Pleasure and Pang

Thank you God
for this body
of joy and pain,
pleasure and pang
nameless and named.

March 13, 2010
(actually written in the bathtub!)

Beloved God

O beloved God, let me every moment live
And all your treasures love and share and give.
O beloved God, let love soak me through and through
And flow to others, and so return to you.


March 13, 2010
(actually written in the bathtub!)

Little Treasures

Walking in the rain
Near TaeJo San
Cold mist on my face
Little treasures
I discover
A few steps on,
On and up the path.
A strip of night time shops:
Chairs tipped over
Doors locked
Shutters drawn
Tables barren
Late in the morning.
Follow the sound
Of a waterfall:
Little jade lake
Held by a concrete damn
Still beautiful
In the rain
Wooded hills rising up
On three sides
Fading away
On one.
A Buhddist shop:
Charms and bracelets
Art and candles
Lanterns and incense
Beautiful in color or shape
Some jade like the lake
Some brown like the trees.
Stone steps:
Leading up
Up and away
Up and away from my world
Of computers and books
Phones and people
102 steps
Through a sanctuary
Of pine.
A temple complex:
Dawning realization
Of my location,
Approaching
The Third Largest
Sitting Buhdda
In Asia
(Who counts these things?)
Bronze - I remember
But the color is pale jade
Like the lake.
Chanters chant
Pray-ers kneel
Bells and gongs sound
Candles flicker,
The monks have AC now,
I see the boxes
Behind the house.
Big Buddha watches.
A drink from the
Cold mountain spring
Cold on my hands and face.
A prayer room:
Hot pink lotus lanterns
Dangle requests
Written with prayer pens.
Will they care
If I use one
To write these words?
It seems appropriate
Somehow.



March 15, 2010

Churches Halve # of Kids Waiting for Adoption in Colorado

Elena, recently sent me a link about how Christians in Colorado are living out their faith by adopting kids waiting for adoption. Most of these kids have experienced significant family trauma and are now in the Colorado state foster care system. However, Focus on the Family and churches around Colorado are calling on Christians to obey the biblical commands to care for orphans.
This is beautiful! How can we do more of this?!
Read the full article here.


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My Temptation

One more game,
One more hand,
One more move,
How the tempter draws me on.
A little less work,
A little less sleep,
A little less life.
The price to pay
For one more,
one more,
one more.


3/4/2010

Unhurried Time

Ahh, for unhurried time,
to read
to write
to pray
to think
to imagine
to sit
to wait
to move as the Spirit moves me.
Ahh, for unhurried time,
for the healing of my soul
for the calming of my mind
for the stretching of my sight
for the probing of my heart
for insight on my life
for the movement of my pen
for the touch of coffee on my lips
for the emergence of those ideas
flitting in the rear shadows of my mind
waiting for a clear space to land.
Ahhh, for this unhurried time.


1/18/2010

The Bible (Christian Basics: Week 3)

March 7, 2010

2 Timothy 3:14-17
Matthew 5:17-39

The Bible is the most famous, most diverse, most difficult, most profound, most challenging, most acclaimed, most criticized, and most powerful book ever written. More people in the world read the Bible than any other book in the history of the universe.
Yet even so, we read the Bible with a mixture of fear and hope, faith and doubt, understanding and confusion. Some of this great mixture of biblical experience comes from the complexity of the Bible itself, and some of it comes from our misunderstandings of what the Bible is and how it still works today. In the next 15 minutes or so, I want to talk about 5 basic characteristics of the Bible that may help us understand it and reclaim its power in our lives today in the 21st century world.

Sometimes, when we look at the Bible we can feel completely overwhelmed by its complexity and its cultural distance from our world. For many people, even for many Christians, it is hard to see any significant connection between those words written in far away worlds and our life in our world today.
However, the Bible is absolutely NECESSARY for us as Christians. In fact, it is non-negotiable for all who want to follow Jesus. The Bible is one of God’s key tools in accomplishing God’s mission in our world. God intends for the Bible to shape us and to guide us into his mission. N. T. Wright summarizes it like this: “To be a Christian while not letting the Bible do all the things it is capable of, through you and in you, is like trying to play the piano with your fingers tied together.”1

Second, the Bible is ALIVE. ...



To continue reading this sermon, click here.


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Here I Am (Isaiah 6:1-8)

Here is our first Wednesday night sermon.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Josh Broward
March 3, 2010

There are some short moments in time which forever change our lives. The day I became a Christian was one of those days. I had rejected God for several years. Then one day, I was overwhelmed by the presence of God. I had two powerful sensations: 1) God was right, and 2) I was wrong. I confessed my sin, and I asked God to change me and to lead me in his ways for the rest of my life. I have never been the same.
This is one of those moments for Isaiah.
Isaiah has a vision of God in his Temple, and he is overwhelmed by God’s glory and holiness. Isaiah knows that God is right and that he is wrong. God forgives him, and God burns away his sin.
Then, God asks Isaiah one of the most powerful questions in the Bible: “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8).
Most of us stop with confession and forgiveness. We know that God is right. We know that we are wrong. We know we need to confess. We know we need God to forgive us. We know we need God to change us. But then we stop.
But God doesn’t stop. God keeps moving forward. There is a progression for God. Confession --> forgiveness --> transformation --> sending.
“Whom should I send? Who will go for us?” God is a sending God. ...

To continue reading this post, click here.


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