I am thinking a lot about quiet today. Why? I don’t really know. It’s been a very busy week and more to come. I’ve been doing more teaching this term than ever, I think. I did a workshop with the staff at First Baptist Eugene. My friend, Ben Cross, is the new pastor there. He opened his sermon series on Acts by calling the church to ten days of prayer. The church got into it fervently and it stirred up a bunch of spiritual kickback. So they asked me to come do a three hour session on spiritual warfare. Ben said about 25 would be there. Corey said 35. I brought 50 handouts. Not enough. There were more like 75 people there. It was a lot of fun to show them the biblical patterns for warfare and see the light come on. I’m preaching at Clackamas Bible Church tomorrow, followed by two sessions at the Multnomah Missions Conference, being plenary speaker at the CBNW Enrichment conference and a spiritual warfare class in Sacramento. That along with a lot of church consulting makes me think of quiet.

Sherry and I went to Ya Hala’s restaurant for our Valentine’s lunch. We love Lebanese food. It reminds us of time together in Beirut. Thinking about nearly 41 years of marriage makes me smile. I reflected on what makes our marriage work and keep coming back to deep trust. There has never been and never will be secrets between us. We do confidentiality, not sharing things entrusted to us by people we pastor. But never secrets. There’s nothing I don’t want Sherry to see or hear. So we can talk openly about anything. What a joy to live in trust and smiles. When I’m quiet, I smile.

Perhaps quiet is because I’m avoiding writing. The time frame for Doctrine: What the Church Should Believe is approaching. I should be writing. The lock is still on. It must change, but I don’t know how to get it going.

Pastoral ministry continues to be hugely demanding. I can’t put details here, of course. But I consistently realize the impact of sin to break people and ruin relationships. Trying to help them move to grace when fears overwhelm is so challenging. It’s particularly hard when the fear is about me breaking boundaries. Sometimes I get to see amazing growth by the power of the Spirit, and life returns to the place of deadness. But the challenge is patience when there is no apparent change or when hard won growth is shattered by the evil one. That’s what wakes me up at 1:30 in the morning. I often end up my little study upstairs wondering about the little girl and praying quietly.

Quiet is a wonderful place.

P.S., This is a totally cute ad

We had a great time with family here for Christmas/New Year’s. There are lots of pictures here. I found myself think about a lot of things. As Cyndee came from a horror soaked "family," it was powerful to see her connecting with us and with her biological brother and his family. What a difference Jesus can make. Skype allows Nicole and Joy to see Elizabeth even though she’s in Kansas City. It was wonderful fun for the older folk. Elizabeth at just one wasn’t so impressed. Photo sites like Picasa and Dropshots are wonderful ways to keep up with people who are very far away. The trick is finding where the pictures are. It is a great joy when they are found and one can see how much girls have changed.

I preached on Isaiah 11 and focused on how the LORD works in stumps. We actually had a stump in front of the podium and dishes of woodchips around for people to write their stumpishness on and bring it to a manger if you need the unlikely help of a tender shoot or a tiny baby. Tiny babies are very precious and way more helpful than one would think when they can come out. The response was amazing as I asked people to get out of their seats and go act on stumpish things in their lives. We sang the super powerful song, "This is our God." You can hear Hillsong do it here. It was a very very emotional time for me as I reflected on my own stumpishness that caused so much hurt to my friend. I wonder if there will ever be a shoot there. A family came to talk with me after, who were in a rough spot in their lives. They wanted me to say everything would be OK. But that I can’t say. The life in the stump comes when there are responsive hearts and not always even then. The impact of sin is huge. But the tenderness of the LORD is awesome. So much to perplex.

This is the scene outside our home tonight. It’s a winter wonderland!  seems the snow will never cease, though the weather guy says this is the end for a week at least. I’m ready, I think. I do love the snow as long as it doesn’t shut things down.

I also went to see Twilight, the movie sensation that’s super big with teenage girls. Bella, a 17 year old girl, falls in love with Edward, a 17 year old vampire. It’s pretty amazing.  

I’m reading the third novel now. It’s really amazing to see her imagination and the basic morality of the story. Protecting innocent people, keeping instinctual cravings under control, forming friendships with people who are your natural enemies, maintaining sexual purity until marriage, honoring parents (if not always obeying them), are just some of the virtues there. The picture is me with Laurie Bloomquist, one of my students, You can pray for her. She heads off of Kenya in a few days to continue ministry there.

Next week I preach on Isaiah 40. What’s between comfort and hope? It’s proving to be a hard sermon to get nailed down. Especially I want to handle 40:31 well. Ideas?

