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Category: Exodus (Page 3 of 7)

Around the Table: Part 6

November 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.” ~Mark 14:24

There was a definite Passover context in the city, in the room, and around the table when Jesus celebrated the feast with his disciples on the night he was betrayed. Jesus and his closest followers had gathered to remember God’s great acts of redemption, specifically the deliverance of his people from bondage in Egypt. They gathered to sing the Psalms of divine rescue that recount those mighty deeds. They gathered to celebrate that past with great joy and to eagerly anticipate a future fulfillment when all of God’s people would be brought together around the banquet table in the Promised Land.

But Jesus takes this centuries-old covenant meal and gives it new meaning.

First, he ties it to the original covenant meal as recorded in Exodus 24 by quoting Moses. As Moses cleanses the people with the sprinkled blood, he says, “This is the blood of the covenant.” As Jesus shares this Passover meal with his disciples, he quotes Moses, but adds an all-important word to the well-rehearsed line, “This is my blood of the covenant.” Instead of the blood of the lamb(s) removing the sins of the people, the blood of Jesus, the perfect Lamb, will now be poured out for the forgiveness of all sin for all time. Jesus redefines the ultimate meaning of the meal. He is the sacrifice, he is the One being given as atonement for the sins of God’s people. Same covenant; different terms.

Secondly, he tells the disciples to “do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19).” Do what? Why, eat this meal, of course. The word “this” should not be understood as exclusively referring to the bread and/or the cup. Those are only two elements of what we know was always a full-blown, full-course celebratory meal. When the children are instructed in Exodus 12 and 13 to ask about the Passover feast — “What does this mean?” — the answer is a liturgical way to tell the story, to pass the faith on to the next generation: “I do this because of what the Lord did for me.” If Jesus and his apostles are good Jews — and they were — and if they were following the prescribed liturgy — and we have no reason to doubt otherwise — Jesus would be explaining the significance of the whole meal, the whole setting, all the elements from the bread to the vegetables to the lamb and the wine and dessert. And all the songs and prayers that went with it. Jesus was telling his disciples and us to eat the meal — the whole meal — in memory of him. At Passover, we remembered God’s redemption work in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and his faithfulness through the wilderness to the Promised Land. At this new covenant meal, we remember now the Gospel events regarding our Savior: his birth, life, teachings, healings, death, and resurrection.

Third, Jesus institutes the new way of understanding religious meals by pointing forward to the ultimate fulfillment around the wedding feast in heaven. The original instructions in Exodus 12 regarding the Passover include the command to observe the feast “when you enter the new land.” Built into the meal is an anticipation that this isn’t going to be the last time we do this. There will come a time when we do this in much better circumstances. Same with our communion meals today. Jesus, on that last night, apparently went out of his way to let his disciples know he would celebrate this meal with them again at the coming of the Kingdom of God. Next thing you know, there they are on Resurrection evening, eating and drinking with their Lord. And, there they are in Acts, eating and drinking together, by the power of the Spirit, with the risen Savior. While sharing the meal today, we understand this isn’t going to be the last time. In fact, we eagerly anticipate eating the supper with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth with all the saints of all time.

So, there is certainly a past, present, and future element present every time we eat and drink together in remembrance of Jesus. We remember the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. We rejoice in the forgiveness and reconciliation achieved for us at the cross. We renew our end of the covenant, pledging anew our loyalty to Christ. We experience his presence at the table where he acts as host and servant. We celebrate the fellowship we enjoy with our Lord and with one another. And we look forward to that great eternal wedding feast on that one glorious day.

Same covenant. The promises of God didn’t change. He didn’t alter at all what he always promised us from the very beginning. The terms of the deal are what changed. Jesus is the difference. He has fulfilled all righteousness for us. And we celebrate with great joy every time we eat and drink with one another in his holy name.

