One Call, One Harvest, 50 Teams
Each week I post some of the articles I found interesting and links to books I am reading.
Articles
Insights From Keller on Contextualizing
What Your Church Needs More Than Productivity – OutreachMagazine.com
The Best Mentors Ask These 8 Questions
Single-tasking: A neuroscientist’s guide to doing one thing at a time
What more communication means at work
Books
Practice Resurrection by Eugene Peterson
Reflection on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
"So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." Malachi 2:4-7 ESV
It can be interesting to lead people as a pastor. Sometimes so interesting that we get caught up in the day-to-day activities of sermon prep, administration, counseling, etc., and lose track that we serve God in a covenant of life, a covenant of peace, a covenant of wonder, and holy fear. We can lose sight of the fact that we stand in awe of the very name of God, the covenant creator, and forget our fellowship with Him.
Out of that covenant relationship, we learn how to instruct in God’s truth as we walk with Him in peace and uprightness as we serve as His messenger.
The covenant relationship comes first. The instruction comes out of that relationship. And then it repeats. Constantly. Continually.
Seek God first. Everything else will be added.
2 Kings 4:17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD’s people, and also between the king and the people. (ESV)
Joash was seven years old when he began to rule Judah. He was in no position to know how to rule. What seven-year-old is ready for that responsibility? So Jehoiada the priest stood in a position to help Joash learn how to lead, and he did so by starting with covenants.
That’s what priests did in the Old Testament. They worked in the world of covenants.
A covenant is “an agreement between two contracting parties, originally sealed with blood; a bond, or a law; a permanent religious dispensation. (COVENANT – JewishEncyclopedia.com)
As leaders living out our faith in Christ, we also work in the world of covenants.
Covenants are not communication.
Covenants are communion.
The task of living out God’s covenant given to us through Jesus Christ is not communication but communion — “the healing and restoration and creation of love relationships between God and his fighting children and our fought-over creation.” (The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson). It is loving God and loving others.
What are some of the ways we keep covenant before people?
As men and women of the covenant, we teach how to be the Lord’s people.
We remind people of not only God’s obligation in the covenant but our obligations as well.
We help identify the idols, the strongholds in life that need to be torn down.
We live in communion
— Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash
[A note to my readers. During this time of “shelter-in-place” I thought I would write a series of devotionals aimed for those in vocational ministry. I recently re-read Eugene Peterson’s book “Working the Angles” and thought that this would be a great time to refocus on my ministry priorities. There is some good stuff in there for those who are not in vocational ministry, but it is geared particularly to those who are. –jd–]
John 20:30-31 “Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life.”
I remember taking my first seminary class on the writings of John. It was an eye-opening experience as we experienced his Gospel and Epistles together. But one passage stuck out to me more than any other—John’s reason for writing his Gospel.
John wrote his Gospel because he was trying to connect his readers with a larger world. Yes, Jesus did miracles, so many that John selectively chose those he would include. But what he chose to include he chose for one reason and one reason only.
Jesus is the Son of God, and faith in him brings true life.
It is the message in a bottle. You thought this was life. You are surrounded by others just like you. You wake, go to school or work, toil in your labor, come home, sleep, and do it all over again.
One day, walking on a beach, you discover a bottle washed up on the shore. It has a message inside which you quickly extract and read.
“Help is on the way.”
What help? Why do I need help? I’m like everyone else? We’re okay.
But that simple message in a bottle begins to stir something in your mind. A question forms—“What if I am not okay?”. You begin to wonder if this life is all there is.
Scripture is that message in a bottle that tells you this life is not all there is, and that help is on the way. And as we read it, we connect to that true life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Father, I need help. Help my faith to grow so that I may experience the fulness of life you have prepared for me. As I read your word, list that desire to grow, to realize I need your help to grow, rise up in me. Amen.
1. Meditate on John 20:30-31 today. What does it mean to have “true life” in Christ?
2. Grab a concordance and look up all the times John uses the word “life” in his Gospel. Take a few minutes and read those passages today.
(This devotional series is based on my notes from “Working the Angles” by Eugene Peterson)
[A note to my readers. During this time of “shelter-in-place” I thought I would write a series of devotionals aimed for those in vocational ministry. I recently re-read Eugene Peterson’s book “Working the Angles” and thought that this would be a great time to refocus on my ministry priorities. There is some good stuff in there for those who are not in vocational ministry, but it is geared particularly to those who are. –jd–]
Leviticus 26:12 “I will walk with you—I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
Like many people, I keep a journal. It has taken different forms over the years, from legal pads to notebooks to OneNote files. I enjoy going back and looking through them from time to time. Often, I look at what was happening and carry on a conversation with my distant past in my head. I see now know how the situations I was facing have resolved, the decisions I was going to make have played out, and I reassure my written past that we survived. I know the whole story.
