Sanctuary Pulse

Grace May 6, 2009

Grace and peace to you…

I thought I would copy the Apostle Paul as he was always using that greeting when he wrote  letters to the people in the New Testament!

If I give “grace” to you what does that mean?  What does it look like?

When God gives “grace” to me, what does that look like—what does it mean to me personally???? (more…)

Chicken?…or Egg? April 28, 2009

Okay, Okay. Was it the chicken?… or the egg?

Who cares?!

All of us do.

Not so much about chickens and eggs and which one of them gets to be first, but about what comes first between important things like church and people.

Okay, which came first; the church or the people?

If we don’t raise the question on a regular basis there’s some kind of law that starts to operate that says we’ll get them backwards and we start asking all the questions and coming up with all the answers and solutions from the wrong point of view.  Makes us sound silly or irrelevant or a little off-base when we loudly spout our conclusions on how to fix things.

This is a principle. So it’s true in all kinds of important things. If we don’t put first things first, our conclusions and solutions won’t fix what’s gone wrong. (more…)

Glory? April 21, 2009

Can you put up with one more poem? I wrote this a number of years ago, but it fits so well with grace being “focused love” and the difficulty of focusing God’s love through our lives that are so muddied with wrong beliefs about ourselves, and sins that seem to so easily trip us up from becoming all that God intended. So here it is.

GLORY?

GOD?

RADIANCE UNCONTAINED

IN TIME AND SPACE DIMENSION.

LOVE?

GOD’S DIFFUSIVE LUMINESCENCE

LONGING FOR A FOCUS.

CREATION?

CLAY POTS MADE.

MOLDED ART SUPREME

IN MAN AND WOMAN FORMS;

PURE, TRANSPARENT CLAY–

PROJECTED GODLY GLORY.

SIN?

GOD EVICTED.

CLAY MADE MUDDY.

SO FORM CAN HIDE THE VOID OF GOD-SHAPED SPACE

MISFITTED WITH THE gods OF OUR OWN MAKING,

YET SPOKEN WITH PROUD KNOWLEDGE.

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Undistorted April 14, 2009

We’re visible!

That’s the beauty…

That’s the bane.

We’re a painting that’s a picture of God;

We can show them what He looks like

Or make them run.

Either one…

But we can’t not be visible.

It’s how we’re made;

It’s who we are. (more…)

The Truth Is In The Burpee’s Catalog April 7, 2009

I love doing this!

I just sent my Burpee’s seed order in. I paid good money for it. It’s proof that I believe in the resurrection. I don’t think Burpees was around then, but Jesus knew the same thing they know and I know. In fact He believed it enough to stake His life on it. Listen:

Jesus answered, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces

itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

John 12:23-25 MsgB

It’s why I get seeds every year. I don’t care about those little, rather unattractive, oddly shaped things that are in the tiny bag I receive for $4.95. It’s the promise I pay for. Verbenas called “Peaches and Cream”; violas called “Amber Kiss”; zinnias called “Zowie”. It’s daisies called “Passion” and geraniums called “Peppermint Twist”. It’s carrots called “Sugarsnax” and corn called “Maple Sugar”. It’s melons called “Honey Bun” and pumpkins called “Big Max”. It’s butterflies and hummingbirds and picnics and mouth-watering flavors. It’s satisfaction and joy and peace and delight. It’s backyard glory that I bought. It’s Spring and resurrection by design. God’s Design. (more…)

About The Same Age As My Sons March 31, 2009

Can you imagine these next 10 days if you were Jesus? Or one of his disciples? Or one of the multitudes of people whose hearts are forever re-written by a look, a touch, a word. What if your eyes had been blind, your ears deaf, your stomach hungry, your shame too great to bear, your sins forgiven, your body unstoned, your life given back, your feet walked on water, your mind unshackled, your leprosy healed, your issue of blood stopped.
What if you’re a thief on the cross, a woman so unvalued you become a prostitute, a man so hardened by life, that it doesn’t bother you to collect too many taxes from a widow. How many people’s hearts can a man of only thirty-three write on. (more…)

Listen To The Grace Writers! March 25, 2009

Hi Everybody, 

I am so glad you let me do this!
Hey-a question for you. Do you need saving? No…I don’t mean something like…did you give your life to Jesus? Or…did you pray the sinner’s prayer? Strange terminology-this religious talk that we use. Many of my prayers are “sinner’s” prayers. i.e.-every time I ask for forgiveness; which in my case is frequently! And: what does it really mean to “give my life to Jesus”?
No; what I’m asking about has more to do with things like: do you think in unhealthy ways? Do you have a sense of value that’s somewhere near the bottom of the barrel? Do you have habits that rob you of reaching your potential? Do you even believe you have any potential? Or is that something that others have? Do you really believe God cares about you? Or do you think He wishes you’d just be quiet and melt into the woodwork? (more…)

Learning to notice, but still unaware March 17, 2009

Hi Everybody,
It is such a privilege to be part of this family!

Can I tell you about yesterday(Monday)? Brenda and I took Rick and Judy to the airport and decided to take the rest of our day off ambling through life together. So after a bit of necessary shopping and a latte, we headed for Pearl Street Mall in Boulder so we’d be close to a favorite Italian Trattoria for supper. Ambling through God’s diverse but much loved sea of humanity that makes up Pearl Street, we were about to go into a store full of ten million interesting things, when I was drawn to an older, tattered, much-scarred, one legged man in a wheelchair. There was something authentic and winsome about him that I couldn’t turn away from. Awkward, I said hello, dropped a dollar in his cup and touched his shoulder. He was honestly grateful and I turned away and walked into the store with Brenda. There were only a few small coins in his cup that my single dollar bill covered up. I couldn’t concentrate while in the store as my heart was standing next to a wheelchair outside. When we left the store, I walked over and put some more in his cup and looked in his eyes and asked how he was. He looked back to see if I really meant the question and started sharing his story.

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Two ways to write on others’ hearts March 10, 2009

Hi Everybody!

Last Sunday, we talked about the core need each of us has to be seen and valued by the people around us; especially those we look up to. We talked about how our careless words can act like stones that we throw at other’s sense of their value. We talked about how serious this is to God who values each of us highly and expects our words to represent His value of each person He has given us.

This Sunday we are going to talk about the two basic ways we write on each other’s hearts. The first one is the basic response of Christ living within you as He reaches out with your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It is the fruit that is produced by God’s Spirit living in you. Brenda shared Galatians 5:22-23 from The Message Bible with me the other day and it took my breath away.

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To be seen and valued March 5, 2009

Hello Everyone in Sanctuary Land,

I think that was an attempt to sound like one of those big TV preachers. But hey, It is a true honor to get the privilege of writing to those God has given me. I hope it writes on your heart at times. Thanks for trusting me with your email addresses. I have over 80 of them now, and it’s a sacred trust to me.

I’m going to be preaching a little more this week with less dialogue, so I can set it up for more dialogue later. Any dialogue that you want to have via email will be welcomed with open arms. Please note, if you’d rather I didn’t share your email with anyone, then, when you write to dialogue, tell me that, as there may be some that I will discreetly share if I believe they would be a benefit to others. I will, of course, honor your request for confidentiality always.

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