Peace,

Allan

Around the Table: Part 5

October 24, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” ~Exodus 12:24-27

The final dinner Jesus shared with his disciples on the night of his betrayal was a Passover meal. The synoptic gospels all make the explicit claim that this was the Passover. Jesus made preparations and gathered his disciples to “eat the Passover.” Since this last supper has become for the majority of Christians the be-all, end-all paradigm for our own beliefs and practices regarding the Lord’s Supper (for right or wrong), it makes sense to study carefully the Passover context of that last night. I’ve had church leaders on more than one occasion point to the gospel accounts of this last meal to justify their order that we not sing any songs during the Lord’s Supper. After all, the logic goes, the Bible says they sang a song after the meal, not during. Of course, if we’re to follow that logic to its conclusion, we’d be sharing the Lord’s Supper only on Thursdays. Upstairs.

So, yes, let’s look at the Passover context of what was happening around the table on that last night.

As we’ve already noticed in this series, the Jewish Passover meal — all covenant and/or community and/or sacrificial meals for that matter — is a communal celebratory event. As an expression of salvation, it was yet another community meal celebrated following a sacrifice. The Passover, in particular, was a joyous celebration of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt.

“Celebrate it as a festival to the Lord — a lasting ordinance!” ~Exodus 12:14

“Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” ~Exodus 12:17

“I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples.” ~ Matthew 26:18

The Passover Supper also was a remembrance of that deliverance. By remembrance, we don’t mean a merely intellectual act or emotional recollection. This is a faithful action, a rehearsal, a participation in that deliverance. The Passover liturgies from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish writings from the first century all contain actions and language that help the people around the table to identify with the historic salvation event as if they were present in Egypt and at the Red Sea.

“Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt.” ~Deuteronomy 16:1

“…so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.” ~Deuteronomy 16:3

“…because you left Egypt in haste.” ~Deuteronomy 16:3

“We cried out to the Lord… the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” ~ Deuteronomy 26:7-8

“Each should celebrate as one who has gone out of Egypt.” ~ Mishna

We also know that as Jesus and his disciples gathered on that last night, their supper together was marked by great joy, praise, and thanksgiving. This was not a dirge or a funeral meal; expressions of joy at this supper were the command of God.

“…with great rejoicing… singing… praise.” ~ 2 Chronicles 30:21-27

“…celebrated with joy… Lord had filled them with joy.” ~ Ezra 6:22

“…your times of rejoicing, your appointed feasts.” ~ Numbers 10:10

The Passover was also established as an anticipation event. Children of God ate the meal together looking forward to that day when they would be eating it in a much better place, in wonderfully better circumstances. They eat and drink with an eye to the future, focused on an upcoming meal that will surpass the one they share today.

“When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.” ~ Exodus 12:25

If we’re really out to imitate every detail of that Last Supper at our communion times together on Sunday mornings — again, for right or wrong — then why don’t we? As good law-keeping Jews, Jesus and his disciples would have been in a festive spirit that night and engaged all the elements of the evening with great joy. The meal was marked by group identity and interaction. It was a present participation in the past events of God’s salvation. They were singing the psalms, specifically Psalms 113-118, before, during, and after the supper.

I would recommend singing songs of salvation, songs of praise for God’s mighty acts, before, during, and after our communion meals together. I would suggest swapping salvation stories around the table. I once was ______, but now I’m ________. Ask each other the questions: from what have we been delivered? From what to what have we passed? Who took our place that day? Do it together in the aisles or along the walls in your worship center. Huddle up around your pews. Allow the children to ask the questions: Why do we do this? And then share the story: because the Lord our God delivered us by the Passover Lamb. And then hug each other and sing another song.

Peace,

Allan

Around the Table: Part 2

September 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We’re seeing right now with the Rangers the exact same thing we saw at this point last season. They’ve smashed into the wall. They can’t hit, they can’t field, they can’t pitch. They’re flat. They’re done. And Oakland’s on a tear. The same thing happened last year at this exact same time. And we’re running out of options for turning things around. You can’t hold a players-only meeting every week. You can only call a special team meeting with the manager a couple of times a year. Now what? I wore my 1996 AL West Championship T-shirt to bed last night, trying to channel some of that magic from the first ever playoff year for the Rangers. We could use some of that Johnny Oates mojo, some of that Pudge Rodriguez intensity, some of that Will Clark leadership. We need something. This is the do-or-die weekend for Texas. If they don’t take at least two out of three from the A’s, beginning tomorrow, we’ll play Taps for the team here on Monday. Yuk.

