure, brokenness and struggle be useful fodder for spiritual growth in an empowered, intimate, peaceful submission to God. The spiritual gift of holy obedience--childlike obedience and trust--will bring deep beauty and satisfaction to life during our earthly pilgrimage. Here's to living a "God-intoxicated life!"

Blessings and love,

Duff

Conversion: A gift and an achievement

2008-05-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) devoted his entire life to the subject of conversion. He pointed out that there is a delicate balance between the activity of God and the response of God's children in the establishment and cultivation of conversion.

Conversion is the act of a moment and the work of a lifetime! It is a process of receptivity and response. Jones wrote: "You cannot attain salvation by disciplines--it is the gift of God. But you cannot retain it without disciplines." It is impossible to discipline an unsurrendered self, but when our self is surrendered to God and a new center formed, then we can discipline our life around that new center--Christ. Discipline is the fruit of conversion, not the root.

St. Paul noted (Col. 2:6-7): "As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith." The "rooted" means we are receptive and take from God as the roots take from the soil. The "built up" suggests we build as one builds a house--we form a character and life by wise planning and difficult effort.

To use a cliche, we trust as if the whole thing depended on God and work as if the whole thing depended on us! These are the alternate beats--the rhythm--of the converted Christian heart; receptivity and response--receptivity from God and response in work from us.

We can see in Christ's life some basic habits (disciplines) that helped to keep his journey vital and fresh:

1. "He stood up to read as was his custom"--he read the Word of God by habit, and in the context of the faith community (synagogue).

2. "He went out into the mountain to pray as was his custom"--he prayed by habit and entered into the context of solitude.

3. "He taught them again as was his custom"--he actively exercised his spiritual gift(s) and shared with others, for their spiritual benefit, what he had discovered for himself.

These simple disciplines were the foundation habits of Christ's life. They are as up-to-date as tomorrow morning. Those of us who are experiencing God's gift of conversion would do well to learn and live with these habits that keep our spiritual life vital and fresh!

May the vibrant experience of conversion keep God's fire burning in our hearts!

Your friend,

Duff

I Value The Sabbath

2008-04-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I recently received a query from an excellent friend from days past when I served as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. He discovered that I now pastor a Free Methodist Church and he asked me this question: "Do you still think the Sabbath is an important part of the commandments?"

In this entry I share briefly some thoughts related to the Sabbath. My prayer is that each of us focuses more clearly on the blessing of God's gracious gift of Sabbath in our lives.

Yes, I feel the Sabbath is an important part of the commandments. I feel the commandments are all equally true and that God's good and wise counsel remains good and wise.

I don't see the ten commandments as "binding" on the Christian in relation to our gaining salvation. St. Paul makes clear our salvation is "not by works of the law" but by receiving the Gospel of justification through faith in Christ. But the commandments reflect God's excellent principles lovingly given to help us live the good life with God, self and others.

I recently read a fun little story on this topic: A country pastor is out fishing on his day off. A parishioner spots him and says, "You know pastor, the Devil doesn't take a day off." "And if I didn't take a day off," replies the pastor, "I'd be just like him!"

In Deuteronomy the Sabbath command is repeated as part of the 10 commandments, only its justification is different (than the one given in Exodus 20). Deuteronomy 5:15 states: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."

In other words, not only are rest and relaxation necessary for staying creative (Gen. 20), but without them, we're little more than than slaves in this world. The most important event in the Old Testament is God's liberation of the Hebrew slaves from bondage to Pharaoh. Linking the Sabbath command to this liberation event effectively says, "If you don't integrate at least one full day of deep rest into your life, not even God can liberate you!"

God does not want us to view rest as a luxury but rather as a necessary part of a balanced, free lifestyle.

In Jesus' day, when a particular day (Saturday) was commonly recognized among Jews for Sabbath observance, Jesus continually reminded people to see beyond its legal requirement to the heart of what it was all about: "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). When the Pharisees challenged Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus countered, "Is it lawful to do good or to harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3:4).

