Tag: kingdom (Page 1 of 2)

What Does the Kingdom of God Look Like in Your Life?

February 2, 2020 /

I’m walking the narrow cobblestone streets of Lucerne on another gray winter morning morning. As I head towards coffee and the bridges that cross the Reuss river in the old town I’m listening to Pray as You Go, a simple devotional app that reads a passage of Scripture from the lectionary twice, with pauses and a couple of questions for reflection.

The passage that comes through my ear buds this morning is Mark 4:26-34 about how the Kingdom of God is like seed scattered on the ground, and more specifically like a tiny mustard seed.

Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it?  It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants…”

Mark 4:30-32

I’m crossing the foot bridge now as soothing British voice says, “Both stories talk about the astonishing process of growth. What do you think this ‘Kingdom of God’ is?”

On the bridge is a scraggly old man I often see who approaches me saying something in German. I assume he’s homeless and asking for a handout, but it’s possible he’s selling insurance.

I mumble “Kein Deutsch” (no German) and hurry by, leaving the man alone as I listen to my lesson about JESUS.

I continue to reflect about how the Kingdom of God is wherever His love and His will prevail. I think about how this passage is a reminder that even tiny acts of love advance the kingdom in boardrooms and bodegas, hospice rooms and high school gyms, on Capitol Hill and in car pools.

Maybe scattering kingdom seed looks like asking questions rather than judging an acquaintance today. Maybe it looks like bringing a pot of soup to a new mom, or holding door open, or writing a note to an elected official, or speaking words of affirmation.

“Yep”, I think, figuratively giving Him a thumbs up. “Good reminder, Lord!”

And then as I step off the bridge, leaving the man behind, shame hits me like a wrecking ball. I realize I’m the priest who scurried past the beaten up man on the road to Jericho in “the Good Samaritan”.

I’m contrite and embarrassed, but I’m also not sure what to do.

“Lord. Please forgive me! But I don’t speak German! I don’t know what he wants! He may want to grab me or my purse. He may be mentally unstable. There’s no one else around if I need help.”

I picture Jesus on the bridge with this man, lingering with him.

I head to the bakery, buy a chocolate croissant, and bring it back. I look at this man, made in the image of Jesus as I offer what I have, and say one of my few German phrases:

“Einen schönen Tag Noch.”

Have a good day.

And I pray, “Lord help me to scatter kingdom seed today.”

Soul Food and Kids

October 17, 2019 /

Ahhh, kids! We want them, or they drive us crazy, or make us laugh, or give us a new perspective on life. This week I thought I’d focus our soul food on kids. Jesus said they can teach us much!

What if you took a few minutes today, or when you Sabbath, to sit with the following passage and consider these questions?

  • Imagine yourself as a little kid in this story. How would you feel if He said, “Let ______ come to me.”?
  • Imagine crawling into his lap. How might Jesus look at you?
  • When you were little, what did you most want from your parents? What do you want from Jesus?
  • What do you think He might say to you?

Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on themand pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

matthew 19:13-15

An article about the value of children:

The “Major Defect” in C.S. Lewis (and Me)

If you are struggling with infertility, there are no great answers, but check this out.

Maybe today you find yourself sitting in a pile of ashes, feeling desperate. While our hopes and desires and plans for our lives are finite, an infinite God Who loves us can take our messiest messes and make something beautiful.

Heather Avis

For those who want to better understand the emotions of infertility, check this out.

If you are a mom, Thriving Home is a great resource (think kid-friendly freezer meals)! They have Table Talk Cards and recently shared a series of questions from them. Try these questions tonight around your dinner table!

For pre-schoolers:

  • If you could make raindrops taste like anything, what flavor would they be?
  • Who is a good friend to you? Why?

For elementary school kids:

  • Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
  • Share one thing you like about each person at the table.

For tweens and teens:

  • What is your most vivid and happiest childhood memory?
  • What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of? Why?

A book I like to give to new mamas: Today and Always, this is True, God Loves You!

Some Instagram posts to make you smile.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4

If you are a mama, I’d like to close with this blessing for you.

At the end of today, may you rest in the assurance that you are enough, because God is enough.

You are beloved.

God, your perfect Parent delights in you. He sings over you with joy.

May He give you the grace to be gentle with yourself, and the grace and patience you need for your kids.

May He give you peace tonight, with the reassurance that He never sleeps. You are secure in His loving care.

