The Return Home February 19, 2009
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busy busy busy
Flickr February 19, 2009
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This is a test post from 
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Moving on! July 31, 2008
Posted by noelwalker in Faith, God, Life, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.Tags: Ephesians 2 Eight, ephesians2eight.com, new blog, Tintern Church of Christ
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I have moved to my new blog home: http://ephesians2eight.com
Sharing a name with a cult has been fun but I thought I would instead go for something a little more straight forward. It has been a slice but I must go.
Come and see me!
What Game Are You Watching? January 21, 2008
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Life, Personal, Random, religion.add a comment
Matt Chandler at The Village referenced a funny story where at the Rose Bowl in ‘05 a USC cheerleader got confused and celebrated a touchback (her team being scored on in their endzone). There is some question however as to whether it is true.
In either event I thought it was appropriate analogy. Being so out of sync with your team that you are celebrating the complete opposite thing. Are you not in step with your church family? Is your church watching for what you think is the wrong outcome? The wrong benchmarks? Does it feel like they waiting for another team to score? Are they watching the same game you are? Is it even the same sport?
I have times with the group I work with where I am jumping up and down on the sidelines and look over and my team has put their pom-poms away. Other times I am startled when they roar with approval on what looks to me like a score for the other team.
Are we even watching the same game? I’m at one of those times where I am so out of whack with them that I can’t even see what they are seeing. I am lost and don’t know where to go or what to do.
Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Don’t cast me away from your presence and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore onto me the joy of my salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51: 10 – 12
It takes humility to stop and realize how far out ahead (or behind) you are from the group you are supposed to be leading. Pride makes it difficult to return to God’s throne and ask forgiveness - to search and find those places where you have buried your bitterness and anger. For it is not my church that I need to be in sync with but God alone.
Then it takes time to find the Master’s rhythm again. It feels like you just had it but to be this far out of whack you must not have been listening to it for some time now. It’s like discovering that you have been following the wrong directions for more than an hour and you now have to turn around and go back to the beginning.
It takes patience to wait for the Master’s rhythm to come back, the familiar beat of the His heart. I want it to be right where I want it to be so I can get going but He won’t come and line up behind me.
It is me who must line up behind Him. It is His lead that I follow and His game that I play. But it still burns to stop and wait for Him. Every muscle in my body resists it. It looks for all the world like it isn’t working; none of it. It looks like all of it is a waste of time.
The biggest step of faith in this is the step back to square zero; we can’t even claim to be on square one.
Let’s Put the ‘Hallow’ back in Hallowe’en! October 24, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Church of Christ, Devotional, Evangelism, Jesus, Life, Mercy, Ministry, Missions, Personal, Random, Spiritual, halloween, religion.1 comment so far
As holidays go Hallowe’en is one of the weirdest ones. There are lots of theories on where it came from but most centre on the anticipation of All Saints Day (New Year’s Day on the Gaelic Calendar) on November 1st. Families would disguise themselves to keep evil spirits from recognizing them during the last night of the year. In short, there is plenty of irreligious tradition and bad practice to make this one of my least favourite holidays as an adult. The candy thing is good but the whole macabre side of the holiday I can do without. In my neighbourhood we have someone who has decapitated heads on pikes and corpses lying in his front yard. Nice.
I know in the tradition of Churches of Christ we have struggled with the observance of Christmas but for me Hallowe’en takes the cake. If Christmas has diverged from it’s greater purpose, Hallowe’en never had one; if Christmas is a bit off the path, Halloween is ‘down the hill and over the fence’. Hallowe’en couldn’t find it’s way back on the path with a compass and a flashlight.
A great shift in my thinking came last year at this time while I was ranting about my distaste for Hallowe’en with my friend Jim. He dismissively responded, “Nonsense, my whole neighbourhood sends their kids to my door and I get to meet each one of them. I talk to my neighbours more on Halloween than any other day of the year.”