Christians need to be dialoguing openly with one another about what Sabbath means in our day and age and what the integration of rest, relaxation, prayer, worship and play in everyday life really looks like on a personal and communal level. Individually, we must evaluate our own priorities and Spirit-led convictions, then live by them.

May the Sabbath experience lived-out in our lives liberate and refresh us both spiritually and physically.

Blessings!

Duff

Living The Law of Love

2008-04-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

There are questions within the Christian community about the relationship of a "New Covenant" believer in Christ to the "Old Covenant" law of Moses. Let's think briefly on God's law in its "old" and "new" contexts. Application of any meaningful truth into a person's lifestyle requires contextualization.

God gave the ten commandment law to Moses and the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. They needed to be liberated between their own ears from a tyrranical slavery under which they had lived for over 430 years. They didn't know how to live well and love well of their own free will. They needed clear guidance and a specific framework for morally constructive living in relation to God, self and others.

The content of the New Testament moral law is identical to the Old Testament, but the context is different. The Old Testament law applied in the context of a theocratic nation. The moral commandments in the New Testament apply to individual believers in Christ.

It is important to know that the eternal ethical principles embodied in the Mosaic Law are the same ones restated in the New Testament. But the context in the New Testament is GRACE instead of judgment, since Christ has taken the judgment on our behalf. If a person commits adultery under grace, they have violated God's law, but they won't have to pay with their life as they would have had to under the Mosaic law 3,000 years ago. Christ paid with his life once for all (Hebrews 10:10). That is why St. John wrote: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).

Christians are not under Moses' particular edition of God's ethical directives. When a Christian lies or steals, they are not breaking Moses' law, nor do they pay the consequences of Moses' law. They are, however, breaking God's eternal law of LOVE.

God has not changed (Hebrews 6:18; 13:8). He is still the God of love in the New Testament as he was in the Old Testament. The moral principles that express his love to us and show us how to share that love with God and others are still the same.

Jesus spoke of at least two laws of love: one for loving God and one for loving people (Matthew 22:37-39). He also said he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it (Matthew 5:17). There is synergy between the Old law and the New because when we truly love God and our fellow humans, we will find ourselves not breaking the ten commandments (Romans 13:10).

Each of the ten commandments gives us the loving thing to do and the unloving thing to avoid in our relationship with God, self and others. Each law is love put into words!

1. "You shall have no other gods before me" says that loving devotion to God is a pure and wholehearted lifestyle unrivaled by any person, idea or thing.

2. "You shall not make for yourself an idol" says that loving devotion to God focuses on God, not on religious or secular practices, props or substitutes.

3. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God" shows that loving devotion to God includes respect and reverence for God's unique person and identity.

4. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" says that loving devotion to God includes time spent each week (regularly) in worship and rest.

5. "Honor your father and your mother" says love for parents is expressed through recognition, respect and showing them high esteem.

6. "You shall not murder" says that love for others respects their right to have their life preserved.

7. "You shall not commit adultery" says that love for spouse (or future spouse) is demonstrated through sexual purity and faithfulness that empowers intimacy.

8. "You shall not steal" says that love for others is expressed by respecting their property, possessions, reputation and identity.

9. "You shall not give false witness against your neighbor" says that love for others is shown through dealing in relation to them honestly and truthfully.

10. "You shall not covet" says that love for others focuses on what we can give to others through our personal investment and service, rather than considering what we might be able to get that belongs to them.

Love is the heart of each of God's commands.

In both the Old and New renditions of God's moral requirements we see that LOVE is the only life-giving way to respond and be in constructive relationship with God, self and other people.

God wants us to be clear on his call to live lives fully committed to love, so he spelled out what the life of love looks like in very specific terms in his laws. God's law is love put into words.

We can say, "Love is the one moral absolute."

God is revolutionizing our individual lives and this world with his love!

Praise God!

I love you,

Duff

God's Self-Revelation

2008-03-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

My heart burns with the desire for loved ones, friends, and people I've never met to know God and God's saving, healing love for them. I've often wondered how God's wrath can be expressed toward the unrighteousness and disbelief of people who seemingly don't even know the truth about God.