A while back, the editor of Christian News Northwest sent me an email saying that they were going to publish a quite critical review ofThe Shack by my colleague Jim DeYoung. They had contacted William Paul Young, the author, inviting him to reply. Paul declined firmly, suggesting that they contact me!

After a lot of reflecting, I agreed to do a parallel review which would express my much more positive perspective. Those reviews were published in the December edition of CNNW.

I was extremely reluctant to go public in a debate format between Jim and me. While we differ on some important things, I’m not interested in making it seem that we are battling at Western! But on reflection and interaction with Marc (the dean) and Randy (the president), I decided that it could be dialogue. Beside I do appreciate deeply the lavish grace in The Shack. Now I need to have coffee with Paul and see what he’s thinking!

What do you think?

My Review: The Shack is a story of the lavish grace of the triune God. That powerful focus is both the book’s strength and weakness.

Mack’s despair after his daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered in a decrepit, remote shack, leaves him coldly bitter toward the God who allowed it. But God won’t leave him alone in his bitterness. Papa (the Father) invites Mack to meet Him at the shack. The place of horror becomes the place of renewing.

I was deeply impacted by this powerfully written story. I appreciate his exposition of Genesis 3, the models of incarnation and forgiveness, the power of the presence of God in evil places, among others. I resonate with God pursuing Mack to help him face the deep sadness so he could overcome his bitterness and brokenness. But God does not stop with helping a victim of evil. He takes Mack on to face his own sinfulness and find true forgiveness. God goes to the root of things in the gentle power called grace.

Isn’t Papa too familiar, too much the buddy? Where is the Isaiah 6 "holy, holy, holy is the LORD" whose presence brings Isaiah to cry, "Woe to me! I am ruined!"? It’s the question of the balance between God’s otherness and closeness. Many in my camp (Reformed Evangelical more or less) tend toward otherness. They also tend to see holiness, justice and wrath as God’s key attributes. Grace and love are primarily seen in the setting aside of His righteous anger rather than as a genuine compassion and desire to come alongside and help. But zeal for the holiness of the LORD must never keep one from wondering praise as the LORD moves graciously to cleanse sinful Isaiah.

Genesis 18 is a "Shack-like" story. The LORD comes to Abraham, Then three guys (I think I can show this is the Trinity at work) accept Abraham’s invitation to sit down for lunch and conversation. Note how gentle the LORD is here. He repeats His promise of a child. When Sarah cannot contain her bitter laughter, the LORD hears her unbelief and pursues her. But instead of rebuking her, He gently reaffirms His promise. How "Shack-like." Then He and Abraham discuss the LORD’s righteousness. "How can You destroy innocent people?" Abraham dares ask. Instead of rising to His throne of omnipotent holiness, the LORD gently interacts with Abraham so he will understand gracious justice. How "Shack-like."

Now I’ll quickly admit that The Shack’s portrayal of the Father as Aunt Jeremia mixing up pancakes for the boys isn’t a picture that resonates with me. But instead of blasting it as heresy, perhaps it would be good to listen to the explanation of why the Father comes to Mack in this particular form and why He later comes as a strong male figure. You’ll understand some of Young’s reasons if you’ll watch his "Story behind the Story" at www.livinghopechurch.com. Go to videos, past series, and you’ll see The Shack. As you watch you’ll see Young’s hope that God’s wrath is like his wife’s wrath when she discovered his infidelity. That kind of wrath redeems.

Young’s point is that the shack is a metaphor for all the trash in our lives. Religion teaches us to build a facade in front of it hoping that God and others will be impressed and like us, all the while desperately hiding the shack with its sin, ugliness that is our shame. The message of The Shack is that the LORD is not sitting on his heavenly throne disappointedly demanding that we clean up our shack. He is waiting to meet us in the shack and help us with the cleaning.

Does The Shack teach universalism? It doesn’t. Can the lavishly gracious picture of God be read universalistically? It could. But you’d have to ignore some key points in the book. For example Papa says He is reconciled to the whole world (192). But since reconciliation is a two way street, it must be received. Papa will not force His love on anyone.

In a key passage designed to provoke, Jesus tells Mack that those who love Him come from every kind of system (182). He declares that He has no desire to make them Christian, but to make them brothers and sisters, into "my Beloved." Mack asks, "Does that mean that all roads will lead to you?" Jesus responds, "Most roads don’t lead anywhere." This denies the common form of universalism, that all religions lead to the LORD. However Young’s response falls short of the biblical answer that the only way to the LORD is through Jesus. All religious roads lead to worship and service of other gods and eternal separation from the LORD in hell.