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“They ate and drank with great joy in the presence of the Lord.” ~1 Chronicles 29:22

If put on the spot, most of us would not be able to quote anything out of Leviticus. Most of us have never participated in or even seen an animal sacrifice. And a decreasingly fewer number of us have ever slaughtered an animal to eat. Anything having to do with the sacrifices prescribed by God and practiced by his people in the Hebrew Scriptures is mostly ignored by us. That was Old Testament, we like to say. That was the Law of Moses. Those are complicated rules and regulations, outdated and ineffective means of obtaining forgiveness from which New Testament Christians have been freed. We don’t know much about these sacrifices because we don’t study them. Those sacrifices are not important for us today. They’re certainly not binding.

Not so fast.

When Paul is writing to the Corinthians about what is actually happening around the Lord’s Supper, he asks them to first understand what’s happening at the Israelites’ sacrifices.

“Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?” ~1 Corinthians 10:18

Eat the sacrifices??? Most Christians today don’t realize that God’s people always ate the sacrifices. They made a community meal out of the meat. And Paul says this is significant for understanding the function of the Lord’s Supper. Paul doesn’t just talk about the Passover sacrifice and meal as informative, he mentions the entire sacrificial system. Paul reflects on the meaning of eating the sacrifice to help Christians better comprehend what’s happening at Christ’s table.

The fellowship offering was ordered to go alongside all sin offerings and burnt offerings. You can’t find a place in Scripture where God’s people didn’t offer the fellowship sacrifice in the course of observing the others. The word translated “fellowship,” or “peace” in some English versions, is actually shelem, from the shalom root that means “peace.” Shalom means peace, while shelem communicates a relationship of peace, a communion or fellowship between two parties. And fellowship sacrifices were always eaten together by the people.

You find God’s people offering fellowship sacrifices at the ratification of the Mosaic covenant, at the inauguration of the priesthood, and as a part of every major festival, including Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Fellowship offerings and meals were required at the end of a Nazarite vow. Fellowship offerings were the climactic moments at the inaugurations of Israel’s kings, at covenant renewal ceremonies at Shechem and Jerusalem, at the dedication of the temple, and as part of the regular corporate worship of God. You have to read most of Leviticus and Deuteronomy to get it, but sacrifice and fellowship and communion meals were a normal part of life with God and with one another in this community of faith.

The way it worked was that the fat of the animals was left on the fire to burn, while the people ate the meat together as a community. It happened at the same time. God was consuming the fat on the fire, the people were consuming the meat on their plates. God and his people were sharing a meal together, eating at the same time, around the same table. Fellowship, shelem, with God and with one another. These fellowship meals always followed the sacrifice. And they were consistently characterized by two things: the presence of God and great joy.

Exodus 18:12 – Moses, Jethro, and Aaron eat the sacrifice “in the presence of God” to celebrate their salvation from Egypt.

Exodus 24:8-11 – “they saw God, and they ate and drank.”

Deuteronomy 12:4-7 – “Eat and rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God.”

Deuteronomy 12:17-18 – “Eat them before the presence of the Lord… rejoice before the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 14:23 – eat the grain and livestock offerings “in the presence of the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 14:26 – “Eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.”

Deuteronomy 15:20 – regarding the first born animals of the flocks: “eat them in the presence of the Lord.”

1 Chronicles 29:21-22 – the people ate and drank with great joy in the presence of the Lord

Deuteronomy 27:7 – at the covenant renewal in Shechem; the people ate the fellowship offerings “rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.”

2 Chronicles 7:10 – at the building of the temple; people eating the fellowship offerings were “joyful and glad in heart.”

Ezra 6:13-22 – at the re-building of the temple; the people “celebrated with joy” because the Lord had “filled them with joy.”

Nehemiah 8:1-18 – at the re-building of the city walls; “do not mourn or weep… enjoy choice food and sweet drinks… the joy of the Lord… celebrate with great joy.”