In studying Paul's letter to the Romans in recent weeks, I've been reminded of an amazing spiritual truth that I'll touch on briefly today. St. Paul speaks to the question about how God deals with people who have different levels of exposure to divine truth. He seems to be answering my objection as to how God can rightfully "be angry" at people, and "punish" people for suppressing truth that they've never had.

Paul says that when it comes to the awareness of God--to knowing the truth of God's existence--all humans are without excuse. He teaches that God reveals Godself to every person on the planet. In other words, my objection is not valid! There are no people on the earth who have an excuse or a warrant to protest the wrath of God against their unrighteousness and sin.

This is because God has made Godself evident--God reveals himself. The Apostle says: "That which is known about God is evident among them; for God made it evident to them" (Romans 1:19). How did God do that? In the middle of verse 20, St. Paul says, "being understood through what he has made." God makes sure that a knowledge of himself does not just happen coincidentally. God does something to make himself known--he provides self-revelation through his poetic, (Greek: poiema), creative works. He made the world out of nothing and created the universe and everything in it as his own artisitic, poetic expression of himself.

God planned, designed, acted, crafted, created and made. And in doing that, Paul says in verse 19, God made himself evident to all humankind. The universe is an inescapable poem about God!

In summary, In Romans 1:19-21, Paul is arguing that:

1. The Creator's power and deity are evident (verses 19b, 20). God is the creator of all things and the master communicator of himself.

2. All people know God! Paul says in verse 21: "They knew God." Yes, the truth is suppressed (by science, philosophy, secularism, ...), but it is there--distorted though it might appear to be--for God does not leave himself without a witness to every mind and heart.

3. Humans tend to suppress the knowledge of God. They suppress this knowledge and do not glorify or give him thanks (verse 21b).

William Dembski in his book The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press) points out that many well-known scientists must continually suppress the suspicion that there is design (poiema) in the universe. For example, he quotes Richard Dawkins, an "arch-Darwinian" who says: "Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose." And he quotes Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, who says: "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved."

Paul said that the truth of God's "designed things" must be constantly suppressed (lest scientists come face to face with their Maker and be compelled to glorify him and give him thanks). Those of us who love and worship God and revel in his glory labor with all our strength, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to help open people's hearts to the beautiful truth of God and his loving, creative presence around and within us.

4. Everyone is without excuse before God. Every person on the planet is deserving of being under God's wrath. We are all "without excuse." Nobody can bring a legitimate protest against God's justice in this. The greatest tragedy in our culture is not so much the use of illegal drugs, participation in illicit sex, murder, theft, poverty, homelessness or abuse. The pivotal tragedy is that people are trying to "live" without the hope that comes from hearing the Gospel--the good news of God's love for us and his full provision through Christ for our escaping the wrath we certainly deserve.

You and I have the remedy--we're walking, running, skipping joyfully the path of escape. We're trusting God for salvation, healing and freedom! The free gift of God's perfect righteousness [not God's wrath] is offered to all and can be freely received through trusting our loving God.

We have in our heart and in our mouth the most powerful strategy for healing the world through connecting people to God's saving love for them--this powerful truth is called he Gospel of Jesus Christ! Let's believe and be transformed by the Gospel, and take God's constant, loving, saving presence with us into our world and beyond!

Grateful for Jesus and his clear revelation of God!

Duff

The True Light Coming Into The World

2008-03-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

In St. John the Evangelist's words, "The Word...the true light...was coming into the world...that had its being through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him" (John 1:9-11).

In our world today it seems the darkness is thicker than ever. Our church is called "PHOENIX LIGHT & LIFE" and we must continually ask ourselves what is required of those who desire to bring light into the darkness, "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord's year of favor" (Luke 4:18-19). What is required of the person who responds to God's call to enter fully into the dark realities of this present time and speak a word of hope?

Henri Nouwen, years ago, noted the challenges of ministering with a presence and message that are "counter-culture." He wrote (specifically to pastors): "The pressures in ministry are enormous, the demands are increasing, and the satisfaction is diminishing." How do we continue in the direction of being a vital witness of Christ during times that are often filled with temptations to unfaithfulness, the comfort of self-centeredness, and discouragement or despair?