Kingdom-Bringing Soul Food

September 6, 2019 /

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come… Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

matthew 22:2,3, 9-11 ESV

The news can be so discouraging. Walls and wars, division and desperation. To be a welcomer, a gatherer, a kingdom bringer is counter-cultural, but there are brave, creative people stepping out and making room for everyone. I thought I’d share some of their stories to encourage you this weekend.

Our friend and pastor, Jeff Cowmeadow, and his wife Randi opened The Prodigal Pub this spring. If you live in the Twin Cities, go!

Randi says, “We’ve chosen the story of the prodigal son returning home and being celebrated with food and drink as an inspiration to welcome and celebrate all. The Prodigal Pub is a Public-a place for all people-and a House-a home-for connections and reconnections. No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, you are welcome here.”

Jeff with our friends, Brad and Ann Herman.

Ironically, Brad is planting a church for those in recovery! Check out Recovering Love Church!

My friend, Vanessa recognizes that under-resourced people around the world step up and face their fears daily, so she is facing one of hers (sky-diving!) to raise money for World Vision! Check it out!

Some folks who have volunteered with World Relief, have a creative idea to help refugees! I love it!

Love Anyway is a book I want to read by Jeremy Courtney who runs Preemptive Love – an organization whose goal is to go where no one else will go, and love who no one else will love. Has anyone read this yet?

I listen to this and have to ask myself, “Who truly is the king of my heart?”

And just for fun…

Have a great weekend!

3 Questions For Tense Days in America

January 31, 2017 /

It’s been an unsettling couple weeks, hasn’t it? Kind of like someone shook up our snow globe of life and we’re trying to figure out where things are going to settle.

Sunday morning husband John and I arrived home from a trip in time to overlap briefly with our daughter and son-in-law who were in town for a wedding. We went to brunch before taking them back to the airport, talking non-stop, trying to squeeze 24 hours into our 5 hours together.

We talked a lot about the sad state of our country and the mandate we feel to do what we can to stand up for those who are being persecuted, but the tone of our conversation left me a bit troubled. Our talk was marked more by righteous indignation, anger and judgment than anything else. We shared outrageous tweets and news stories we had seen.

Later, I was reading in Acts 6 where the disciples are choosing men for special work. They look for “people whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense…”

One they choose is Stephen who is described as “full of faith and the Holy Spirit…”

Later, in verse 8 it says, “Stephen, brimming with God’s grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them.”

So, here’s the uncomfortable part. Would anyone listening to our conversation Sunday have identified me as “full of the Holy Spirit”? “Brimming with God’s grace and energy”? Not so much.

I’d be golden if a fruit of the Spirit was anger or frustration or criticism!

Yes, we need to speak truth. We need to rail against injustice. But bringing the kingdom of God will not happen if we are sucked into a vortex of CNN and Twitter madness that just fuels our anger.

To make a difference we need to be different.

We need to use different language, words marked by the grace and wisdom of Jesus.

We need to have a different spirit –  the Spirit of Jesus.

If we are to be the non-anxious presence, we need to be rooted and grounded first in Jesus.

So, 3 questions I’ve been asking myself:

  1. Am I taking time to be still, to breathe deep, to pray up, to fill up with the words of Jesus? Or am I turning first to news outlets?
  2. If someone overheard my conversation today would they note anything of Jesus in it? Anything different from the world? Am I listening with respect to the other?
  3. What does love require of me? 

“Wage peace.

Conspire justice.

Plot goodness.

Devise forgiveness.

Scheme mercy

Incite reconciliation.

Foment inclusion.

Practice resurrection.” Nathan Hamm

 

The Prayer I Resist Praying

October 20, 2014 /

I was g-chatting with daughter Katy yesterday morning.  This is how it went…

Katy: Thanks for sending your Zambia itinerary! Turns out I may be traveling at the same time for work.

Me: Oh! Fun!  Where?

Katy: Kabul.

Me: WHATTTT????!!!  As in Kabul Afghanistan?

Katy: And this is why I told you over g-chat…to preserve my ear-drums.

We’ve made a boat-load of mistakes as parents.  Big ones, little ones, and ones we laugh at in retrospect, like the time John accidentally gave Maggie Ipecac instead of cough medicine in the middle of the night and wondered why she kept throwing up.

But one that looms large in my mind was when we let our then eighteen year old daughter, Maggie, graduate early from high school and go to live with a mission organization in Kibera – a terrible slum in Nairobi.

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We went to visit her in the rainy season of mud which just added to the despair.

There was someone stoned outside where she was living.

She told us of coming upon a toddler sitting alone in the dirt, chewing on a used condom.

