Just as the pink and purple dawn tumbles over the Catalinas

Then, in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a deserted place, and there He prayed. Mark 1:35

And what did He pray? Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And it is still dark here in Tucson, Arizona. And my feet are propped up on the fireplace, hoping to catch the last remnants of last night’s coals.

Give us today our daily bread.  It’s not about me. This is a corporate prayer. I wander through my community list, requesting provision. A cup held out for today’s What Is It. Matteo’s photo captures His abundance offered, just for the coming. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

And forgive us our debts, even as we forgive our debtors. May we walk in His mercy and grace on today’s path. Give and it shall be given to us. Heaping and overflowing into our laps.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Protect our thoughts from wicked lies. Be a shield. Jesus was tempted in the relative solitude of the desert for forty days, with just the wild beasts and the Tempter. Flesh and blood is not our enemy. Rather it is the principalities and powers doing battle with flaming poisonous darts. Stand firm then, girded with truth.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory for ever.

 Amen.

"But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan.

As he walked along the shore of the Lake of Galilee, he saw two fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, casting their nets into the water. “Come and follow Me, and I will teach you to catch men!” He cried.

At once they dropped their nets, and followed Him. Mark 1:16-18

And they dropped their nets. Which so do easily entangle us in this society that celebrates wealth, sex and violence, nay, worships these and the shimmering yet illusive power that they bring. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Come and follow Me, He cried over the din of every day busyness and routine. And they heard Him.

Why is it such a struggle to leave those stinky, heavy, twisted nets behind?

And this is my prayer, that I might live in this moment of immediate obedience. The still small voice that speaks Truth and Grace and Love. And while it is true that I do not know the end of each tale, there are certainly many markers piled high along the path that I have trod as memorials to Him Who has proven faithful time and time again.

Stacks of images, piled high in baskets, overflowing and spilling out onto the floor. Stories and smiles and eyes, mostly eyes, looking back at me.

When he had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Push out now into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master! We’ve worked all night and never caught a thing, but if you say so, I’ll let the nets down.” And when they had done this, they caught an enormous shoal of fish—so big that the nets began to tear. So they signalled to their friends in the other boats to come and help them. They came and filled both the boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell on his knees before Jesus and said, “Keep away from me, Lord, for I’m only a sinful man!” For he and his companions (including Zebedee’s sons, James and John, Simon’s partners) were staggered at the haul of fish that they had made. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid, Simon. From now on your catch will be men.”

So they left everything and followed Him.

So be it.

May your lives be filled with all that God is

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, saying, “The time has come at last—the kingdom of God has arrived. You must change your hearts and minds and believe the good news.” Mark 1:15

Romans 12:2 states that we “are transformed by the renewal of our mind.” The renewal of the mind is repentance. If you as a believer are looking for a way to mature and grow into who you are in Christ - this is it. Repentance is the process of discovering what God says is the truth and aligning your faith with His. –Phil Drysdale

In the year that King Uzziah died, I had a vision of the Lord. He was on His throne high above, and His robe filled the temple.  Flaming creatures with six wings each were flying over Him. They covered their faces with two of their wings and their bodies with two more. They used the other two wings for flying, as they shouted,

“Holy, holy, holy,
    Lord All-Powerful!
The earth is filled
    with Your glory.”

The LORD is All-Powerful. His will is not thwarted.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Our Father, Who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is our prayer. Our daily prayer. 

Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20

And this is the good news.

Glory.

Subverting my premises

It was after John’s arrest that Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, saying, “The time has come at last—the kingdom of God has arrived. You must change your hearts and minds and believe the good news.” Mark 1:1-15

I must change my heart and mind and believe the good news.

NT Wright talked about this and reading the Psalms: It’s not exactly a matter of removing one (worldview) entirely and doing something 100 percent different, because the reason why all the great worldviews are great worldviews is that they all contain elements of true insight. So it’s a matter of adjusting or subverting or transforming rather than simply throw away everything you’ve ever known and get something totally different.

I mean, to put it over-simplistically, today’s basic Western worldview is still as it’s been for the last 250 years or so—a variant of the old philosophy called Epicureanism, where if there is a God or if there are gods, they’re a long way away; they don’t interfere with us. And the Biblical worldview ... says “no, actually God’s domain and our domain interact and interlock and mesh and blend and bounce off each other in a whole variety of ways. And that’s why life is often so confusing and exciting.” And so it’s not a matter of saying that everything you’ve known is completely wrong, because it’s still true that God is transcendent and God is other and God is different.

But, you know, this is complicated and many people find it confusing, but that’s because any time you start jiggling around with people’s worldviews they feel a bit sort of mentally or emotionally sea sick. But this is why the Psalms are so important—they will help us gain stability in that process and help us to inhabit a truer and biblical worldview which will transform the one we’ve all grown up with.

Each of us have been gathering up our worldview like so many puzzle pieces sprinkled along the path of life. Little mismatched bits of beliefs that certainly don’t fit together nicely, and bump and jiggle against each other in our little brain baskets. Some of them are innocuous enough, such as “pink is YOUR color,” and some are pretty much downright evil, “How much is enough? Just a little bit more.” And mostly we really cling to them pretty tightly without even noticing. And sometimes we even scoop up ideas and words and concepts that we hang onto more tightly than The Word.

Because our worldviews make us feel safe. And every now and then the scaffold that we have hammered together wobbles a little and we try not to notice too much. Maybe we just get really busy. Or turn on the radio so we don’t have to think about it. It’s nice to have everything all figured out.  In a little brain basket.

And this is the good news. Dumping this basket upside down into His lap. Letting Him sift and sort freely. The Spirit of truth within will guide me into all truth. But I must chose to dump the basket upside down, and bang on the bottom a few times to make sure some piece has not been caught in the weaving and is stuck. 

Because God is transcendent and God is other and God is different. And He doesn’t fit inside our basket. And the story is much bigger and much more joy and much more not-about-me than we ever imagined.

This is the good news.