You can find the authors’ responses to criticisms of The Shack at www.windblownmedia.com. Paul Young’s playful response is in an article called, "The Beauty of Ambiguity (Mystery)" on www.windrumors.com.

The lavishness of grace in The Shack can bring legalists and religionists to a grace sourced repentance and to a life with Jesus filled with compassionate love and exuberant joy. But that same onesidedness can encourage people caught up in the naive universalism that plagues the church today. Tolerance and being nice, the supreme American virtues lead so many to refuse to believe the reality of people rejecting the Jesus or the LORD’s wrath against unrepentant sin.

Let me suggest that you read The Shack if you haven’t. Then reflect on Genesis 18 as well as Isaiah 6. Perhaps, like Mack, a deepened picture of the LORD will help you face your deep sadness, to repent of your sin as Mack does, to join me hoping for the day of healing in the friend whom I hurt so deeply, to face the people I’ve disappointed, and all those Shackish things. Above all, know that the Lord who meets us in our shack really is the Lord of glory, the LORD of Exodus 34:6-7.

Jim DeYoung’s Review:

Revisiting The Shack and Universal Reconciliation

    Seldom does one have the opportunity to review a work of fiction written by a friend that has risen to the top of best seller lists. Recently The Shack has been approaching sales of three million or more. There is talk about making a movie of the book.

    What is so unusual about this success is not only that this is purportedly a Christian work of fiction but it espouses a view of God that is creative but biblically ch
allenged. It is novel literarily and theologically. But does a work of Christian fiction have to be doctrinally correct?

    A brief look at the book uncovers an unremarkable plot. Willie retells the story of his friend, Mackenzie Phillips, who as a child was abused by his father which left him bitter toward God, the Bible, and the ministry. When his youngest daughter is kidnapped and brutally killed in a mountain shack, Mack’s anger freezes his total outlook in sadness and despair. Years later God invites him to return to the same shack. He encounters the Trinity in the form of a large African woman ("Papa" =the Father), a Jewish carpenter (=Jesus Christ), and a small Asian woman by the name Sarayu (=the Holy Spirit). These three lead Mack to discover a fresh meaning of God’s love for him and forgiveness.

    Who is the author? For over a dozen years I have known William P. Young. We have discussed much theology in a "think tank." Over four years ago Paul embraced Christian universalism and defended it on several occasions. He has claimed that Christian universalism changed his life and his theology.

    The number-one belief of Christian universalism (also known as universal reconciliation) asserts that love is the supreme attribute of God that trumps all others. His love reaches beyond the grave to save all those who refuse Christ before they die. Even fallen angels and the Devil himself will be conquered by God’s love and join the saints in heaven. This view of future destinies claims many texts that seem to assert that the reconciliation that Jesus accomplished on the cross extends to all creatures (Rom. 5:18; 2 Cor. 5:16-20; Col. 1:19-20), that all will lovingly confess him as Lord (Phil. 2:6-11), that God’s will that all be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) will be accomplished without fail.

    After he wrote The Shack the editors assert on their web site that they worked for over a year to eliminate the universalism from the novel. More recently Paul has sought to disavow universalism. But like all universalists he affirms that he "hopes" that there will be none who experiences eternal suffering. And by comparing the creeds of universalism with The Shack one uncovers the universalism and other errors.

    1) There is a subjugation of God’s justice to his love. The creed of 1878 asserts that God’s attribute of justice is "born of love and limited by love." In his novel Paul asserts that God "cannot act apart from love" (102, 191), that God chose "the way of the cross where mercy triumphs over justice because of love," and that this is a better way than that God should have exercised justice (164-165).

    2) The creed of 1899 asserts that God "will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness"; there is no future judgment. Similarly Paul denies that Papa (God) "pours out wrath and throws people" into hell. God does not punish sin; it’s his "joy to cure it" (120). Papa "redeems" final judgment (127). God will not "condemn most to an eternity of torment, away from his presence and apart from his love" (162). To judge is to act contrary to love (145).

    3) Universalists deny a personal devil; and he goes unmentioned in the book (134-137).

    4) Paul teaches that the entire Trinity became incarnate, and that the whole Trinity was crucified (99). Both Jesus and Papa (God) bear the marks of crucifixion in their hands (contra. Isa. 53:4-10). These ideas suggest the errors of patripassianism and modalism, that God is singular who assumes the different modes of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (proclaimed heresy by the church).

    5) Reconciliation is effective for all without exercising faith. Papa asserts that he is reconciled to the whole world, not just to those who believe (192). The creeds of universalism never mention the need to believe in Christ.