When we read Scripture, we are entering into a conversation with God, and into the story of men and women who were facing situations and decisions as they lived their lives. We see the beginning of the story as well as the ending. We know what has occurred and how the matter has been settled. We see the development of the characters and understand that everything in this conversation has significance.
In these stories, we find ourselves. We learn that nothing in the world of Scripture can be made sense of apart from God, and nothing in our world can be made sense of unless we walk with him. In reading Scripture, we are engaging in an active conversation with God between the biblical past and our present situation.
In times of crisis, in times of pain, in times of frustration, we have to remember that we know the whole story. We have conversed with God, and in him it all makes sense.
Father, forgive me for reading scripture as some historical document and not as your living conversation with me. As I read, I see you at work. I can see the whole story. In my life right now, I don’t see the whole story, but I know you are at work. I trust you that this all makes sense. Amen
1. As you read the Bible today, find yourself in God’s conversation with his people. What is happening in your life right now that parallels the passage? Ask God to help you make sense of the things you are facing.
2. Keep a journal. If you don’t have one, start it. If you do have one, continue it. From time to time look back over your history and see how God has been faithful to you.
(This devotional series is based on my notes from “Working the Angles” by Eugene Peterson)
[A note to my readers. During this time of “shelter-in-place” I thought I would write a series of devotionals aimed for those in vocational ministry. I recently re-read Eugene Peterson’s book “Working the Angles” and thought that this would be a great time to refocus on my ministry priorities. There is some good stuff in there for those who are not in vocational ministry, but it is geared particularly to those who are. –jd–]
Colossians 4:16 (ESV) “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.”
Paul probably never imagined that 2000 years after he wrote the words above to the church that we would still be reading his letter. But he did know one thing, what he was writing was important and needed to be read. It was not important because he wrote it, though. What he wrote was important because it called us to attend to God in his speech and in his actions.
As vocational ministers, we know that reading the scripture is important. After all, we need to preach and teach a couple of times a week. And when we talk to people, a good Bible verse goes a long way to help bring the right level of piety to our words.
But the truth is that reading scripture is not enough. We need to listen to the scriptures. This is an important part of our role as members of the community of faith.
For when we come to Scripture, we find out what is going on in us. From the original speaker, the Book comes to us, the listener, and tells us how God is interacting with us.
Listening to scripture is not the same as reading scripture. It moves us from seeing the words on the page to seeing God at work in our lives.
Reading scripture is good. Listening is better.
Father, as I read your scriptures, let me truly listen to what you are doing in my life. Let me see you at work, interacting with me today. Amen.
1. As you read scripture today, pause after each thought and see if you can find where God is interacting in your life the same way he was interacting with the original speaker.
2. As a vocational minister, read Paul’s letter to the church at Colossi. As you read, look for how God is interacting with your life just as he interacted with Paul as he cared for God’s people.
(This devotional series is based on my notes from “Working the Angles” by Eugene Peterson)
[A note to my readers. During this time of “shelter-in-place” I thought I would write a series of devotionals aimed for those in vocational ministry. I recently re-read Eugene Peterson’s book “Working the Angles” and thought that this would be a great time to refocus on my ministry priorities. There is some good stuff in there for those who are not in vocational ministry, but it is geared particularly to those who are. –jd–]
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Every minister knows they need a Sabbath (truthfully, every person needs a Sabbath, minister or not). But acknowledging the need and practicing Sabbath or two different things. But a Sabbath is important because it trains us in the rhythms of action and response. It doesn’t matter if it is Sunday, Saturday, Monday or any other day. It is a day set aside for God.
If God’s word is previous to our desire to pray, then grace is also previous to all we do. When we Sabbath, we see both what God has been doing and what he is continuing to do. We quiet the noise so we can hear God.
It is a time to pray. It is also a time to play. It is a time to take a walk, to read a book, to take a drive. It is a day to protect. Learn to Sabbath.
Father, forgive me for not seeing the need for a Sabbath. Forgive me for making ministry an idol that I worship through my work, rather than stepping back and responding to a different type of rhythm. Let me walk in your grace as I step back and reflect on what you have been doing and what you desire to do. As I pray and play, help me quiet the noise so I can hear from you.
1. Pick a day, any day, and make it your Sabbath. Turn off your electronics and make a plan for creating a Sabbath.
2. Picked a day? Made a plan? Then go do it! That’s it.
(This devotional series is based on my notes from “Working the Angles” by Eugene Peterson)