What a great purpose for Halloween! It is a great ‘Get to Know Your Neighbours’ Holdiay just waiting to be used. While I certainly understand those who do not observe the day, I think it is a waste of an opportunity to reach out to the families who live around us. Turning your lights off and parking in the garage does not present a friendly face in your neigbourhood.
No matter what evangelistic approach you choose to take, nothing happens without relationship. Matt Chandler pastor of The Village Church calls it, “paying relational rent”. I was convicted by Jim’s comment that I was not ‘paying the rent’ with my neighbours. I don’t invite them to church because I don’t know them.
Last year Julie used Hallowe’en to figure out a few names and visited with our kid’s parents. This year we are doing it big! Let’s put the ‘Hallow’ (or Holy) back in Hallowe’en this year and build relationships for Christ.
P.S. see this
Being the Church He is Waiting For October 3, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Grace, Jesus, Life, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.add a comment
I confess, I am a cheater. I am a peeker.
When I read a book I will frequently sneak a peek at the last page to see how it ends. Not right away of course, but as I get going I will sometimes flip the book open near the end and see if anything catches my eye. While reading the Harry Potter book this summer I got a little worried at times and glanced toward the back to see if he was still kicking. Well I won’t give away the end but I did see the word ‘Harry’ on p. 691 so I breathed a sigh of relief.
I heard a saying this week that I have heard before, “The church is just one generation away from extinction“. I know what is intended by this phrase but I think the meaning can get garbled in times like these. It is true that each generation must take the responsibility of passing on it’s faith to the next generation very seriously. This precious gift that is mine needs to become precious to my children as well.
I have however heard this phrase kicked around more recently as a descriptive proverb rather than a prescriptive one. ‘The church is one generation (read 25 years) away from extinction. If we don’t do something about this there won’t be any churches left!’
While we do live in a fallen world and living as Christ’s ambassadors to that world can be a trial sometimes, I think we can get an over inflated sense of our role in the redemptive process: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.” Eph 2: 8-9
We carry this gift to the world. We did not make it; we didn’t even wrap it.
When I get concerned about where the church, the bride of Christ (see Eph. 5: 25 – 27) is going I have flipped to the end of another good book and checked to see how it turns out:
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” Rev. 19: 7
“Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Rev. 21:9b – 10
Paul also teaches in 1 Thess. 4: 13 – 18 how it will be for those who are believers when Jesus returns. Rest assured, the church will still be around when Jesus returns. This leads me to a sobering conclusion then: If indeed our church is going to disappear in the next 25 years one of two things is going to happen.: Jesus will return in the next 25 years (hurray!) or we are not His church.
Forms will come and go but the truth of Jesus Christ and the community of the redeemed will last forever. As circumstances require, let us continue to grow and adapt, and become his church; today, and forever.
Seeing Jesus Again, For the First Time August 14, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Faith, Grace, Jesus, Jesus' Nature, Life, Peace, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.add a comment
What is it that makes a person realize who Jesus is?
It’s interesting to look in the Bible at the events, the circumstances, the words and the sights that convince people of Jesus’ true identity: not just a rabbi, not just a teacher, but God in the flesh.
It’s not what you would expect. Wouldn’t you think that a spectacular miracle would do it? Jesus demonstrating His omnipotent power should make it all clear who Jesus really is. But from what we read in the Bible the opposite seems to be true
- Wouldn’t seeing 5 000 people fed from one boy’s lunch convince you of Jesus true nature? Instead everyone who saw that miracle was prepared to take Jesus, almost against his will (~John 6: 15!~)and make Him in to the King they wanted. (Matt. 14: 14 -22; Mark 6: 32 – 44; Luke 9: 10 – 17; John 6: 1 – 13)
- Caught in a fierce storm Jesus stops the wind and the waves at once with a word, “Silence!”. Not only does this not convince the disciples, they appear even less sure of who he really is: “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” (Matt. 8: 23 – 27; Mark 4: 36 – 41; Luke 8: 22 – 25)
- Much as I love the story of Jesus kicking all the money changers out of the temple (Matt. 21: 12 – 16; Mark 11: 15 – 19; Luke 19: 45 – 47; John 2: 13 – 16), no one came away from that convinced of Jesus authority. In fact, Jesus critics questionned his authority all the more.