In a world that continues to prefer the darkness to the light (John 3:19), let us heed the counsel of St. Paul: "Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do" (Romans 12:2).

In a nutshell, we gain a new mind by turning from the world's darkness--going into times of solitude, being silent, and praying. These are three time-tested ways of preventing the world from shaping us into its image. These are three paths to a vital, energized, life in the Spirit!

So, we can bring light and life into this dark world as we discipline ourselves in the spiritual path of 1) Turning away from the world's darkness--developing a lifestyle that includes the discipline of solitude; 2) Regularly going into times of silence, and 3) Praying always.

Nouwen in his classic book, "The Way of the Heart" emphasizes that solitude shows us the way to let our behavior be shaped "not by the compulsions of the world but by our new mind, the mind of Christ" (p. 91). He suggests that silence prevents us from being "suffocated by our wordy world and teaches us to speak the Word of God." Finally, Nouwen points out that "unceasing prayer gives solitude and silence their real meaning." In prayer we enter, through our heart, into the heart of God and we connect to God's powerful creative and recreative love.

This Easter, and always, my prayer is that the true light of Christ will be known within us and then shown through us!

Happy Easter!

Pastor Duff Gorle

An Alien Righteousness

2008-03-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend,

We are presently in a teaching series on Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. As you probably know, the book of Romans has a central theme of faith, or trust in God. All God's good gifts are received by us through exercising faith in Jesus Christ.

Christianity is a community of believers in Jesus Christ. We belong to God and one another through and in Jesus Christ.

The Christian is a person who finds her salvation, deliverance and justification (being made right with God) in Jesus Christ alone. We Christians know the Word of God pronounces us guilty, even when we may not feel guilty, and God's Word pronounces us righteous, even when we do not feel that we are righteous at all. We no longer trust in our own judgment on spiritual matters, but live by the claims of God.

I've recently been reading some of Dietrich Bohnhoeffer's wonderful thoughts on Christian Community. He noted that if someone asks a Christian, "Where is your salvation, your righteousness?" he can never point to himself. He points to the Word of God in Jesus Christ which assures him salvation and righteousness. The Christian view is that help must come from outside ourselves--and it does come to us daily and in fresh ways through the Word of Jesus Christ who brings us into connection with God's precious gifts of redemption, righteousness, a renewed innocence, and a joyful inner blessedness. The Reformers referred to this righteousness as an "alien righteousness" that comes from outside us (extra nos).

The fact that we are brothers and sisters in the Christian community only through Christ is of immeasurable significance. We each belong in this blessed community solely by reason of what Christ has done for each of us. We are who we are by reason of Christ. God is teaching us to meet one another as God has met us in Christ (Romans 15:7).

Christian fellowship is not an ideal that we must reach; rather it is a beautiful reality created by our loving God in Christ where we have the privilege of participating for our own healing and growth in love.

Love and Faithfulness

2008-02-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

As we focus on LOVE, let's remember the connection between faith and love. Where there is no faith, love cannot flourish. Love, like faith, demands confidence without assurance. As with all spiritual reality, certainty is not the point; rather faith goes beyond reason and evidence, and Scripture states that love is even above these (1 Cor. 13).

For those who need them, there are many simple proofs that love exists. In our daily lives we notice how a seed planted in the earthy soil grows into a colorful, fragrant flower. We touch or are touched by someone and new strength emerges. Tears are wiped away and smiles return with a sparkle in the eye. These are small examples of the miraculous power of love.

It takes faith to accept and become comfortable with the reality of love deep within our heart. A faith-full love is our experience of releasing the questioning about love's existence, and ceasing to require validation. Pascal stated: "Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is from God."

May our hearts be faithful in continually accepting God's gift of love!

Christians and Politics

2008-02-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

On July 10, 1822 James Madison wrote in a letter to Edward Livingston: "I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."