    6) Universal reconciliation rejects the idea that God willed humans to have a will that allows them to reject him. This is determinism and coercion.

    7) All are equally children of God and loved equally by him (155-156). In a future revolution of "love and kindness" all people will lovingly confess Jesus as Lord (248).

    8) The institution of the church is rejected as diabolical. Jesus claims that he "never has, never will" create institutions (178). This counters Matthew 16 and 18.

    9) The Bible is only a revelation of God. And in the novel it is given scant attention, if not ridiculed.

    The history of universalism goes back to Origen of the third century. In the sixth century it was condemned as heresy. In modern times universalism undermined evangelical faith in Europe and America. It opposed the Great Awakening in the 1730’s-40’s. By 1961 UR had evolved to join with Unitarianism to form the Unitarian-Universalist Association, with its denial of the Trinity and the deity of Christ.

    How does one answer the errors of Christian universalism? From Scripture. See my reviews of this book at www.theshackreview.com.

    Near the beginning I asked: Does Christian fiction have to be doctrinally correct? In this case the answer is yes, for Paul deliberately teaches theology in The Shack. But if one uses doctrinal impurity to teach how to be restored to a redefined God, one is not restored to the God of the Bible. Jesus warned that a house built on the wrong foundation will collapse (Matt. 7:24-28). So will a shack.

Heather Johnson had an internal shunt inserted surgically last night. That will drain the fluid that’s causing pressure in her brain into her stomach (or some such place) eliminating the risk of infection from an external drain. She’s been in ICU for two weeks now. A LONG time. Hopefully she will be able to go into a regular room soon. You can see updates at HeathersUpdate.blogspot.com

Each year I take some personal time to meditate on thankfulness. There is so much to be grateful for but there’s also the deep sadness. Keeping them both in mind at the same time is a place where I’ve grown. I tend to get lost in the sadness or a bit giddy in the gratitude. Psalm 23 illustrates the balance. It begins with green pastures and still waters but goes on to the oppression of the shadow of death. In both, it’s the presence of the LORD that is the constancy. He restores my soul in the calm and prepares a table of goodness when fearsome enemies surround me. And when His presence is lost, I sing Psalm 13 and express the lostness in the context of trust in for His unfailing love. I’m so thankful for the depth and dimensions of relationship with the LORD.

How can I express thankfulness for family? Nicole and Joy brightened my life a lot Tuesday morning (more pictures here), David and I had an excellent talk about life and ministry. Sam’s smiles and love for her family delight me. A little over a year ago, Elizabeth was barely alive in the NICU and we were wondering if she would survive meconium aspiration. She celebrated a totally healthy first birthday, toddling around the yard with contagious giggles. You can get infected here, Donn and Susan are wonderful parents. Cyndee spent two weeks of vacation in Portland, so we had some wonderful Poppa Daughter times remembering our Grand Canyon trip. Sam and the girls will help her with Christmas decorating at the Conference Center next week. All our family gets along well, a huge blessing.

I came home last night from a first post wedding session with Bruce and Annie to a wonderful surprise: Sherry’s aromatic Thanksgiving feast for us to share. As I’ve worked with couples wrestling with serious problems in their marriages, including two extremely painful divorces (my first to supervise), I continue to be astounded at Sherry’s constant love, the openness and deep trust we share.

Small things are good: Sherry asked me to get some cheddar cheese on my way home. I got to Fred Meyer to discover how MANY kinds and sizes there are. I found myself wishing I were in Taiwan where there’s no cheese! Cell phones are wonderful gifts for confused husbands! I’m thankful for Celtic Christian tunes on Live365, Facebook, saved Thanksgiving cards, my mug of coffee, memories of the children praying together, Interestingness on Flickr, squirrels eating the maple twirlees in my trees and not in my attic, crunchy cereal in the morning, quiet walks on Mt. Tabor.

There’s so much. I think it will take a few minutes more.

I’m seeing the impact of the economic crunch is some very personal ways. One of my students works in a financial planning office. Well, he did. His job went along with the profits. I’m on the board of Pregnancy Resource Centers of Portland. They are far 25% their very tight budget at the same time the visits into their clinics are up markedly. They have already done a pay reduction but projections for spring look bleak.

Most difficult right now is seeing one of the churches I consult with that will not be able to make payroll and mortgage payments. The emergency meetings are bringing out many tensions among the leadership team. "Faith in God’s provision" led to commitments that can’t be met now. It’s really hard not to fall into blaming. It wakes me up in the middle of the night praying.

On the other side, the baby in the Emanuel NICU I blogged about last time went through the surgery well. It’s really weird that she’s much better when she’s laying in her wired bed with her chest wide open to allow her heart to do its swelling. Please keep praying.