Instead it is in the small things, the gentle ways that Jesus wins people. Although His words were a powerful witness, His kindness and compassion spoke even louder to those who had not seen such things before. His revelation comes to those around Him like a sparkling surprise throughout the New Testament story:
And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
With just mind boggling irony, Jesus’ death on the cross, specifically the way He died convinced one of the most cynical witnesses of His crucifixions. The Roman Soldier on guard that day had undoubtedly seen hundreds, perhaps thousands of crucifixions. He had seen spitefull rage and self absorbed agony on the faces and lips of a host of unfortunate victims, but this soldier had never seen anything like Jesus.
Jesus’ compassionate response to the thief on the cross beside Him, His consideration of His own mother, His request of forgiveness for His tormentors and His prayers could not be explained. No man on earth would die like this. The soldier stared up at this man with a gaping mouth and gasped, ‘Surely this man is the Son of God.’
…when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. …
Being a logical thinker surely, if I had been there I would have been persuaded by reason. Someone could have shown me in the Scriptures how Jesus had to be the one; how he was uniquely qualified to be the Messiah. And yet in Luke 24: 13 – 35 we read about two disciples, one named Cleopas and the other likely his wife. Many scholars suggest that this could be the same Cleopas mentioned in John 19:25 (in which case his wife’s name is Mary) but no one knows for sure.
Either way it has been suggested that these two heard one of the greatest sermons ever preached on the way to Emmaus. Luke records that “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. ” (Luke 24: 27) What an education! Surely that would convince them. Never-the-less Jesus ‘gives himself away’ by the way he serves. Despite being a guest in this couple’s house it is Jesus who takes the place of the host. It is Jesus who blesses the bread and breaks it. Perhaps there was something about the way he did that. These two disciples were suddenly dumbstruck! There he was: Jesus the Messiah, right in front of them all along.
Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20: 27-28
Thomas gets such a rough treatment and I think that is too bad. Thomas isn’t so much a doubter as he is a pessimist. When Jesus says that He will be returning to Jerusalem; where they had just barely escaped with their lives it is Thomas who says, ” Let us go too so that we may die with him!” (John 11: 16). This guy is a downer not a doubter.
What is it that convinces Thomas? Overwhelming physical evidence. Want to convince a skeptic about someone being raised from the dead? A walking talking body will do the trick nicely.
This confession of Thomas’s is the climax of John’s gospel. Everything seems to be leading up to it. In writing it John seems to be of the opinion that we are to see something in Thomas’s confession – his journey – that relates to ours. Thomas saw miracles that would boggle the mind. He heard Jesus speak, he asked questions and heard answers and yet it wasn’t until Jesus confronted him that he had to really put it together. Jesus’ bold confrontation, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11: 25 – 26) In an answer to His own question Jesus proves his own claim: ‘If I can raise myself back from the dead surely I can raise you.’
Here is where we come into the picture. We cannot do miracles and yet, just like Jesus we can demonstrate God’s compassion and care through how we respond to others. It is through our responses that people will see how Jesus has changed us.
Study is great and yet all the intellectual knowledge in the world about Jesus will not truly break through quite like the sight of a servant. A person serving for no purpose but to glorify God is a earth-shaking demonstration of the power of God.
