What can I say to you? What can I say to me? After all these years, what can I say?
These years have simply shown this ~ that there is much joy and great delight to be had. Tremendous Joy and astounding Delight.
Joy and Delight. They are so entirely tangible for they are simply He and He is palpable, tangible here and everywhere. And yet they come to me ~ to you ~ through much pain. And sacrifice.
So much so is this truth, that the very pain of life and sacrifice of self will metamorphosis into Joy and Delight in self.
Look to the past, into the Ancients, a handful of thousands of years ago and we find first and most ancient of Fathers and he would know the first cut, the first slice, the first loss. And so soon following this first cut, would come a rush of delight. The first cut, the first loss of self would be followed by a flood of delight. Our first Father lay to sleep and succumbed to the Surgeon and the slice would yield to his first loss. First Father would lose of himself and would fine great joy and sweet delight.
In the splendor of the garden Surgeon would lay slice to first Father and the first cut would lay bare this man to yield forth the first loss, the first loss to man. And loss would offer such joy, such intense delight that these handful of thousands of years later - man and wo-man would still slip longingly into this sanctified and holy delight.
Our ancient Fathers would know that pain and sacrifice would bring forth joy and delight.
They would work the field, toil in the land, sweat the sacrifice upon the soil and bring forth life. And joy. And delight.
Ancient Fathers would witness the ancient of Mothers endure frightful pain to bring forth life. And joy. And delight.
It would be common. It would be understood. Pain. Sacrifice. Toil. Would yield life. Joy. Delight.
The world would soon know a flood of delight and joy - a tidal wave of goodness, the like of which had never been seen before, nor since.
And it would be birthed in pain. In sacrifice. Such a pain and a sacrifice had not been seen - He would endure the epitome of pain and such sacrifice, such a deep, awe-inspiring sacrifice that He would sanctify the very meaning of sacrifice.
And the world would know a Love of the heavenliness. A Joy from the foundation of time that man had not yet held, had not yet touched.
And it came through pain and sanctified sacrifice nailed to a cross.
We take a several thousand year step forward and we find ourselves in a society sick with the lack of sacrifice and people who systematically refuse pain.
And we are lost. Lost in ourselves. Lost in our luxury. Surely lost in our safety. A society safer then any other peoples known to man - a nation that lives life into their nineties - and all our safety and lack of pain is KILLING. US.
Why? Because Joy and Delight our found in the pain and the sacrifice.
Matthew 16:25 ~ "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (or Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33, Mark 8:35)
John 12:24 ~ "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain."
It is simply Truth.
And when we move from our air conditioned work space, to our air conditioned driving space, to an air conditioned eating place (because we do not even toil to feed our own bodies anymore, someone else will do that thank you very much!), to our air conditioned sitting place (aka couch in front of television or computer screen) - we do not know the meaning of sacrifice.
We live in a land of over the counter medications, restaurants rampant, coffee at the touch of a button, shopping at a pandemic level, churches that make your comfort and entertainment their primary concern. And we know nothing of pain and sacrifice - in fact we run from it and encourage all of those around us to do likewise. And yet, this NOT the way of the cross.
And this mad dash for comfort and luxury, the scramble for safety and security is the church, the Body of Christ is consumed with its comfort.
The Body of Christ spends far more time at retreat centers - retreating, relaxing, vacationing, and "healing" - then we do on the streets sharing the Gospel with the lost and the truly hurting.
We sit in air conditioned coffee shops sharing a cup of $4 coffee over an $8 muffin and we call this "ministry, building community, and developing meaningful relationships" Or maybe it is just spending necessary dollars on unnecessary calories in a very pleasant and charming environment.
Next time, shall we try to take the $12 dollars and go sweat in the streets with the homeless dude, buy that guy, who may or may not smell like death warmed over, a cup of coffee and a muffin and hear his story. That may be a little painful and surely a sacrifice, and now this is the makings of ministry. At least the cross's ministry.
Our coffee shops wrong? Sometimes. Are retreat centers sinful? Often. Why? Because they have helped to foster a church culture that is entirely about self and sick on sitting around talking about how we feel. And the real concern - we do not even know we are sick. Satan has convinced us (which was likely quite easy considering our tendency to satisfy self) that "coffee shop ministry" and "restful retreats" are the way of the cross.
And this self gratifying ministry that sacrifices nothing of self is NOT the way of the cross and the church is failing the culture because we have substituted the cross for comfort and then we call that church.
And yet, the Truth has remained unchanging from ancient Fathers to present - joy and delight were preceded by pain and sacrifice.