Numbers 10:10 – “at your times of rejoicing, your appointed feasts.”

I could fill up your screen with many more references. The point is that the covenant meals were always, without exception, eaten by and with the entire community, always in the presence of God, and always with great joy. The fellowship meal is a joy-filled celebration of the righteous relationship — the peace, the communion — with God that resulted from the sacrifice at the altar. You can’t find a community meal anywhere in the Old Testament in which joy was not the mood and celebration not the command. In fact, in the one place in which Israel was weeping during the meal, God rebuked them and corrected them, commanding them to “celebrate with great joy.”

Fellowship meals in the Old Testament were never intended to be moments of solemn silence or private introspection. Communion meals were not in any way individualistic. They were interactive, participatory meals in which the entire community actively engaged with one another and with God. The meals were joyful and grateful celebrations of the blessings of God. This is the understanding and the practice of Jesus himself, his disciples, and all the New Testament writers. Not just them, but their grandfathers and great-great-great-great grandfathers before them.

Paul says if you understand this, you can better understand the Lord’s Supper. As an expression of peace and communion between God and his people. As a communal act shared among the people of God. As a salvation celebration characterized by great joy and thanksgiving. Do our Lord’s Supper practices and experiences today reflect this understanding?

Someone in our class last night asked, “Why don’t we do the Lord’s Supper this way? Why do we look at the floor and get so quiet during the Lord’s Supper?”

Good question.

Shalom,

Allan

Around the Table: Part 1

September 5, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“They saw God, and they ate and drank.” ~Exodus 24:11

Regular readers of this space know that the communion meal is the one area of our Christian worship, the one part of our history and tradition and liturgy, that really gets me going. It’s the area in which I’ve done the most research and study and the thing about which I’m most passionate. There’s a whole lot going on around the table when disciples of Christ gather to share a meal. And I believe that on Sundays in our churches, we miss most of it.

Here at Central last night, we began an eleven week study of our Lord’s Supper that will take us from Genesis all the way through Revelation. From the Israelites eating on the mountain with God and Christ sharing that last meal with his apostles to the biblical accounts of the early church’s Christian meals to our communion beliefs and practices today, we’re going to explore Scripture and ancient practices, history and context, custom and command. And, by God’s grace, we’re going to arrive at a deeper and stronger communion theology for our congregation.

We opened up the study last night by considering the very first communion meal shared between God and his people in Exodus 24. This is the holy meal that sets the tone for all the communion meals to come. This is the meal Jesus was pointing his disciples back to around the table on that last night. This is the primary model through which all communion meals are informed and formed.

We set it up by looking at a couple of stories in Genesis. In Genesis 31 Jacob and Laban are fighting within their own family. They can’t get along. Jacob takes off with his wives and children and flocks. Laban gives chase, catches up with his daughters and grandchildren and son-in-law, and they begin to argue with one another there in the desert. After both have angrily vented, Laban proposes a peace treaty.

“Come now, let’s make a covenant between you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us… So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.” ~Genesis 31:44-46

A similar thing had occurred in Genesis 26. Isaac and Abimelech were at each other’s throats over land and crops and flocks. There were lies. Their servants were fighting. Finally, Abimelech suggested a peace treaty.

“There ought to be a sworn agreement between us — between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you… Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.” ~Genesis 26:28:30

The meal celebrates the reality of the peace. Eating and drinking together expresses in tangible, concrete, and visible ways the reality of the new relationship between the once estranged parties. The treaty brings about the peace; that peace is then experienced at the meal.

Just like with God and his people on the mountain.

In Exodus 19, the Lord announces a covenant for his people and the people accept the terms. “We will do everything the Lord has said!” In Exodus 20, God summarizes the terms of the covenant, which are then itemized in more detail in Exodus 21-23. This covenant is then ratified, or made official, by the sacrifices in Exodus 24:

“They offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you…'” ~Exodus 24:5-8

The covenant is sealed with the blood of the sacrificed animals. Both sides have made pledges, both sides have agreed, and now there’s a brand new relationship. This is it, Moses says. It’s done.