One of the many emails from a student asked me to comment on a woman in her ministry who sees the LORD roaming the earth, selecting her to be His bride. I tried to figure out why that image bothered me when it’s a biblical metaphor. It certainly makes her feel very loved and special. But when you look in Bible, it’s Israel or the Church, not an individual, who is the bride. It’s not an individual, but the people of God that the Father prepares to be a beautiful bride for His precious Son. Individuals are children of God, not the bride. We are one of many children, all of whom are special. There is only one bride and that relationship excludes all others. Ironically, applying the bride or marriage metaphor to our relationship makes us too special!

As I reflected, I found my mind singing the wonderful Twila Paris song, "How Beautiful" with the second stanza that goes like this:

How Beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sins and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

It’s a song that always brings a quiet smile because of the power of His love made real in and through the Body. There’s a genuine hope when that happens.

Sherry heads off on Sunday for her first cruise, a week long excursion with her Mom, sister and sister in law. It will be a very fun family time for them. They picked the time to coincide with my trip to Evangelical Theological Society, this year in Providence, Rhode Island.

And I have to include a couple of grandgirl pictures:

I have never had such an amazing weekend as this last weekend when I preached at Living Hope Community Church in Vancouver, WA. John Bishop, the founding senior pastor, and Duane Warren, are both Western alums and great friends. I’ve taught the staff and pastors in training many times over the years, but this is the first time I’ve preached there. John had just returned from a three week preaching tour in Australia that climaxed at the Hillsong United. Living Hope is quite large, around 5,000, as it comes to its 12th anniversary. They are on several campuses and run six services in their main Brush Prairie campus. So I did two sermons Saturday and three (9, 11, and 1) on Sunday. I preached on the sacrifice of Isaac from Genesis 22, with John closing the service.

The sermon came after we sang "This is our God," a great song John heard in Australia. You can hear it here. The story of the woman who sings in this video has a testimony that is overwhelmingly powerful. You can hear it here and enjoy "Desert Song" as well. When I finished, I had the worship team come back and sing it again with new meaning. John’s invitation was in the middle of the song. The Spirit made the song and the words incredibly powerful.

In the Saturday service, there were dozens of people on their knees at the stage, doing business with Jesus. On Sunday many more also responded to the call to deal with spiritual issues. The atmosphere was electric. In the second Sunday service, John spontaneously led people in a salvation prayer, and then asked for those who had prayed that prayer to raise their hands so he could pray for them. Imagine my astonishment when 52 people responded. He did it again in the final service and another 42 people raised their hands. I could hardly believe it. You can hear the the center of the service here or the whole service on the Internet campus.

There is an evangelistic anointing on the church that’s unique in the Portland metro area. How many churches would have 100 seekers in their services, I wonder. And the working of the Spirit to make the gospel that real is astounding. Many area churches benefit as they get involved in discipling the new believers. Living Hope cannot possibly disciple that many converts.

The last couple of weeks have had more than its share of crisis things. There’s a new born in the NICU at Emanuel with a backward plumbed heart, a hole in her diaphragm among other things. Her parents are from way north in Alaska, not believers, but met a guy from Grace whose daughter had similar problems. I ended up joining him and the father around the baby in the NICU. As my emotions were hit by memory of Elizabeth struggling for life in Children’s Mercy less than a year earlier, we talked as her father stroked his desperately ill tiny girl. Then we joined hands and I prayed for her healing. Her parents went back to their village and will return before the heart repair surgery on Nov. 11. Please pray with me that she will survive until then and that the surgery will work. I want her parents, who have seen the power of the LORD in community, to take a beautiful little daughter home with them.

I prayed today with a friend who had a afflicting presence related to a severe trauma in her life. As I began to pray, the LORD worked, not only overcoming the presence, but doing some deep healing as well. There was a kinship of spirit around His work that left us in silent awe before the joy broke out.

The awesome power of our LORD is astounding. That makes it all the harder when things don’t work as they should. I wait on the LORD, but often in expectant agony or in hopeful sadness. It a place where knowing the support of a friend is so important. It’s a place where the Spirit lives.

Jeremy posted a comment that is both thought provoking and close to a theme of atonement discussion among Evangelicals:

The section about the wrath of God is interesting to me. I guess I’ve always just assumed Christ was crushed under God’s wrath not differentiating between God pouring out His wrath/punishing His son and His son being a suitable sacrifice. I think the key word here is “appeasing”.

