Grace and Peace

It is the third time I walk up the stairs to her room in fifteen minutes. 

The first had been a triple whammy that took me off guard in about two or three seconds—smacking my face, quickly followed by grabbing the glasses off of my face in anger and putting her foot into the potty (which was fortunately empty)—just as we were about to pull up her pants. 

The second time I came up the stairs, I sat with her discussing what had just happened.  After she owned that she smacked her mother, pulled the glasses from my face and put her foot in the potty, she once again pulled off my glasses.  She was no longer angry; but, the attempt at a mini-practice of asking me to take my glasses off, did not go well.

Now, as I enter her room, I find my Little Love quiet after a few minutes of screaming protest at being returned to her crib.  She looks up at me and reaches.  “Hold-y,” she cries out.

I scoop her up in my arms and carry her to the nearby recliner.  “Let’s talk,” I reply seriously.

“Did you grab the glasses off of mama’s face?”  I ask her.

“Yes!” she admits, enthusiastically.  I am pleased with her honesty and also a little amused at the way her tone doesn’t seem to acknowledge that there is anything wrong with her behavior.  We are learning around here, for sure.

We talk about the way we ask mama to take glasses off to look at the eyes hiding behind them.  We do not rip them from mama’s face.  We practice once again. 

I say, “Can you ask mama to take off her glasses?” 

She says, “Please.”   The way she uses the word is often more of a statement.  It is given that the glasses are indeed what she is interested in and she adds her polite “please” so she can proceed with the fun as soon as possible.

I take off my glasses and we commence the game that she often asks to play—me winking, blinking and batting my eyes at her.  After a few minutes, I stop and thank her for asking me to take off the glasses instead of grabbing them off my face.  I tell her I love her. 

She looks at me and says, “Grace and peace, Mama.”

These are the words that we share before she goes to bed at night, “Grace and peace from God to you, the grace and peace of Jesus.”  I stare back at her and wonder how she knows to use them now.  Has she overheard Jason and I using them with each other?  We don’t always, but often enough.
  

All that is in me softens at her words. 

They take me back to a Mars Hill podcast about Philippians 1:1-2 I listened to in 2008. It was a sermon that forever changed the way I thought of this greeting in most of the New Testament epistles.

Rob Bell* defined grace in a few ways from the Greek word charis.  The first definition he gave was “joy, pleasure, favor, gratification, and acceptance.”  The next was “a favor done without expectation of return.”  The last he shared was from Spiro Zodiakes “the absolutely free expression of the love of God finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of God.”

Next, he took some time to define the word “peace.”  The Greek is aranay.  It means every kind of good (similar to its Hebrew counterpart shalom).  In the Bible, it is used in the present tense form, with the exception of one instance where it is in the future tense.  So when we read it, we should read it: every kind of good right now.

He moved from defining the terms to expressing them as the people we are to be—people that speak grace and peace; people who need grace and peace; people who interrupt with grace and peace; people who live grace and peace.  We are to be known for being people who share and are committed to speaking God’s grace and peace to others, including ourselves, in everything. 

My little one is exactly right—grace and peace.  Isn’t this the way we should want every conflict to end?

Isn’t this the way Jesus answers us when we come surrendered and trust him to take all that we have done wrong and lay it before the cross?  He brings His resurrection life and offers us grace and peace.

She offers an invitation to lay this time of conflict behind us with every kind of good right now and full of the free expression of the love of God, full of joy, favor and acceptance. 

Who can resist such an offer?

I touch her cheek, ever so gently, and say, “Grace and peace, Little Love.”

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we respond in all things (especially conflict) and to everyone we meet with the grace and peace of Jesus.  May we find that we speak His life and love to everyone we meet and are filled to overflowing with the gift that we share.

Jessica :)



P.S.  In thinking about grace and peace this week I have found myself humming along to this Jill Phillips song that became a favorite of mine during the early morning drives when I was headed to work in the first couple of months we lived in Utah.  May you listen and find yourself clinging to the grace and peace that comes through Jesus.  If you really like it you might consider adding it to your library.  (Just so you know...I don't actually know Jill Phillips.  I have not been asked to promote her music.  I just believe that if I enjoy an artist, you should support them!  And...I would have embedded the video, but that feature doesn't seem to be working for me today! The video will go into the post, but not appear in any of the previews I have done...Sorry about that!)

*Admittedly, Rob Bell has been a rather controversial figure in the Christian community for awhile now.  I don't believe or necessarily agree with everything he has written or taught.  However, the series on Philippians is one of the best sermon series I have listened to.  As with any speaker, teacher, author it is important to thoughtfully consider what they teach in light of what the Bible says. 

Freedom Calls

I wrote a poem in response to reading Isaiah 25 a few months back.  The joy and freedom seem especially appropriate to me for this Easter season.  

“The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down, lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust”  Isaiah 25:12  

I peek out from behind the citadel

In hopeful wonder, I hear His words:

“Let’s break down the walls!

Come to the feast!

(A place where the fear, the schedules, the life, the friendships

                are handed over to One who knows the way to thrive.)

Come eat! 

Come drink!

Come LIVE! 

Come enjoy! 

Come trust me with all things—the cares, the woes, the joys and sorrows, the dreams!”

Could there really be a place for me

At such a table, so full and inviting?