“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel.” ~Exodus 24:9

And God struck the leaders of Israel dead right there on the spot. Yes? Of course! Nobody can see God and live. We know that. The original readers of the ancient text know this. The first hearers of this story knew it. You can’t see God. Duh! You and I have always known that. He is holy, we are not. He is righteous, we are not. He is perfect and transcendent and above all else and we are certainly not. A person cannot see God and live. It just doesn’t work that way.

That’s why the next line in the story is so dramatic. That’s why what happens on the mountain is so extraordinary and shocking; scandalous, even!

“But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” ~Exodus 24:11

These high priests and Levites and leaders of God’s people, representing all of Israel, ate and drank a covenant meal with God. They were face to face with the Creator of Heaven and Earth, at his table eating and drinking with him in the reality of a brand new kind of holy relationship. God’s people had been washed by the blood; there were made righteous by the sacrifice. The blood had rendered them perfect in the eyes of God and allowed them to enter into his presence. The sacrifice allowed them to commune with God. They were not killed when they saw him. God did not strike them dead when they came into his holy presence. He welcomed them with a fellowship meal of food and drink. They celebrated the reality of the relationship, the reality of their salvation, by eating and drinking with God.

God never intended an altar. He planned for it, yes, because he knew. But he never intended an altar. He always intended a table. God’s goal is a table. The altar serves the table, the altar makes the table possible. The altar is the atoning work of forgiving sin; the table is the tangible experience of that forgiveness.

Jesus himself, the apostles, all the New Testament writers and readers, and certainly the early church all live in a context of a clear distinction between altar and table. The altar and the table are two different things; there are two completely different forms, entirely different functions between the sacrifice and the meal. Those differences were established and understood by generations and centuries of teaching and practice.

In many ways we have combined the two. Down through the centuries, God’s Church has actually turned the table into an altar. It has destroyed the original form and function of the table. The intent of God’s table and our Lord’s meal has been terribly distorted. The aim of our study is to restore our understanding of the feast, if not our Sunday assembly communion practices.

I’m excited about our study. I’m thrilled already with the early response. By God’s grace, going forward, his Gospel and our salvation in Christ Jesus will be better experienced and more fully expressed around the table here at Central.

Peace,

Allan

God’s Always in Front of Us

June 24, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Just another couple of posts to recap our trip to South America and reflect on the things we experienced together. This one on the super quick twenty-four hours we spent with the brand new Great Cities Missions team in La Paz, Bolivia.

Luis and Damira, Brad and Katie, Rick and Julie and their kids have only been in La Paz for five months. They are a brand new missionary team with lofty dreams, tremendous courage, and a thrilling anticipation of what our God is going to do with them and through them in this capitol city. At the same time, this is a brand new missionary team that hasn’t yet mastered the native language, is still really learning how to work with one another in this foreign setting, and is understandably anxious about this thing God’s put in front of them. They’re still learning the culture, still trying to figure out the customs, still going through the ups and downs of adjusting to this brand new life. And, like every missionary team, they’re in need of some real hard-core encouragement and support at about the five and six months mark.

We knew this going in. We knew the main part of our job during this leg of our trip was to encourage these three young couples to stay the course, to strengthen their faith in the One who called them there and promises to always provide, to bless them with our words and our prayers, to lift them up in loyal support. We knew all this going in. We were prepared to hear some tough stories, to share some tears, and to pray for a more visible sign of God’s presence in their lives and in their work. We were ready.

What a surprise to realize once we got there that God was way ahead of us.

When we met them late that first night for some sandwiches and coffee, they were all still giddy from the three baptisms they had participated in the week before. Three people had submitted to the lordship of our Christ. Three people had given their lives to Jesus. God’s power was evident in these conversions and acted to lift the spirits and renew the enthusiasm of the missionaries. Not only that, but six days earlier they had signed a lease agreement on what will be their new church building on a main street there in La Paz. It’s a beautifully refurbished space with wood floors, lots of windows, and tons of potential. They couldn’t wait to show it to us the next morning, and we couldn’t wait to see it. God had provided the building. God had opened the hearts of the three new converts. God was encouraging these missionaries with his richest blessings of hope and peace when they absolutely needed it most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought we had been sent to do it. But God was way out in front of us on this. Like always.

