paravanes:meditations

  Photo (c) Deborah Evans  How open are you to change? How open are you to new ways of seeing the world? How open are you to leaving something (or someone) behind and taking on something (or someone) new? How open are you to learning and practicing new habits, new priorities, and new perspectives? Salvation in Jesus Christ is about transformation. When you examine Jesus' relationship with his disciples, you see him leading and guiding and protecting them through a series of challenging, authentic, transformational experiences. You see Jesus working miracles, reaching out to the marginalized and rejected and showing God's care and concern, conflicts with the traditional religious leaders, political arrest and execution, resurrection, and ascension (moving beyond physical limitations). Almost none of this happens when Jesus is alone. What he does, he does with his disciples. Why didn't Jesus just speak to and lecture his disciples instead of leading them through these events?...

(c) Deborah Evans A meditation for  the next week on what Jesus Christ will do for you: When you see the One who is Truth and follow Him, the false and fearful beliefs begin to fade, and finally die. Amen.

(c) Deborah Evans The resurrected Jesus did at least four specific things for his followers. I will summarize them for you. Look for these actions in your life and think of ways to expand the effects of these actions.  1. Jesus personally demonstrated his power and answered doubts his followers may have had about him. In Matthew 20:19-29, Jesus passes through locked doors to join his disciples and then reveals his wounds, uniquely verifying his identity. No imposter could completely copy or hijack his identity because what Jesus displayed was totally unique to him as both human and God. Also, read Luke 24:36-44. 2. Jesus personally passed his life energy to his followers by breathing on them and baptizing them with the Holy Spirit. In John 20:22-23, Jesus baptizes his followers with the Holy Spirit. Note the traits and actions of these Holy Spirit baptized followers: the power and persistence to follow Jesus completely right up to the moment of death, the courage to own...

(c) Deborah Evans " Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' " --Matthew 21:4. This verse in Matthew is a description of the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Zachariah 9:9. This is a picture of a leader, Jesus, who maintains humility in the middle of the cheering, shouting crowd. This crowd, so thrilled to see him and acknowledge him as a king, will chant "crucify him!" later that same week. Seek humility in yourself and any human leader you follow. When your actions are powerful, you can easily choose and afford humility. When you have honest knowledge of human nature, that knowledge will help insulate you from deception by flattery.  Wrap the shield of humility around you and keep it close. Human nature is often too false and too fickle to do anything else. Imitate the humility of Jesus, and honor others who lift humility above pride, self celebration, and the...

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Jesus Christ, in Matthew 11:28-30. In the earlier part of this chapter, Jesus critiques the abusive dishonesty so common among religious leaders of his--and our-- day. He ends his analysis by saying if you're tired of all of the fraud and emptiness, leave it all behind and come to him. Let him guide you (his yoke) and let him give you a purpose (his burden). These are light and easy because they are based on eternal truth, given by him, for your eternal blessing and benefit. Compared to what the world order offers, his way is easier because he never pressures you and he never leaves you to do anything on your own. It is his joy to be with you, to teach you, and to keep you safe. He is the Good Shepherd. His yoke is easy, and h...

Last time, I wrote about how Jesus reaches out to and changes individuals. He makes these changes in us because he wants to correct us and complete us. He wants us to be completely capable of listening to him, learning from him,  loving him, and staying close to him in this life and in the life to come. At the end of the last post, I raised these questions: does Jesus change communities and cultures? Why isn't this work of Jesus more obvious in the world? Jesus changes individuals by invitation only. But everyone's invited. There's no expiration date for the invitation. Cultures and communities change because the individuals in those groups change. Jesus invites us to him, even if we are surrounded by others who have no interest in him. Jesus never leaves us as captives to our surroundings and our starting points. He never leaves us captive to where we happen to be at any point in time or space. The invitation is an call to change and be changed.  It's not a...

As "God with us", Jesus teaches us self care. One of those lessons is: you and I are not too busy to pray. As you read the gospels, you will become aware of how busy Jesus was. Crowds constantly followed him. His disciples asked endless questions. Religious leaders regularly challenged and confronted him. He taught crowds of people, often in unconventional locations. Sick people constantly sought him out for healing  In Luke 5:15 and 16, we find this statement: "...crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed ." Because the Son of God regularly and often took time to step aside from the busyness of his life to pray, you and I don't have a reason to avoid prayer. Praying in church is not a substitute for stepping from our daily activities to listen to God and to speak to God. No matter what I'm doing or how busy I am, I am never too busy to pray. I may not want to pray. I...

