The Word

Logos

36" x 47"

Oil and Gold Leaf on Corrugated Paper

"In the beginning was the Word..."

John 1:1

    Frederick Buechner said,  "When God speaks, things happen because the words of God aren't just as good as His deeds, they are His deeds. When God speaks His word, John says, creation happens, and when God speaks to His creation, what comes out is not ancient Hebrew or the King James Version or a sentiment suitable for framing in the pastor's study. On the contrary. "The Word became flesh," John says, and that means when God wanted to say what God is all about, it wasn't a sound that emerged but a man. Jesus was his name. He was dynamite. He was the Word of God."

"I was wondering..."

 

Christian evolution?

     "I was wondering - what Christian denomination do you belong to?" a friend recently asked me. It is, for people like me, an awkward question... I am a Christian but I don't belong to a denomination. So, when I say,"I am just a Christian" faces tend to scrunch a little. The underlying question, the real question, is- What kind of Christian are you? (to which the honest answer would be- 'not a very good one'). People of Christendom want to know 'What is your brand?'

     Debbie Millman said,

"Brands signify our beliefs."

     Do you drive a Chevy or a Ford, drink domestic or imported, wear Toms or Target, PC or Mac...? Everyone notices brands. Brands help us to categorize; they have become our aid-de-camps, completing our if/then propositions. If you wear __________ then you are ____________. My friend wanted to know what dogma I wear.

     'What do you believe?' is an old question; the Christian Church has wrestled with it for centuries, and one group came up with this:

The Apostles' Creed

 

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting.

Amen

     

     The Apostles' Creed covers the essentials of the brand called Christian. Somewhere along the Way something happened...People, Ideas, Non-essentials... until just Christian wasn't enough. Eugene Peterson said,

"A healthy noun doesn't need adjectives. Adjectives clutter a noun that is robust. But if the noun is culture-damaged or culture-diseased, adjectives are necessary." 

     Jesus knows us. Before He was crucified, He prayed for us-

"I'm praying not only for them (the disciples with me now), but also for those who will believe in Me because of them and their witness about Me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind- just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that You, in fact, sent Me."

John 17:20,21 The Message 

Amen

  

Samuel and Me

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts.

Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
     I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Henry David Thoreau

Walden 

It's a Good day

"Consider how the wildflowers of the field grow..."
Matthew 6:28 HCSB 

     Some of my earliest childhood memories involve 'church pew squirming', wondering if that preacher was ever going to stop talking. I can't remember a single sermon from that era of my history but I do remember the songs. Even as a child I knew that the old hymns carried something beyond word and note... something the writers imparted from their own deep places. One of my childhood favorites, Count Your Blessings, was by Jonathan Oatman, Jr. Here is the Chorus:

 

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God hath done

     As I told a friend yesterday, I am a blessed man.

     Sometimes I need to stop and remember I am blessed.

     Sometimes I need to count my blessings.

     Bryan Hutchinson has written another book, a book that serves as a reminder call to busy people- Stop, Look, Count...

"Happiness is about perspective. It's not just a feeling. True happiness is the essence of hope."

Bryan L. Hutchinson 

     
     If you trudge through your day trapped in the cycle of 'I work so I can eat so I can work so...' consider this:

Life is made in the midst of the mundane.

     Happy Every Day by Bryan Hutchinson will give you a few places to begin restoring your perspective and remind you that today is a good day.