What kind of terrible parent lets their child go live in such a place???

Well, apparently this one.

It’s a parenting choice that I’ve been tempted to regret, but one that God has used.

Today I was reading Acts 4:23-31.  Peter and John have just been released from the religious officials who were totally ticked off because they had healed a lame beggar and preached some crazy stuff about the power of Jesus and Him being the only way.  They come back to their friends and tell them everything that has happened.

And then they pray for a hedge of protection.

NOT.

They thank God and pray for BOLDNESS!  Not the go-plan I naturally gravitate towards for our family!

Note to self:  This does not say they prayed to have an EQ lobotomy or to be offensive for Jesus, but Peter and John have me thinking…

Does the kingdom advance without boldness?  Without taking the love of Jesus into dark places, trusting that He will be our light and our shield?

Holy buckets!  What does this mean for me, for you?  Boldness may not mean taking the light of Jesus half-way around the world, but just across town or into relationships that require supernatural love, or perseverance, or hard truth.

It has me praying with open hands, saying,

“We are yours.  Help us to be bold and brave and humble in carrying the light of your love into dark places.  Do what only You can do in us and through us.”

Is it hard for you, like Peter and John, to pray for boldness for yourself or your children?  How might God ask you to take His light into a dark place today?

 

How You Made a Difference

September 24, 2014 /

Ever feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by the bad stuff and needs around the world that seem unending?  Yeah, me too.  I can’t do All Of The Things so I think I can’t do ANYthing.

But once in awhile God gives us an opportunity to see His kingdom being furthered here on earth – “His kingdom” just being a glimpse of what heaven may look like – a place where there is plenty and justice for everyone.  And you were part of a story like that.

Remember that time I told you about why underwear is important in Uganda and this is how you responded?

photo-164

Well, here’s the rest of the story in Maggie’s words: Continue reading

How do You Carry a Tree?

July 14, 2014 /

Fourteen years ago we took our daughters to Africa for the first time.  We spent a month there on a sabbatical.  One day we saw a woman walking down the road with a tree balanced on her head.

Yep, you read that right.  A whole tree.

You see people balancing a lot of unusual things on their heads (or on their bikes) in Africa, but this was the first and last time we saw a tree. (apparently it’s not THAT rare cuz I was able to Google this picture!)

a_India01

That night, our daughter, Maggie, walked into our room, carefully balancing a book on her head.

“I’m working up to a tree.” she said.

Since then, Maggie’s “tree” has been a dream of helping underprivileged girls and women around the world to be healthy and happy and to carry their own dreams. Continue reading

Brave Knights, and a Trustworthy King (for young parents)

May 5, 2014 /

Not infrequently, husband John and I will be part of conversations with our daughters like the following one.  It’s about Maggie’s summer internship in Northern Uganda where the Lord’s Resistance Army has forced children to be soldiers.  She’ll be working with those who have been brutalized but have escaped…
photo-10

photo-9

The other day after he read this husband John asked me (rhetorically), “How does this keep HAPPENING??!”

Others also ask us this too (although it sounds more like: “How did you raise your daughters?”)  The primary answer is: “With a LOT of mistakes and loads of God’s GRACE.”

Both our daughters, and we, will continue to mess up as we try to follow Jesus, but we also trust that God will pick us up when we stumble,  Here’s what we tried to teach them as they were growing up… Continue reading

Kingdom Come Small

February 20, 2013 /

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is “Who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10)

It’s comforting.

It feels like a personal p.s. after all the flashy miraculous fire-and-rain-prophets-of-baal-showdowns.  Like God’s saying “That’s not the whole story.  And you, even you – person of small things – have a part to play in my kingdom capers.”

I feel reassured by this.  This reminder that in the economy of God there really are no small things.

It makes me think of Bill. Bill with two artificial knees, one artificial hip, and steel in his spine and in a worldly sense, a person of small things.

Bill is a fixture at our church.  A remarkable man with a remarkable gift of hospitality and a servant’s heart.  Rain, sleet, or snow he is out in the parking lot in his orange vest, directing traffic, or holding the door for someone or helping someone out of a car.

Don’t despise the day of small things.

For the past 5-6 weeks there has been an older gentleman coming to the early Sunday service at our church in a cab. He uses a walker and his name is Vic.

This past Sunday he was waiting for the cab sitting on the heat register in the entryway after church.

As the cab pulled up, Bill opened the car door for Vic.  He started to get in and cab driver came and took his walker to put in trunk.

