- Acts 1: 1-11
- Psalms 47: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9
- Ephesians 1: 17-23
- Matthew 28: 16-20
- Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus has left the planet. Or has he?
- The ushers at Elvis concerts would often have to tell the audience that the star performer has left the building so that they would stop looking for another encore and go home. I have to wonder if the first disciples were looking for Jesus to do just one more really amazing thing. Maybe play an out take reel or something.
- Where do you feel Jesus' continued presence the most?
- Why do you think that He comes to you there more than other places/times/activities?
- How does your prayer life leaven the rest of your life?
- The rightful king is in charge
- In Western history, the rightful king, the one ordained of God, brings order, peace, prosperity to the kingdom when they are on the throne. The usurper brings only ruin and despair.
- What tells you that Jesus is in charge?
- How do you celebrate your membership in that Kingdom?
- What is your function in His kingdom?
- Seeking wisdom
- We seek the wisdom that is from above, but the concept of wisdom itself seems elusive at best.
- Who are some wise folks in your life?
- How do you think that they got that way?
- Should we all be wise?
- Is it enough to merely imitate wisdom?
- How do you seek greater wisdom?
- The Great Commission
- Ours is a culture of self-help. Gurus by the dozens speak to anyone who will listen from the shelves of every bookstore and TV set. It's easy to see Jesus and religion in the same way. But Jesus comes to us with the startling message: "I came because you are beyond help. I came, not to give you a tuneup or a tweak, but a transformation."
- Why are you a Christian?
- Have your reasons for your faith changed at all through the years?
- If someone told you that they don't need all of the rules and regulations of the Church in their lives, they have the beauty of the the sunrise, the smell of baby's breath, the feel of sand between their toes at the beach to tell them of God. What would you say to them?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- How can my prayer practice make a bigger difference in my daily life?
- How can I acknowledge God's kingship in my life?
- Where might Christ be inviting me to greater wisdom?
- How is my life making a difference?
Ghosts
My wife keeps a portrait of me taken as a young man in my 20s on her dresser.
I cannot tell you what I was thinking about when they took that picture.
But I can tell you that a lot has changed since that time in my life. To the point -
To the point that I can scarcely remember what it was like to be in my 20s,
To the point that I hardly know that young man staring back at me from the picture.
To the point that I wonder whether he would recognize me if we were to ever meet.
I wonder whether that younger version would be disappointed in me,
If he would think that I had let him down in some material way,
Or if he would think that I have navigated middle age well, and gained wisdom.
Either way, that young, optimistic, man in the picture is gone. A ghost in my memory.
Along with my children's younger selves, the cherished job that I no longer have,
And friendships that have somehow petered out over the years.
Some of those ghosts are best left alone, their memories just cherished mementos.
Others of them serve as lessons in life, signposts to guide me even today.
Other ghosts still call me, remind me of where I have come from, my terra firma.
Those last ghosts challenge me to to find them in new forms, new guises.
Welcome their latest manifestation as old friends.
And stitch the old and new together in the tapestry of memory and story.
Those last ghosts keep me authentic, and true. The tough part -
The tough part is to recognize what to let go of, and what to hang on to.
And not to cling to something just because it is comfortable or easy.
Nor fail to embrace the latest incarnation of God in my life
Just because it's new, uncomfortable, maybe unrecognizable.
Sometimes our resurrected selves are hard to recognize.
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