The majority of Christians in America have traditionally agreed with James Madison and stood in staunch support of "the separation of church and state." The resistance to comingling religious and political power comes not only from a commonly shared American heritage but more importantly, from our shared Biblical tradition. In recent times, certain branches of Christianity have departed from this view. Christian leaders have become more political in their publically stated views. Recently, James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a well-known and respected family-values group said he will abstain from voting if Senator John McCain is the Republican nominee.

The relationship between religion and politics in the Bible is marked by skepticism, challenge, and at times down-right opposition. In the Book of Judges, for instance, there is a humorous parable of a group of trees who go out seeking someone to rule over them (Judges 9:8-15). They approach an olive tree, a fig tree and a grape vine, asking each in turn to serve as their king. All decline the proposition, explaining that they're too busy producing oil, figs, and wine to concern themselves with kingship. Then the trees approach a thorny bramble bush. The bramble, which produces nothing of value, is only too happy to rule over them! This parable takes a jab at political leaders, suggesting that if they had anything better to do, they wouldn't seek positions of governmental authority.

There was a period in Israel's history when the people were so skeptical about human political power that for about 200 years, they chose no king at all. God alone was thought to be sovereign. It was cause of much anguish to the faithful prophet Samuel when the pressure of surrounding nations moved the people to request a human leader to act as king.

It's true the biblical prophets were not always adversaries of the state. The prophet Nathan, for instance, served as a close friend and advisor to King David during his reign. However, this same prophet is responsible for one of the harshest criticisms of David in the entire Bible.

In the New Testament, we see that Jesus' relationship with the state is clearly not a comfortable one. And Paul repeatedly goes to prison for his beliefs and is eventually executed by the very government about which he writes in Romans 13.

What is the prudent path of political participation for today's Christian? We would do well to follow Jesus Christ's admonition to "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" (See Matthew 22:16-22).

The bottom line is, when we give the emperor what properly belongs to God, we must bear in mind that the emperor will always seek to use his enhanced power to play God. American Christians, having escaped the tyranny of medieval Europe, have always found it far better to err on the side of safeguarding religious freedom than to err on the side of empowering the emperor.

The wall of separation between church and state protects the church more than it does the state. Let us be politically involved, without allowing politics to distract us from "being about our Father's business."

TRUSTING THE DIVINE INTENTION

2008-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

I expect that much of the time you and I are completely unaware of the Divine intention in who we are and what we do. We struggle to entrust ourselves to Mystery.

The eleventh step of the Alcoholics Anonymous program is this: "Sought to improve my conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, seeking only the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out."

I read recently a beautiful story told by one of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning. My adaptation of the story goes like this:

A water bearer in India had two large pots. Each hung on opposite ends of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other was perfect. The perfect pot always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house. The cracked pot arrived only half-full. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments because it fulfilled magnificently the purpose for which it had been made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable about only accomplishing half of the job.

After two years of failure, the bitter pot spoke to the water-bearer one day by the stream. "I'm ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you," the pot said.

"Why are you ashamed?" asked the water-bearer.

"I've been unable to deliver more than half my share of the load for these past two years, because this crack in my side allows water to leak out all the way back to the master's house. My flaws are reducing your ability to fully accomplish your work."

The water-bearer responded: "I have always known about your flaw, and I have taken advantage of it. I planted flower seed on your side of the path, and every day, as we have walked back from the stream, you have faithfully watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have had this beauty to grace his house."

Disappointment in our being or performing arise from our presuming to know the outcome fo a particular endeavor. The cracked pot was clueless about its life-giving, life-beautifying purpose as a vessel.

St. John writes, "A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven" (John 3:27). Any attempt to measure the value of our lives by comparison and contrast to others belittles our gifts and shows ungratefulness to God.

Despite our "flaws"--our physical cracks, intellectual limitations, emotional struggles, and spiritual fissures--we can and must trust that God has providentially equipped us to fulfill the unique purpose of our existence.

