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Published: 10 May 2013

One of my favorite authors went to Heaven on Wednesday.  One of his passions was to help people have a "fresh hearing of Jesus."  Dallas Willard certainly helped me with this.  I remember reading "Hearing God" and "Divine Conspiracy" for the first time (I have read both of those books a number of times), it was like meeting Jesus all over again.  Willard's writings on the Sermon on the Mount and his understanding of the Kingdom of God have helped me more than I can put into words.  I will be quoting him a couple of times this coming weekend because he says things in ways that help me understand more clearly what I thought I already knew!  It was Willard who really helped me think of Jesus as "brilliant", he helped me think much about the phrase, "what life is about and how to live it."  Willard helped me with the whole idea of hearing God and how discern whether I'm listening to my own voice or the Spirit.  I am happy for Dallas Willard that he is in Heaven...I am a bit sad for his family and the rest of us.  This should not stop us however from a "fresh hearing of Jesus."  Jesus did not leave us orphans.  He sent the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus and bring life to His words.  If we will be quiet with Him, the Spirit will help us understand and this should bring repentance and assist us as apprentices of Jesus.  This coming weekend, Lord willing, we'll be thinking together about daily bread and mercy.  Because we know the "Lord's Prayer" and have recited it often we may think there is nothing new to learn.  Let's come with a heart open to a fresh hearing of Jesus instead of a mindset of analysis.  Let's not become masters of the "text", let's let the Author of the Text feed us, nourish us and make us like Himself.

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Published: 03 May 2013

Each year we try to set aside a weekend to meditate on the subject of "service" and respond accordingly.  Starting Saturday morning with our "Ministry Tune-Up" and continuing through the day on Sunday, we'll be considering our mission, our praying and the Lord's example through music, video, teaching and communion.  We live in a very selfish society and that was the state of the world when Jesus came.  His attitude of serving others was shocking to those He served, to His disciples and to the religious leadership of the day.  As His disciples, people of this world are often more impressed with leadership than with service.  Jesus reminded us that the "great ones" in His Kingdom are those who serve.  In other words, the great people in any culture and/or setting are the ones who decide to stop focusing so much attention on themselves and actually start thinking about how to bless "the other."  In C.S. Lewis' little book called "The Great Divorce" he describes hell as a place where everyone gets to do their own thing...alone...with increasing distance from others...self-absorbed for ever and ever and ever.  Admittedly, having a day like that once in a while doesn't sound too bad but for eternity?  Yikes, that sounds awful.  We are all becoming something/someone.  We are on a trajectory of heaven or hell.  Are we becoming more selfless or more selfish?  If we are apprentices of Jesus we should be thinking less about ourselves and more about "the other."  Becoming a different kind of person by actually doing what Jesus said will be far more liberating that we can imagine.  If you are a "Calvary reader" I hope you'll join us this weekend and prayerfully consider the example of Jesus as a guide for living.  If you are not a part of our church community, I hope you'll find ways to live beyond yourself.  As Thomas Merton once wrote, "To consider persons, events and situations only in light of their effect upon myself is to live on the door-step of hell."  I don't know if Lewis and Merton were thinking along the same lines but I know Jesus is brilliant and His way is life forever more.  Let's follow Him.