Ollie, (another greeter on Spirit steroids and person of small things) said “Hi” to the driver, asked him his name. And then, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

Don’t despise the day of small things.

The driver, Ali, a Muslim gentleman, helped get Vic strapped in back seat, and Ollie came back with a cup of hot coffee, saying “Be careful, it doesn’t have a lid.”

The driver said “thanks” and drove away.

Don’t despise the day of small things.

Such small things!  No big deal.

But what if…

What if this was the first gesture of kindness this Muslim man experienced at a Christian church?

What if Ali told his friends about this faith community and it was the beginning of a bridge?

What if the care Vic received was the only gracious encounter of his day?

What if a cup of coffee, or an open door, or a welcoming smile was part of a much bigger thing God was at work doing?

What small opportunities has God given you to be part of His work in the world?

8202a1db4302a67b527a49bea4802d2c

Kingdom Come

February 18, 2013 /

We all long to be inspired.

My favorite movies are the ones where I walk out with an uplifting sound track for my life, reassured that God is good and all things are possible.  There really is still nobility and there are kingdom-bringers in the world. Think Shawshank and The Natural, and The Blindside.

So I loved it when we heard the story, years ago, of a friend of ours, John Dellenback, who was a congressman from Oregon. When he turned 81 he gathered his children and grandchildren together and gave each of them $81, instructing them to prayerfully invest it in a kingdom venture during the year and report back.

Sadly, John died before the his next birthday.  At his funeral, each of his children and grandchildren came forward, one by one, telling what happened with their kingdom investments.  Kingdom inspiration was part of his legacy.

I soaked up some inspiration this week, too, when I heard a similar story from our friend, Erik.  Erik’s parents-in-law are also friends, and last Christmas they gave each of their grown children and spouses, a hundred dollar bill with the assignment to pray and be on the lookout for a place to invest it in something of the kingdom of God here on earth.

IMG_0945

Over a year had passed and Erik still had the $100 in his wallet.  This past week he was in San Francisco for a conference.   San Francisco, where, it’s hard not to go a block without encountering a homeless person asking for help.

As Erik walked to and from meetings, he felt guilty, hearing Jesus whisper, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

After a sleepless night and further reminders about how Jesus, fully God, had become a servant to love others, he said to himself with conviction…”Today is the day I am going to give my $100. I’m going to give to the first person who asks!”

I’ll let him tell the rest in his own words…

I had a meeting with a potential client at 8 AM at a breakfast cafe. This was someone I’d never met, only spoke on the phone and someone I needed to impress.

I left my hotel at 7:30 to walk 6 blocks through Union Square Park where I anticipated passing people lying on the ground or holding a cup. Surprisingly I didn’t pass a single person fitting my “profile.”

At 8 AM, the client arrived, we ordered our breakfast and had just sat down to eat. Before I said more than five words a woman approached our table towards the back of the restaurant. She was clearly who God had sent. She was 40+, snarly short blond hair, wore a dirty jacket and didn’t have it together. Clearly embarrassed, she asked the man I was meeting with for $5 to go to Denny’s around the corner for breakfast. He said, “I’m sorry, ma’m but I can’t.”

She then looked at me and with emotion in her eyes said, “Please sir, can you help me out?” I got up, and motioned for her to walk with me outside.

As I reached into my pocket for the $100, I tried to say something, but before I could she said, “I know…Jesus loves me.” I nearly broke down. I pulled the money out of my pocket put it in her hand and said, “Yes, Jesus loves you!“

To confirm that God has a sense of humor, she looked in her hands and when she realized it was a $100 bill, look at me and said, “Holy S#@*T!” and gave me a huge hug.

I then turned and walked back into the restaurant now needing to explain myself to this guy I had just met. I told him about the kingdom challenge and that I had committed to giving my $100 to the first person who asked and apologized if I had embarrassed myself.

We had a great discussion and as we finished I went to the counter to get a refill on my coffee and he walked out the front door. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw him reaching out and giving money to a homeless man right then and there.

I smiled and thanked God for revealing Himself to me today. I don’t deserve to be loved so unconditionally, so gracefully forgiven and to be to so incredibly blessed.

I know…all kinds of “What if’s” and “Yeah, buts” may spring to mind as you read this.

But what if this was just about one person showing the lavish over-the-top abundance of the kingdom to someone in need?  And another person being inspired to do the same.

Kingdom come.

When has God presented you with a “kingdom come” opportunity to be His hands and feet in the world?  What’s inspired you lately?

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