Flourishing in Our Present Reality

2008-01-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

It is natural to human nature that we sometimes wish we were not where we are. We find ourselves in relationships and circumstances that we would prefer were different in some way. Some folk struggle to be happy and productive in certain geographical locations. Our work environment can cause us anxiety. Even churches can be tough places to feel at home--our own shortfalls or perhaps the hypocrisy of others can cause a struggle within our hearts.

It seems to me there are two ways of approaching life in this imperfect world:

1. We can say, "I don't like it, and I don't want to have to invest myself in a place or among people where I don't find satisfaction or see a promising future." Or,

2. We can say, "I will do the very best I can with the realities of my life. Far more important than the climate, economics, attitudes and people in my life at this place and time is the God who is with me at this place and time!" "Where I am is a place that was created for me by God, and the people in my life are people whom God loves and has lovingly placed here."

I've read where Francois Fenelon said there are two kinds of people--those who look at life and complain of what is not there; and others who look at the realities of life and rejoice in what is there!

We have a choice to complain and limit our living based on what we don't presently have, or we can live positively and brightly in the reality of what we do have.

The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah had this choice (See Jeremiah 29:1-14). He sent this letter from Jerusalem to the surviving elders, priests, prophets and all the Jewish people living under Nebuchadnezzar's rule having been taken in exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. He brings an amazing word from the Lord to these "displaced" folk.

I'll just touch on a couple of his points in this letter. In verse 7 he reports the Lord's counsel: "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." In verses 11-13 God says: "I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray for me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU."

Will we open ourselves to being useful to God in the situational and relational contexts of our present life? Is it possible that the people, culture, opportunities, as well as the physical place and time (maybe even the church?!) found in our life today are God's good gifts intended to help us grow and flourish?

Building the life of our dreams in "hostile" surroundings is hard. But, knowing God's personal presence that is constantly with us each moment empowers us to live God's loving, good and perfect will right where we are.

Thankful That God Loves Me!

2007-11-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

My prayer is that your heart will overflow with gratitude as you experience the depth of God's love for you.

On that dark Friday afternoon when Jesus hung in agony on the cross, the two Marys and John focused their attention not primarily on Christ's suffering, but on the suffering Christ himself. They were completely enthralled by the one who "loved us and gave himself up for us" (Ephesians 5:2).

Brennan Manning points out that for these loved ones of the Lord, Christ on the cross was a burning and divine reality, and their lives would have been "utterly incomprehensible except in terms of it" (Signature of Jesus, 68). Manning continues: "Mary Magdalene would have been buried in history as another tragic heroine if it were not for her immense, passionate, and uncompromising love for the person of Jesus." It's likely that John would have lived out his life as a disillusioned disciple at best.

Yet, these loved ones of Jesus stood with him as he was brutalized and painfully murdered.

Jesus said of Mary Magdalene: "Her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much" (Luke 7:47).

Jesus said, "Know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). What is the basic truth that sets free the Marys, John, and all followers of Christ who walk, skip and jump in freedom today? It is the truth Christ shows us about a God who loves us beyond our worthiness or unworthiness, beyond boundary, limit, or breaking point.

The personal experience of God's love is the power that frees us to become illuminated, transformed and transfigured as were Mary Magdalene and John the Apostle. The experience of knowing God's love is the dynamic life-giving force that has created all the extravagant lovers in Christian history.

Four hundred years ago, a 34 year-old widow named Marjory Kemp wrote this prophetic word: "More pleasing to me than all your prayers, sacrifices, and good words is that you would believe that I love you."

My heart is filled with gratitude from knowing the love of God for me! The Christ who brought God's love to us in human terms says: "Take up your cross daily. Forgive those who hate you or hurt you, cheat you or slander you. Reject the world-wisdom that welds your identity to money, power, pleasure and the psychological insights of the social sciences. Find your true self by surrendering your heart to the "reckless" love of God for you!

I invite you join me this Thanksgiving in a commitment to live with St. Paul in this glorious, life-giving freedom: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

This is the good life of knowing God's beautiful, constant love for us and for all.

God Risks Trusting Us With Freedom!

2007-11-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

Ever since Jesus announced: "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free," people have been attempting to explain away his remark. Some suggest what Jesus meant is that we are free not to sin. This is true--we are free not to sin. And we are also free to sin.