Of course, we did our best to encourage this young team. Kelley assured them that we were Aaron and Hur to their Moses, holding their arms up in prayer and support when they grew weary. We sang together in the Brooks’ apartment, in English and in Spanish, praising God and declaring our complete submission to his will. We spread out all over that new church building and prayed in biblical terms, trying to call things that are not as though they were, praying for the people of La Paz, thanking God for the praises that would soon be flowing out of that building and for the men and women and children who would come to know our King in that place.

But it seemed to me they didn’t need nearly as much encouragement as I had been led to believe. God was strengthening them. God was already showing them the vision. He was already revealing himself to them in powerful ways. He was already assuring them that, just as he had faithfully provided for them in the past, he was providing for them now.

God’s always way ahead of us on stuff like this.

Praise his name!

Allan

 

So Much Glory

January 3, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We’ve just completed a year-long study here at Central of the foundational words of our God in Exodus 34:5-7. This is the passage in which our God describes himself in his own words to Moses and his people at Mount Sinai. It’s the longest such passage in all of Scripture and paramount to the understanding of our heavenly Father and his ways. These words describe God’s eternal nature, his character, his mode of operation, his glory.

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.”

As a church family, we dove into these holy words in January of this past year and worked through them together a little bit each month. By God’s grace, we are trying to assimilate these words into our own lives. We want to live into these words. We want to become, as a people of God, everything these words tell us about our God. And we want to get better at seeing and recognizing the glory of God all around us.

A few weeks ago, as we were getting close to wrapping up the series, I asked our congregation to submit photos that, to them, reflected this eternal glory of God. Send me the pictures, I begged, that communicate God’s faithful love, that demonstrate his patience, that speak to his great forgiveness, that represent his holiness, that show his compassion and grace. Send me pictures that, to you, show God’s glory. And the pictures came in by the dozens.

Nearly a hundred different pictures accompanied by nearly a hundred different stories, representing God’s glory in nearly a hundred different and beautiful ways. Our enormously talented worship minister, Kevin Schaffer, arranged all the pictures and set them to music in three separate slide shows our church family enjoyed together during the sharing of communion on Sunday January 30. (You can see all three videos by clicking here.)

And I learned so much.

I learned about grace and forgiveness from Andrew and Stephanie and Evie. Mike showed me the connection between a newborn baby and a glorious sunrise. Mary Ellen spoke of God’s glory as reflected in her parents’ marriage of 73 years and John Todd saw it in his mother’s long and faithful friendship with Marilyn. I learned that Lyndsay was baptized by Paul Sneed, that Shirlene’s kids weren’t exactly chomping at the bit to move back to Amarillo, and that Joe and Margie once saved Becky’s life. My brothers and sisters at Central see the glory of God in hummingbirds and rainbows, in mountains and sunsets and in pink balloons at a sweet teenager’s funeral. Josh and Brittany see God’s faithfulness in their chocolate lab, Connie sees God’s patience in the spiritual journey of her grandmother, and many of us experience God’s grace in Judy and Linda as they so courageously battle cancer. Pictures taken in Africa and New Mexico, Brazil and Oklahoma, Canada and right here at home. There is so much of God’s glory. God’s glory is everywhere, testifying to his love, reminding us of his grace, showing us his forgiveness, witnessing to his faithfulness.

Through those pictures and the stories, I have learned so much about my church family at Central. I’ve seen inside your hearts a little more this past month. You’ve revealed to me a little more about where you’re coming from and how you think and how you experience God. That makes me a better preacher today than when this project began. And we’re all interested in that!

I pray that in thinking about these pictures and then sending them in, we all were forced to consider God’s nature in new and exciting ways. I hope we’ve all grown to begin seeing the presence and the power of our God in places we’ve never before thought to look. And my desire is that we will all seek to reflect that same heavenly glory so that our kids, our neighbors, our city, if facing a similar assignment, would feel compelled to send in pictures of us.

Peace,

Allan

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