These years have simply shown this ~ that there is much joy and great delight to be had. Tremendous Joy and astounding Delight.
Joy and Delight. They are so entirely tangible for they are simply He and He is palpable, tangible here and everywhere. And yet they come to me ~ to you ~ through much pain. And sacrifice.
So much so is this truth, that the very pain of life and sacrifice of self will metamorphosis into Joy and Delight in self.
Look to the past, into the Ancients, a handful of thousands of years ago and we find first and most ancient of Fathers and he would know the first cut, the first slice, the first loss. And so soon following this first cut, would come a rush of delight. The first cut, the first loss of self would be followed by a flood of delight. Our first Father lay to sleep and succumbed to the Surgeon and the slice would yield to his first loss. First Father would lose of himself and would fine great joy and sweet delight.
In the splendor of the garden Surgeon would lay slice to first Father and the first cut would lay bare this man to yield forth the first loss, the first loss to man. And loss would offer such joy, such intense delight that these handful of thousands of years later - man and wo-man would still slip longingly into this sanctified and holy delight.
Our ancient Fathers would know that pain and sacrifice would bring forth joy and delight.
They would work the field, toil in the land, sweat the sacrifice upon the soil and bring forth life. And joy. And delight.
Ancient Fathers would witness the ancient of Mothers endure frightful pain to bring forth life. And joy. And delight.
It would be common. It would be understood. Pain. Sacrifice. Toil. Would yield life. Joy. Delight.
The world would soon know a flood of delight and joy - a tidal wave of goodness, the like of which had never been seen before, nor since.
And it would be birthed in pain. In sacrifice. Such a pain and a sacrifice had not been seen - He would endure the epitome of pain and such sacrifice, such a deep, awe-inspiring sacrifice that He would sanctify the very meaning of sacrifice.
And the world would know a Love of the heavenliness. A Joy from the foundation of time that man had not yet held, had not yet touched.
And it came through pain and sanctified sacrifice nailed to a cross.
We take a several thousand year step forward and we find ourselves in a society sick with the lack of sacrifice and people who systematically refuse pain.
And we are lost. Lost in ourselves. Lost in our luxury. Surely lost in our safety. A society safer then any other peoples known to man - a nation that lives life into their nineties - and all our safety and lack of pain is KILLING. US.
Why? Because Joy and Delight our found in the pain and the sacrifice.
Matthew 16:25 ~ "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (or Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33, Mark 8:35)
John 12:24 ~ "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain."
It is simply Truth.
And when we move from our air conditioned work space, to our air conditioned driving space, to an air conditioned eating place (because we do not even toil to feed our own bodies anymore, someone else will do that thank you very much!), to our air conditioned sitting place (aka couch in front of television or computer screen) - we do not know the meaning of sacrifice.
We live in a land of over the counter medications, restaurants rampant, coffee at the touch of a button, shopping at a pandemic level, churches that make your comfort and entertainment their primary concern. And we know nothing of pain and sacrifice - in fact we run from it and encourage all of those around us to do likewise. And yet, this NOT the way of the cross.
And this mad dash for comfort and luxury, the scramble for safety and security is the church, the Body of Christ is consumed with its comfort.
The Body of Christ spends far more time at retreat centers - retreating, relaxing, vacationing, and "healing" - then we do on the streets sharing the Gospel with the lost and the truly hurting.
We sit in air conditioned coffee shops sharing a cup of $4 coffee over an $8 muffin and we call this "ministry, building community, and developing meaningful relationships" Or maybe it is just spending necessary dollars on unnecessary calories in a very pleasant and charming environment.
Next time, shall we try to take the $12 dollars and go sweat in the streets with the homeless dude, buy that guy, who may or may not smell like death warmed over, a cup of coffee and a muffin and hear his story. That may be a little painful and surely a sacrifice, and now this is the makings of ministry. At least the cross's ministry.
Our coffee shops wrong? Sometimes. Are retreat centers sinful? Often. Why? Because they have helped to foster a church culture that is entirely about self and sick on sitting around talking about how we feel. And the real concern - we do not even know we are sick. Satan has convinced us (which was likely quite easy considering our tendency to satisfy self) that "coffee shop ministry" and "restful retreats" are the way of the cross.
And this self gratifying ministry that sacrifices nothing of self is NOT the way of the cross and the church is failing the culture because we have substituted the cross for comfort and then we call that church.
And yet, the Truth has remained unchanging from ancient Fathers to present - joy and delight were preceded by pain and sacrifice.
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