Perhaps the radical truth of freedom in Christ sometimes makes us frightened of freedom. It feels like a wild freedom that would allow a person to choose right or wrong, good or bad, this way or that way.

Freedom in Christ is a "wild freedom" that opens to each of us the option to run toward Christ or away from Christ. Freedom in Christ means I am free from everyone else's definition of freedom for me. In relationship with Christ and because I am free in Christ, I receive a freedom where I only answer to him. Being free in Christ means I am free from the concerns of others that I might not use my freedom in constructive and correct ways.

Freedom in Christ is clearly about being alive in the Holy Spirit and seeking to know and follow God's precepts. Saint Paul said: "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Psalmist stated: "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts." When we intention and seek to follow God's commands and to be spiritually alive in God's Spirit, we are set free to roam in the wide open spaces of God's limitless love!

God's Word teaches that God trusts us with freedom, even though we might not always be able to fully handle this wildly powerful privilege. God trusts us with freedom even though we will sometimes mis-use this precious gift.

God lovingly chooses to provide for us the Holy Spirit's intimate presence to guide and inspire our choices, and God gives us commands and precepts to define a righteous use of freedom. But God always takes the "risk" of preserving our most important freedom--the personal freedom of choice he has graciously given to you and me.

The Courage To Be

2007-11-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've borrowed this title from Paul Tillich's deeply insightful study published as a book in 1952 by Yale University Press. Dr. Tillich states that "Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous Yes to one's own true being." He suggests that fear and anxiety are healed by being "taken into a courage to be..."

Honesty requires personal courage and the willingness to accept the truth of reality. Brennan Manning notes that "honesty involves the willingness to face the truth of who we are, regardless of how threatening or unpleasant our perceptions may be." He goes on to say once we accept the gospel of grace we learn to hang in there with ourselves and with God. We learn our mind tricks by experiencing how they defeat us. We begin to recognize our avoidances, acknowledge our lapses and the truth that we cannot handle life well on our own.

Self-confrontation and finding the courage to "be" requires the strength that is available to us in God's relentless love and boundless grace toward us. We must refuse to use failure as an excuse to quit trying!

Without personal honesty, I can too easily construct a virtual image of myself that is quite impressive. The tragedy is that such fabrication of a "false self" tends to open the door to a deadly complacency that replaces delight in God.

It is all too tempting to resist the truth about ourselves. We prefer reassurance about our virtue and value. The church can be particularly susceptible to the need to feel "successful" and "righteous." A preacher said to one of his friends, "We have just had the greatest revival our church has experienced in many years." "How many souls were added to your church membership?" "None. We lost two hundred."

To be alive is to be broken, and to be broken is to stand squarely in the need of God's love and grace. Honesty about our truth keeps us aware of our need. Faith in God's truth brings us alive in the reality that we're sinners saved and healed by God's love and grace!

Jesus calls us to a more holy and perfect life. We cannot achieve this beautiful reality on our own. But where we actually are is the starting place for his love and grace to bring us increasingly into the good life of being more like Christ.

Freedom and Restraint

2007-10-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Chuck Swindoll wisely notes that our job is to free people; God's job is to restrain them. He says God is doing his job much better than we are doing ours! His contention is that the vast majority of believers need to be freed, not restrained.

Institutional religion dislikes surprises or any "uncontrollable spirituality" that might threaten the status quo. Some who display a loud and boisterous faith have been politely asked to quiet down. Others who enjoy dancing their faith rather than sitting in the pew have been made to feel uncomfortable or asked to leave. Occasionally it has happened that someone will talk about their faith with unrestrained passion and then be met with expessions of concern about the inappropriateness of their emotions. A courageous soul allows others to see their brokenness, and they are reprimanded for being too open or "glorifying their sin."

But those of us who have heard the haunting sound of Jesus' voice and sensed life, hope, healing and adventure in the Gospel--we who are willing to speak up and question the deadness around us, to express our desire for life--we must not keep quiet, even if everyone around us tells us we are crazy! Those who are traveling in the predictability and safety of "the herd" will call those who are freed in their faith crazy and will try to silence us.