No matter how skeptical, or cautious a person is, we can lovingly confront anyone with the physical evidence of Jesus resurrection. Historians (secular and otherwise) are unanimous in agreeing that a man named Jesus lived and had followers in the 1st century A.D. Jewish historian Josephus and Tacitus, a Roman historian both independently record that He lived and He and was crucified. (More on that here)
Believers in the 1st century right from the beginning believed that Jesus was God in the flesh and rose from the dead. People continue to believe that to this day. Believers of Jesus today are invited to be a part of sharing this message today, by challenging friends and family with the truth that ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’
A Week at Camp Omagh July 30, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Faith, Life, Personal, Random, Spiritual, Uncategorized.3 comments
I returned to Camp Omagh for the first time in 9 years last week. I hadn’t been there for an entire week since I was out managing camp. It was just great! We celebrated the twins birthday (mine too). I have spent a few birthdays out at camp over the years. Here are a selection:
My Birthday 1973
My Birthday 1974
Liam & Daniel’s Birthday 2007
Jesus and the Teacher’s Pet July 18, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Faith, Forgiveness, God, Jesus, Jesus' Nature, Life, Mark, Mercy, Peace, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.2 comments
When a Bible story is in all three gospels it must be important. Each writer had a different intention in what they chose to write. Matthew was trying to make a case for the Jewish reader: Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one. Matthew quotes the O.T. more than any other writer, 93 times in fact (as opposed to 49 for Mark, 80 for Luke, and 33 for John).
Mark tells you immediately that Jesus is the Christ: (Mark 1: 1) “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” . Mark doesn’t try to prove this statement so much as he wants to unfold it’s ramifications; the implications of faith and discipleship. Mark’s gospel is the story of how a little secret (Jesus is the Messiah who takes away the sins of the world) is slowly revealed and what happens as a result.
Luke wants to give an ‘orderly account’ of all the stories about Jesus to his primary reader: Theophilus. We read Luke’s gospel over his shoulder.
Never-the-less all three want to include this story. It serves the purposes of each writer.
Matt. 19: 16 - 30, Mark 10: 17 – 27, and Luke 18: 18 – 30 all tell the story of a wealthy, upstanding individual who comes to Jesus with a question for the ages: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” What do I have to do to get into heaven? Tell me straight and I’ll do it.
Jesus doesn’t question his sincerity like he did to the Pharisee questioners. He does however respond curiously to the question. He takes exception to the wording. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
Without waiting for a response to this question Jesus answers, “Keep the commandments” and the rich man says that he did.
Again, Jesus doesn’t contest him on this point. Surely this man wasn’t perfect, but Jesus isn’t interested in humiliating this man with a list of his violations. In fact the Bible says Jesus felt love for him; agape, perfect love.
Jesus liked this guy, he wanted the best for him, he wanted to get through to him; and yet he knew that the wealthy young man still had sin. Jesus tells him what he must do: “Sell everything and give it all to the poor.” Whether he had violated the law or not, Jesus knew that this guy’s love of money was a huge stumbling block for him. The man left Jesus in sorrow, he had many possessions that he loved dearly.
Jesus then remarks to the crowd, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” This phrase has for over a thousand years been the object of much speculation.
In the eleventh century, Theophylact of Bulgaria , wrote about a gate in Jerusalem that was in the shape of a needle’s eye; thin and short. A camel could only pass if it was unladen and on it’s knees. For travellers to use this gate they had to take everything off their camel, get it to kneel and crawl through the gate. The application is obvious: the rich must leave all their treasures in order to enter the kingdom.
The problem is no such gates exists. No historical record of a gate called ‘the eye of the needle’ has ever been found. It simply doesn’t exist. It is possible, on the other hand that this statement is merely the product of a mistranslation; perhaps the word camel (κάμηλον) was a mistranslation of the word for cable or rope (κάμιλον).
Either way I think that point Jesus is making here can be missed if you are look too hard at the figure of speech he uses. Jesus’ intention here is not to illustrate the steps required to accomplish the task of getting a rich person into the Kingdom but instead to illustrate just how impossible it is by man’s efforts. You simply cannot get a camel or rope throught the eye of a needle no matter how hard you try.
