friendship's second things

somewhere in this our conversations got stale

[maybe that's the wrong word. words are a bulky attempt at a feeling. my sister has a thing about words. something about cultures story telling and painting and how we're visual and literary communicators]

i don't know if it was the content
things that were the rarity
and then became the all
and it was a default

it's like making out in a relationship
or sex for some people.
you love someone, and it's all from who they are, and then you get them, and you date, and then you kiss, and it says everything, there in that action;
"i want you near me"
"you're the object of my affection"
and then soon it's all you do
and you miss them, because you put the expression of your affection first, as a means
not the end
and maybe that's us
and some of those things we do that were special shifted to the norm
and you forget why you're not feeling new things, when you're doing the old things
and then before long, a relationship that is the primary topic of its own conversations isn't really anything at all

c.s. lewis talks about friendship and relationships being two people standing side by side looking at something great together and saying "i think this is amazing" and "so do i"
like people with music and film and art and beauty, and hobbies and sports and video games and places
but if you turn to that person and say "i love that i love you" and they say "i love that too" and that's all you have, you're at a bit of a loss

i don't think that's us
i'm just working out the word 'stale'
and thinking of a synonymous idea
or synonymical

but you know that feeling when we're shoving the bi-product up centre stage.
c.s. lewis said it
"Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things"

acceptable worship

Hebrews 12:28&29 say
“let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire"
Acceptable worship, Consuming fire.
Now the author is this letter has in mind the book of Exodus and the book of Leviticus and the whole old law. And these terms come straight out of Leviticus 9 and 10. You might know the story, the Israelites have just been given instructions about priests and sacrifices at the tabernacle, at the temple. And Aaron has just been commissioned and ordained and he has offered the first sacrifice and followed every letter of the law. He offered acceptable worship. But then in chapter 10 we read

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Leviticus 9 Aaron offers acceptable worship, Leviticus 10 his sons offer unauthorized fire and are consumed by the fire of God. So the central question for Hebrews chapter 13 is 'what is acceptable worship?'
And the one thing that I think really matters here is that acceptable worship for God is not working for His love, it is not working for His forgiveness, it is not working for His acceptance. Those things are not just missing the grace of God, they are unacceptable worship.
We had a massive problem between us and God but Hebrews 1-12 has already outlined and celebrated how that has been solved, fixed, restored, forgiven.

and Hebrews 10:12&18 say
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is no longer any offering for sin
that sentence brings a very great calm.
And with easter this week, this verse is a great reminder of why we celebrate. I once wrote about easter in these terms “the world wakes up to the deafening calm of sin paid for”. It’s done, the sacrifice is made, it’s been paid for.

So do you see that any attempt from us to be good enough for God, to be righteous on our own, these are unacceptable sacrifices. It’s done it’s been paid for. Do you see that if we get this wrong we’ll be in a world of trouble? We’ll be coming to God with our guilt and our legalism and our promises to try harder to be good enough for Him. But none of that is required, none of that is acceptable, we are to come grateful for what He has given and promised to us.
But only once you can say “I am receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken” and “Jesus has offered the perfect sacrifice for my sins and I cannot be more forgiven and I cannot be less forgiven” are you ready to obey.

Acceptable worship is gratitude.

masters

some of you will say "i'm free, why do i want to be a slave?"
i would ask you to be completely honest with yourself; are you really free? you're not.
who or what is your master?
if it is alcohol if it is drugs if it is food if it is pride if it is straight As and achievement, someone, something is your master. here's my question - is it, are they better than Jesus?

- mark driscoll

no fear of falling

from these moments we awake
our heads clear of the mistakes
how we never hit the breaks, or felt it stalling

piper on lewis

"He helped me become alive to life.
To look at the sunrise and say with an amazed smile,
“God did it again!”
He helped me to see what is there in the world;
things which if we didn’t have them,
we would pay a million dollars to have,
but having them, ignore."

the safe castle

i saw alice in wonderland at the movies.
there is a red queen and a white queen.
and for so much of the film there's tension and discomfort and we're in this world of danger. for all the time alice is in the red queen's court she's only protected by a made-up name. and for all the beauty and mystery and magic of the world it wasn't 'safe' and there were no anchors or stability.

but the story gets around to alice being discovered and attacked and chased and she runs and runs and runs and gets to the white queen's castle. and high on a stone balcony of the castle, on the neat white stone under a clean night sky she stands overlooking a series of quiet, tall waterfalls.

for whatever point they were aiming at making, i was so struck by that calm. one day soon, maybe tomorrow, i'm going to live in a castle like that. but better. i couldn't stop thinking of how tangible it will be, my daily, momentary lived reality will be in a calm paradisal kingdom. i'll walk that balcony. the instant i'm there i never won't be there.

what's wrong with the world?

is there anything wrong with the world?
i heard the sentence "things aren't as they should be" today.
but i thought - things are as they are. things just happen, they just exist, occur, they just are. where does this higher standard come in?

look at the news, read about war and murder and rape and injustice and genocide and theft, adultery, abortions. these things just are. and really, someone could say "nothing is wrong with the world". this is the world. there's no more wrong in these things than there is wrong in a fish swimming in water. that is the nature of the game.

i see this as one side of a contract. because as soon as you respond by saying "but they're wrong, it's obvious that they're wrong". then i will say - then the universe must have meaning. and it must have been founded upon some system of justice. and that system must be real enough for us to know, but too high for us to keep.

and whatever else you believe, you can't deny that, because you signed on the dotted line. and you're now only one step away from hearing the best news that any human has ever known.