How do you respond to the idea that God’s wrath was poured out onto His son and is demonstrated by Christ’s ……I’ll use the word….stress…over going to the cross? Did it come up in your conversation? There’s the “let this cup pass from me” verse and of course the agony demonstrated by sweating drops of blood. I’ve heard it argued that countless martyrs have gone on to brutal deaths, more brutal than Christ’s even, and yet were joyful even to the point of singing hymns. It’s then deduced that Christ wouldn’t be agonizing over losing his life at the hands of man but rather the facing of the wrath of God. Is there anything to this?

There’s no doubt that the Cross was stressful for Jesus, to say the least! God’s response to sin is a holy just wrath. The Scripture is quite clear and it also makes sense that a compassionate, loving God would be angry at the evil done in His creation and to His creatures. The legal versions of the penal substitution view of atonement is that main reason for the wrath is the just response to broken law. It’s not an "emotional" but a "rational" wrath, There is a penalty arising from broken law. There has to be punishment for the broken law and the penalty must be paid to satisfy the just demands of the law. God could pour out His wrath on sinners, but in His love, He poured it out on a substitute, the God-man, Jesus. So the cup Jesus refers to in the Garden is the cup of God’s wrath which He must drink.

This is a tight logic to this. But the thing I look for is not tight logic, but is it biblical? I’m not against logic in any way, but realize that logic is only as good as the premises. In this case the key premise is whether God must pour out wrath of it if can be satisfied in some other way. Must God always punish someone or can His just wrath be satisfied by a sacrifice? If you start with Noah at the end of Genesis 8 you find a bunch of instances where a sacrifice is made and "The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma." In Ephesians 5:2 this theme comes clear when it says, "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." This same sacrifice theme is all over the NT: For example, Hebrews 10:12 says, when Jesus "offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." John says He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," The reality of a blood offering given to satisfy the righteous wrath and just penalty of sin is very clear in Bible.

But what I don’t find anywhere is that the Father pours out His wrath on a sacrifice. He does pour it out on evildoers who refuse forgiveness in Jesus. John 3:36 intrigues me be because it’s from the "gospel of love" as some put it. But no where in Bible does it say that God punishes the OT sacrifice or that He punishes Jesus. What He does is accept the death of the substitute as a propitiation, appeasing His righteousness.

I’m interested in your responses.

The ECD discussion got very careful in our review of the draft. The key was to affirm as much as all the participants would give Credo to. I was amazed at both the breadth and depth of agreement on what was said. We left it in a quasi-confessional form because that has a familiar feel to it. Here’s the final version of statement:

By our common faith in Jesus Christ we acknowledge and hold as essential to the gospel these life-giving truths:

The Cross is central to the saving mystery of God’s plan for the ages to make all things new in Christ. Therefore it cannot be separated or isolated from the birth of Emanuel, His life and ministry, His passion and death, His resurrection to life, His exaltation to the right hand of the Father, His sending of the Holy Spirit, or His return in glory as judge. In Christ God renews fallen humanity and liberates creation from its ancient curse, the bondage to corruption.

The atonement, the passion and death of Christ, is a Trinitarian event. The Cross is a vicarious sacrifice, a satisfaction, wherein the incarnate God is our substitute, in which the justice and mercy of God are revealed, out of which comes our justification and salvation. Christ is the priest, the sacrificial victim – Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us – and, as God, the one to whom sacrifice is made. Christ’s death on the Cross is the propitiatory sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God against sin and the expiatory sacrifice that cleanses guilt and shame. It is also Christ’s perfect spiritual worship of the Father, the source and example of Christian discipleship. The Father sent His Son into the world, so that the Son in obedience to the Father, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself in the shame of the Cross as a ransom for many. In the Cross He disarmed and triumphed over the evil powers. In His death and resurrection, He overcomes death. In His obedience, He conquers disobedience.

I spent last weekend in Missouri visiting Elizabeth who is almost 11 months old now. Oh, yeah, we saw Donn, Susan too! But this quad miracle baby was the center of attention. She took some first steps while we were there as I had the video camera on her. Of course you’ll want to see them.

I also drove down to Spring Branch Church of the Brethren, near what used to be Avery Missouri to do my Uncle Richard Poulicek’s memorial service. I grew up there and as I drove, I knew it would be my last time to go there for a long time if ever. So I was quite nostalgic in the early morning mists. I drove through Peculiar and headed toward Tightwad and Racket. I came round a bend and saw a marvelous sun rising to call me. It was just exquisitely beautiful. I stopped to marvel and take pictures before driving on. When I left Tightwad, I entered into the rolling hills, hardwood forests, and rocky crags of the Ozarks. It’s so familiar, touching deep in my heart.