Choosing to become one of us, like us even for a trickle of time (33 years) was the deepest expression of loving care and solidarity.  When we cry, he knows the stinging sensation in our eyes before the tears fall.  When we stand next to the grave of a loved one, he knows the loss we feel.  When we celebrate at a wedding or dinner party, he knows the joy of our laughter and happiness.  When we are alone and abandoned, he knows the pain of our alienation.  When we are challenged by evil and destructive energies, he knows the resolve we must hold to overcome.  Hebrews 4:14-16 "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are tempted -yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that ...

**This is the text from a sermon I preached yesterday (October 27, 2019) at Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan. The text includes the prayers at the beginning and end of the sermon and a few of my personal notes to enhance the delivery of the sermon. ( Sharing this sermon ("The Heart and Soul of the Gospel") in part or as a full document is permitted. Attribution (credit to the author) will be appreciated. -Deborah) Thank you Lord for calling us into your kingdom, into your power, and into relationship and connection with you. Show us how to live the purposes for which we were created. Show us how to live as authentic witnesses to the truth of your word. Amen. Passage from Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV) 9  For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, [ a ...

You cannot rely upon the praises or the critiques of those who speak from or with the crowds. The same crowds that cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday shouted out for his execution by crucifixion later that same week. Listen to those who listen to you, who know you, who are willing to stay with you through silence, through joy, through pain, and through the days and the nights of everyday living.

Yes, there are easier journeys. There are journeys requiring less change, journeys of fewer challenges, journeys filled with ease and comfort. But when God calls you to walk with him, there is no finer road to walk. The journey brings the vision to life. There is nothing better.

It's not as difficult of an answer as you might think. What is unique about Christianity is the energy, effort, and movement to break the disconnect between God and humanity are all about God reaching out to us. We are only expected to do one thing. We are not, in the Christian tradition, asked to practice rituals to connect with God. We are not asked to offer sacrifices, whether easy or painful. We are not asked to pray a certain number of times each day. We are not asked to detach ourselves from our surroundings, feelings. or experiences. We are simply asked to believe. Frankly, believing is more of a challenge than doing all of the things previously mentioned. Believing kills pride and the self satisfaction that whispers "I did it. I'm good enough. I'm following the rules. I'm OK all by myself because of what I've done." What are we asked to believe? We are asked to believe that God loves us so much and wants relationship...

--image from advancingthekingdom.net ********************************************** This is one of my favorite lines from the great hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling . Why would someone choose to be a Christian? You must really make this choice for yourself. It is deliberate and no one can do it for you.  No one "inherits" Christianity. It cannot be passed down like money, property, or heirlooms. You may inherit the practice of certain Christian traditions , but  you cannot inherit the status of Christian. As someone has said, "God has no grandchildren, only children." You should be able to look back to a place and  time in your own life   where you made a conscious choice to turn over  the reigns of your  life to God, a time when you admitted you had  a sin problem you could  not solve, a time when you asked God to  solve it for you. In most  cases and barring certain illnesses,  we remember ma...

" [This is] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass [ a ] in their entirety. And He sent and communicated it through His angel (messenger) to His bond servant John, 2  Who has testified to and vouched for all that he saw [ [ b ] in his visions], the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." --Revelation 1:1. The Amplified Bible While growing up (I'm a PK), I asked my father if he would ever preach a sermon on the following topic: where is Jesus right now, and what is He doing? He did later (years later) preach a sermon on a topic that begins to answer the question. He preached from the Book of Revelation and described the challenges for the church at Sardis, an ancient city near modern day Turkey. During this season of Lent, I've been reading and re-reading (silently and aloud) the Book of R...

In my religious tradition , the church celebrates themed days on an annual basis. Almost everyone knows Christmas and Easter as two of those days, but Christ the King Sunday seems to be sadly fading into obscurity in some corners. The revelation of Christ the King is clearly seen in the first chapter of the Book of Revelation , in the New Testament. Revelation is one of those sections of Holy Scripture that frighten some away, while others focus on small and difficult to interpret details of what’s known as “end times.” A man known as John the Revelator (possibly the “beloved apostle” John, who wrote other parts of the New Testament) describes his experience in encountering the ascended, supreme Jesus who bears almost no resemblance to the God-Man person who spent approximately thirty-three years living among regular people in Palestine and teaching about the Kingdom of God. Here is what John says about his encounter with Christ the King: “I turned aroun...