A blind man sits by the roadside begging when suddenly a growing crowd jostles past him and he hears that Jesus is coming his way. His heart begins to race. Jesus of Nazareth! This is the one they say can heal blindness! He gets to his feet and yells, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 18:35-42).

Instantly the crowd shouts at the blind man, "shut up! Keep quiet!" Everyone around the man tries to silence him, to keep him from creating a scene, to keep him from "annoying" Jesus.

It is the nature of us human beings to silence those who interrupt our routine activities and understandings.

The late Mike Yaconelli wrote of speaking at a conference where he mentioned that a woman in his church whom he deeply respected and considered to be one of the most godly women he knew--"smokes and sometimes uses colorful language." After his presentation, he was made aware of a pastor in the audience who demanded that all of his church members attending the conference boycott Yaconelli's presentations.

After the conference, Mike contacted this pastor in an effort to understand why he had become so upset. The pastor heatedly responded: "How dare you tell the audience that one of the most godly women you know smokes and uses the language of the world?"

In his spiritual world, there is absolutely no place for smoking, swearing, godly women. He didn't want to hear otherwise. No exceptions.

Yaconelli wrote: "In the real world where I live, this woman is not an exception and remains one of the most godly women I know."

Perhaps you're asking: "Doesn't freedom and liberty have its limits?" Shouldn't we learn to restrain our freedom and be able to hold ourselves in check? The answer is a clear "yes." Grace can be abused. We never want to exercise our liberty without wisdom or loving concern for how our choices might offend, wound or discourage others--or be destructive to ourself.

Limitations are appropriate and necessary, but Scripture does not counsel us to restrain one another. To force or "legislate" restraint on someone else is us trying to do God's work. This is legalism.

The best restraint is self-restraint that is our response to the inner nudges of the Holy Spirit in our individual life.

Our job as followers of Jesus Christ is to free people; God's job is to restrain them!

"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

With blessings and Love,

Duff

"Please, God" or "Please God"

2007-10-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

My tendency of temperament is toward being a "people pleaser." I love to sense that my presence in the lives of others is positive, helpful, constructive and appreciated. The way I measure this too often is through paying attention to whether or not I'm being petted, stroked and told what a good boy I am!

I was deeply moved by a personal story shared by Dr. Len Sweet where he was falsely accused with some pretty nasty accusations. The way he re-focused and gathered himself at that time was by facing the question, "who am I going to please?"

I'm finding much of my prayer life at present is dedicated to getting rid of that comma in "Please, God." When that comma is removed and my perspective and intention becomes "Please God" then my attitude in prayer changes from "What can you do for me?" to "How can your beautiful, good purposes be fulfilled in my life?"

As followers of Christ we do well to remember that even Jesus did not live to please himself or other humans. The governing goal of his life was this: "I have come to do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7). He said and lived this truth: "I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" (John 5:30).

Why do we put the comma in "Please God?" It could be because:

We don't fully trust God.
We don't really believe Jesus when he says: "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
We struggle to receive the promise that God "richly furnishes us everything to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17).

Jonathan Edwards suggested that God doesn't have a giving problem, we have a receiving problem. He said, "the pleasures of God are an infinite ocean."

I'm sure I'll continue to be energized by positive responses to my presence in the lives of people. But my greatest desire is to be a God pleaser, not a people pleaser. The difference is gigantic! When our desire is to please God, we will be more than able to make it safely through the difficult storms of life. When our desire is primarily to please and be approved of by people we can count on betrayal, loneliness, mistrust, disappointment and relational failure. As someone said, "Wait for people's approval, and you'll wait forever."

The sign on a secretary's desk reads: "I can please only one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either!"

You and I can, by faith, hear God's voice as Jesus heard it at his baptism in the Jordan saying: "You are my beloved son/daughter. You bring me great pleasure" (see Mark 1:11).

Thanks for the joy of journeying to God's heart together!

With blessings and love,

Pastor Duff Gorle