As I took the shortcut on the lake road toward Whitacerville, going down the steep hill, I saw another bucolic scene that gripped me. In the nook was a large pond, almost a small lake  with mists all round and geese settled quietly on the water. I drove by since the road was too narrow to stop safely on with visibility so limited by the hills. But I had to come back and take three or four pictures from different perspectives. I turned around and took a couple more . It was so incredibly peaceful.

But as I took the last picture, something moved. Then there were two loud pops. Hunters sprung out of the blind and fired at birds flying overhead. Double click on the picture above (the last one I took) so you can see it large, and you’ll see the shotgun coming up. It was a graphic reminder that things can be so very different than they seem. The bucolic peace was actually frought with danger. And it was too late to do anything about it.

The memorial service was a small group gathered round the grave. We talked for an hour and then I put on my coat and tie to become Rev. Breshears and lead the service. As we began, a group of 5 or 6 white pelicans flew quietly over head. We looked and in the distance was another flight of 50 or 75 of the giant birds. As we proceeded, the flight moved toward us. As I read the final Scripture and prayed, they circled over us several times before continuing their divinely beautiful journey. It was God’s way of placing the beauty of forgiveness on a live that had much sin in it. But Richard did turn to Jesus later in life and did his best to live a repentant life of faithfulness to his wife and LORD. As I drove by the places I lived as a boy, I gloried in the beauty of Jesus and healing, praying it for places where rifts are still real.

We took Elizabeth for her first outing away from Mom. Susan was glad but nervous as Sherry and I drove away with her child, her only child, her beloved child. Donn and I saw a marvelous football game and we celebrated family at Jack’s Stack.

Cyndee and I will go to Phoenix this weekend to connect with her sister. A very long story of miraculous proportion there. And it will be a very good Poppa daughter time as she and I spend the weekend at the Grand Canyon. I’m so sorry. I thought you were off the list. This has been a lot of family time. David, Sam, Nicole and Joy came here Monday and Tuesday for the first celebration of Nicole’s eighth birthday. Very fun to have family.

Things are not always as they seem. Sometimes they are dangerous, sometimes way better.

I preached on the parable of the minas at Grace today. More on that in a moment. It was fun to begin with pictures of grandgirls and our new great grandson, Griffin Braun Haddon. You can see more pictures here. Sherry and I took Nicole and Joy with us to Roseburg last weekend. I preached at Redeemer’s, so we all went down on Friday, spent Saturday at Wildlife Safari enjoying all the animals as well as evenings in the Windmill Inn swimming pool. I remembered doing this a few years ago with friends and with my Mother before that.

As I prepared to preach, I realized that I wanted to give a quick summary of Jesus’ message of the kingdom. It’s not easy to do, I found. So I looked on the web to see what was there. There are nut cases:

The 1,000 year kingdom that starts on 2008Nisan16, March 23rd, 2008. Wherein Satan and the demons are locked up for the duration. God and Jesus and the 144,000 first new covenant saints rule from heaven in one to one correspondence with Melchizedek and Gordon and the 144,000 second new covenant saints who rule from earth. There are heavenly lords/administrators and earthly lords/administrators, and earthly priests and of course earthly citizens. 29% of mankind survives Armageddon through a rapture. All humans in the kingdom have bodies which do not age, like Adam had in the Garden of Eden. This Kingdom is the antitypical garden of Eden, the second Eden.

This is from "The Lord’s Witnesses," a spin off from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I suppose. I really wonder who "Gordon" is!

Then there’s a more serious proposal from Michael Beckwith, of Agape International Spiritual Center. He’s a key teacher on the widely sold DVD, The Secret, and a frequent guest on Oprah. He represents New Thought teaching, the law of attraction: What you think about, you bring about. When asked if this treats the universe as sort of a personal ATM, he replied, "well, that’s not the entire teaching." You can see the CBS News interview here. His idea of the Kingdom of God goes like this:

The kingdom of God is actually in us, and what comes out of your mouth, what you think about. It is not some far off divine event, but within the mind.

You don’t need God, Jesus or anything outside yourself other than a guru like him who will help you find the kingdom inside yourself. If you think good thoughts, that’s heaven. If you don’t, I guess that’s hell.

I went to Bible, of course. Psalm 96:10, 13. Psalm 72 speaks of Messiah who will come, bringing righteousness, justice, prosperity, defending the afflicted, crushing the oppressor. Isaiah 2:1-4 speaks of a time when people will study war no more. Zechariah 2:10 is a particular favorite promise: "Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD." A heart level thing is the personal presence of the King, the LORD Himself. So my definition is

The dynamic activity of the sovereign, triune God to manifest His authority in His sin-alienated creation, by redeeming it from the domain of evil, judging all enemies, and bringing righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, on and through His people to the praise of His glory.