Dilligent attention to detail, effort, adherence to perscribed forms, meticulous attention to the finest points of the law, none of these things will help you get a camel (or rope) throught the eye of a needle and none of them will get you into heaven.
The more interesting thing in this story is the disciples response, They didn’t say, ‘Too bad for rich people, oh well. I’m glad I’m not rich.’ They said, ‘Yikes! Who then can be saved?’
The wealthy were considered in the Jewish 1st century mindset as the elect. They were the good guys; The go to church each Sunday types. The wealthy were the ones who were approved by God. If they can’t get in then we are toast.
What is it that makes the rich so unlikely in Jesus eyes to enter the kingdom? Could it be their dependence on God is not fully developed? They were among the few who didn’t have to worry at night if they were going to eat the next day. The rich could easily fool themselves into thinking that they could take care of themselves. Wealth does make it difficult to keep your mind on kingdom things.
In keeping with the first century mindset, maybe the wealthy thought they bore God’s seal of approval. ‘We’re already in the Kingdom, I mean look at us we live like kings right?’
What the disciples are saying is, ‘Man if the rich can’t make it who can?’
I think 21st century christians can have this same problem. We who have grown up going to church can develop a moral superiority complex. We’re O.K. We’ve just got to get the message out to these heathen so they can clean themselves up.
Jesus says with a mindset of entitlement, and an attitude of moral superiority it is imposible to be in the Kingdom, it is impossible to do Kingdom work, it is impossible to make the Kingdom grow.
But with a dependence on God, and His grace, all things are possible.
What is a Blind Man to Do? July 15, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Faith, God, Jesus, Life, Peace, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.1 comment so far
Bill Cosby has a funny story about when you say something stupid and before you’re done saying it you know it’s stupid but you keep on saying it anyway. He was doing a show in Las Vegas with Ray Charles and Ray invited him over to talk one night so Bill shows up at the building and buzzes Ray’s room. “Come on up”, he says through the intercom so Bill comes to the room and knocks.
“Come in, it’s unlocked”, Ray says. When Bill opens the door he finds the hotel suite in total darkness. “Where are you Ray?”, he says as he comes throught the door into the totally dark room.
“I just finishing up shaving”, Ray says from the bathroom. Before Bill can think about what he was going to say he asks, “Why are you shaving in the dark?”
This got me to thinking. A blind man would have to know where everything is precisely. I suppose if I was blind I would get better at hanging on to my keys, my wallet, my watch. You simply couldn’t put those things down just anywhere if you ever wanted to find them again.
I noticed something interesting in the story of Bartimaeus this week. In Mark 10: 46 we read that Jesus is coming to the city of Jericho and right then the crowd must have suddenly swelled tremendously. Even a blind man could tell sometting was coming. Bartimaeus heard it was Jesus and immediately called out “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
The title ’son of David’ is used 14 times in the New Testament (8 times by Matthew) and was a messianic title. If you were calling Jesus the son of David you were calling him the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed one. This was not a nickname. It was a profession of faith.
When Jesus calls Bartimaeus he does something incredibly bold. In v. 50 it says, “he cast aside his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus.” What would make a blind man throw away his cloak in the middle of a huge crowd? Most poor people would have one cloak to their name. It was for the poor a very important piece of property. On cold nights it was the only thing keeping you warm.
Old Testament Law forbid a lender from keeping a cloak from a borrower overnight. (Exodus 22: 25 – 26). It was simply too cruel to keep it from them until they paid their debt.
Bartimaeus throws it aside and runs up to Jesus. He is certain that he will find it again. Jesus curiously asks him what he wants him to do. I can imagine the smile on Jesus face as he asks. Bartimaeus asks. “ Teacher, I want to regain my sight!”
Jesus replies, “Go, your faith has healed (saved) you .” It is faith that Jesus loves to see. The faith of a blind man who throws away his cloak knowing that he will soon be able to find it again.