I hear Him now,

Freedom calls.

He says,

“Come out!”  

I pause and call,

“What if I can’t—

The locks, rusty and old. 

Will you…

Can you break me out like a maid trapped in a fairy tale?”

“Oh yes!”

He responds.

“The stones will roll at my command.”

“Then break away!

I want to sit with you at your table today!”

I say with longing delight.

A voice rumbles like thunder

The walls!

They fall down!

He is running toward me.

I am running toward Him.

We meet in His wide open arms.

He holds me close and whispers

Of the journey ahead

The way out through the rubble all around.

“Stay close!  Walk near! 

There will be nothing to fear

Though the way may be treacherous all ‘round.

In freedom, now walk!

Follow me, Dear.

You’ll know the way by My path of Light.

Ever closer you’ll shine because you are Mine.

A beacon to draw others near.

We’ll be a winsome, formidable pair

Speak to them of freedom and peace. 

Invite them to the feast.

It will be a lavish banquet—

A wedding celebration.

The guests once Lost in darkness, now Found in Light.

Those once Least, greeted joyously in places of Honor.”

“It sounds so marvelous.”

I muse.

We’ll tell the story of Love.

Then we’ll dance,

Him and me.

Evermore and evermore.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we allow Christ to cause the walls of pain and hurt and sin to fall down.  May we find Him holding us steady and with Him freedom that is full of love.  May we walk with Him sharing the story of Love He has written on our hearts.

Jessica :)

P.S.  The really fun photo is courtesy of my husband and his trip to Krakow, Poland.  It is a photo from his tour of Wawel Castle.

Thinking about 'The King Jesus Gospel'

If someone asked you what the gospel was, how would you respond?

STOP!

Take a minute to think about it.  Then, continue reading.

Scot McKnight quotes N.T. Wright in the opening pages of his book The King Jesus Gospel as writing, “I am perfectly comfortable with what people normally mean when they say “the gospel.”  I just don’t think it is what Paul means.  In other words, I am not denying that the usual meanings are things that people ought to say, to preach about, to believe.  I simply wouldn’t use the word “gospel” to denote those things.”

Okay.  Think about that gospel picture again.

Get ready to compare it to what McKnight describes.

Think about how His understanding might impact or enrich what you believe. 

The early chapters of McKnight’s book are spent painting a picture between gospel culture and salvation culture.  He argues that “evangelicals (mistakenly) equate the word gospel with the word salvation. […] When we evangelicals see the word gospel, our instinct is to think (personal) “salvation.”  We are wired this way.  But these two words don’t mean the same thing” (29).

McKnight describes how salvation culture surrounds a decision point that leads to someone being saved or not saved.  It leads to someone thinking they are in or out.  But it does not lead to discipleship.  He, then, goes on to make the case that a gospel culture cannot be divorced from discipleship; and a belief in the gospel, leads to salvation too.

McKnight writes of the gospel:

““To gospel” is to herald, to proclaim, and to declare something about something.  To put this together: the gospel is to announce good news about key events in the life of Jesus Christ.  To gospel for Paul was to tell, announce, declare and shout aloud the Story of Jesus Christ as the saving news of God” (49-50).

The gospel, then, is the story of Jesus as the fulfillment to the story of Israel.  It leads to the culminating point that Jesus is Messiah and Lord.  When this is laid bare, it calls for a response.

McKnight writes of the gospel that is preached in Acts, “True gospeling that conforms to the apostolic gospel leads directly to who Jesus is, whatever the gospeler has to say to get folks to move in that direction.  Once there, the apostolic gospleing in the book of Acts summons the audience to respond” (127).

So what does a response to the gospel look like?

McKnight describes belief, repentance and baptism as the ways in which people were invited to respond in Acts. 

Belief has more to do with reliance and trust in God that is lived out by “a life of obedience, holiness, and love” than “mentally agreeing to some truth” (128).  It is a life of discipleship.  

McKnight spends chapters talking about the gospel the apostles understood; the gospel in Matthew, Mark Luke and John; whether Jesus preached the gospel; what gospel the disciples preached.  He explores how we moved from a gospel culture to a salvation culture.  He also discusses some ideas for how we can move toward a gospel culture today.

Key to an understanding of the gospel and to creating a gospel culture is the idea of story. 

McKnight writes, “To grasp the gospel we have to grasp what God is doing in this world, and that means we have a story to tell” (148).  He talks about how important it is to understand the story that is painted in the Bible.  It is when we understand the Old Testament that we are able to see Jesus as the fulfillment of these promises.  We see Jesus as Lord.  We are drawn, once again, toward obedience and trust.        

In light of this Story, all other stories begin to make sense. 

In his book, Scot McKnight encourages me to live as a disciple trusting God, to invest my time reading Scripture—all of it—to know the Story.  He challenges me to see the world in light of what God has done in the Story of Israel, has fulfilled in Christ and promises he will do in the future.  He challenges me to share the gospel and create disciples.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we receive the gospel in a fresh way that challenges us to be changed and to surrender our lives.  May we find that life has meaning that is rich.  May we find that the things around us whether painful or beautiful begin to make more sense.  May we find that we can’t help but share the gospel—the story of the one who was the fulfillment of promises by a good God—because we have been changed by it.  May we lead others to a place where they must choose how they will respond.

Jessica :)