It’s kind of an intermediate divine rescue mission under the presence and power of the Spirit, leading to the kingdom in its fullness when Jesus comes personally to reign.

This has been a week of triumph as well as rough stuff. I’ve worked in a couple of situations I can only call miracle change and growth. But I’ve also watched two relationships fail with huge pain. A large lawsuit was filed against a church as a result of a situation I’ve worked closely with over the last few months. When I heard of the suit, it kinda put me over the edge. I asked the prayer group I meet with at Western how they process overwhelm. I said the best is talk deeply with a friend, one who knows my soul so well that I don’t have to edit, where the emotions can dump without concern for misunderstanding. That can’t happen just now. So I touch the words and remember as I listen prayerfully to Fernando Ortega. And I pray for the LORD of reconciliation to do His powerful work and beg, "Thy Kingdom come."

He comes in the stillness

I dialogued with a fellow a couple of weeks ago about Vintage Jesus. He had very mixed response. After our dialogue he was much more positive, but still pretty dismayed with the "hipness" and such. I affirmed the legitimacy of his his opinion while noting that it was aimed at people for whom this was their native language.

This morning, I get this email from him (I’ve edited it slightly to remove some identifying details):

I had to share a quick story with you about VINTAGE JESUS.  As you may recall, my major criticism of the book was its "hippness."  My fiance is getting her MDiv from a liberal school.  She is a smart girl and radiates the love of Christ to folks.  She’ll make a great pastor, but she’s not theologically inclined at all.  She’ll text me in the middle of class saying stuff like "My prof says Adam and Eve didn’t exist and Genesis is just a Sumerian story that was retold with different characters" or "The prof is saying that Jesus didn’t even exist as a person" or "Did you know that Paul was gay and that was his thorn in the flesh."   She’ll then ask me what’s true.  I really try and communicate good and sound biblical theology to her, but often times she doesn’t get it.  I even started my blog with her in mind.

Well, I sent her my copy of VINTAGE JESUS.  She read it over the weekend and loved it.  What she loved the most was the hippness of the book.  In her words: "It cracked me up and was entertaining."  She learned lots of theological truths that I had tried to communicate to her in the past.  She’s got a new Bible study starting this fall and just emailed all 12 ladies telling them that the pre-req is to read VINTAGE JESUS.

So, who knows if my criticism is even valid.  You touched her and at least 12 other women with the book’s hipness.  Keep up the great work!

I laughed aloud for joy. This story came from a very different direction than I’d expected. M.Div. students at liberal seminaries aren’t what I was thinking about, but I’m certainly glad for it~

One fun development is that after almost eight years of being a grandfather, I’m about to become a great grandfather. You can see the portrait of Gelayol, our very pregnant Persian granddaughter, and her husband, Brian. She’s due Sept. 20. We eagerly await the word if the next generation will be girl or boy.

The last couple weeks have been unexpectedly packed. We are doing our American Theological Schools accreditation report. I turned my section on the MAET program in on the due date, a Monday in mid-August, with great relief. On Wednesday Randy Roberts, the president, came by my office and asked me a strange question that left me wondering. So I went to his office to inquire further. It turned out I’d missed the small fact that a whole chapter had been assigned to me. There was an email that announced that and I totally missed it. So now, two days late, with no thought or research, I’m supposed to write a whole chapter. Panic!

I gathered data, looked at materials, tried to think in terms of teaching, learning and scholarship at Western (the chapter topics), and began to draft. Then I went to Fort Worth for the Evangelical Theological Society executive committee meeting and spent three days with my sister an brother in law in Dallas, a true vacation. . . . except that I spent three or four hours each morning doing the chapter! But I got it done and the whole report is finished.

This is a part of what has made this a challenging month emotionally. I’m working with two marriages that are going very badly and that troubles me deeply. I feel very helpless to make things go in the right direction. Similar helplessness around missing SF is super hard. There are leadership challenges in consultations with two churches I care a lot about that are taxing my energy. Driving Hood to Coast again was great though tiring. I stood in Dave Wenzel’s mother’s yard in the middle of the night wanting so much to make the impossible long distance phone call. Happily Sherry was a Race volunteer, monitoring a turn of the race in downtown Portland. It was super to hear her giggling with her friend at 3 am! Did I mention that book 4, Doctrine: What the Church Should Believe has to to into high writing gear immediately? Not fun anticipation. I get to teach my first class at Corban on Labor Day, a mixed blessing. And I preach on prayer this weekend at Grace.