Still Saturday::the simple stillness of silence...

There is an indifferent, or even negative, attitude toward silence which sees in it a disparagement of God's revelation in the Word. This is the view which misinterprets silence as a ceremonial gesture, as a mystical desire to get beyond the Word. This is to miss the essential relationship of silence to the Word.

Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God.

We are silent after hearing the Word because the Word is still speaking and dwelling within us. We are silent at the beginning of the day becaue God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God. 

Silence is nothing else but waiting for God's Word and coming from God's Word with a blessing.

Life Together* by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 79

{published in 1954, a well-loved, dog-eared book that belonged to my mother}

Contending for the faith...

I've been meditating on the Book of Jude lately. When I first opened my Bible, the Book of Ephesians was my destination, but it was in Jude that I landed. Twenty-five verses in only one chapter is a quick read. But between the tender greeting (vs 1-2) and the glorious doxology (vs 24-25), there's an urgency in the message and a command: "contend for the faith."

Eugene Peterson puts it this way in The Message:

"I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish."

And...

"Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven."

The problem? Some in the church were promoting "cheap grace."

"Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master."

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It's not politically correct to "not be soft on sin." A double-negative, I know. What I mean is that the prevailing culture would have us believe that being hard on sin - calling evil "evil" and sin "sin" - is hateful. Even some believers have been persuaded to think it's wrong for the church to call those "stinks to high heaven" ways of living exactly what they are. It is love, not hate, that longs for a politically correct culture to know the costly grace and mercy and the kindness that leads to repentance.

For the church, the urgent command is to contend - to fight, if you will - to go after those who wander and be "tender with sinners, but not soft on sin."

Photos: A baby rabbit, a baby mockingbird, and mid-June rural Florida wanderings.

Free time::Part III...

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I love my iPod. I have had the opportunity to burn up a large chunk of "free time" in the waiting room of doctor's offices more than once this past week. I'm sure everyone knows exactly what I mean. I'm not complaining. Really. I worked in a doctor's office once and I know that there are many distractions begging for the doctor's time and attention that throw them off their office schedules, so I never complain (to the staff, anyway) when I'm forced to wait. What I don't like about waiting in doctor's waiting rooms is the boredom of just sitting there with little more to do than read all the gossip, boating, fishing and working mom magazines every doctor's office obviously subscribes to. Depending on the mixture of other people in the waiting room, it is usually too difficult for me to concentrate on writing or reading a good book. I've tried. Even worse is when I am called back to an exam room to wait even longer alone - with nothing more than brochures about diseases and procedures I'd rather not know about. No more. Last week I took my iPod with me and was able to listen to over half of "The Cost of Freedom", a 3 CD Focus on the Family Radio Theatre performance on the life of Bonhoeffer while waiting to see the doctor. I purchased my set over ten years ago when the boys were much younger, but had forgotten much of it. If you and your family have not listened to this performance, I highly recommend doing so. I don't believe that I could have used my waiting room time more wisely. Yesterday, while waiting I listened to the latest Francis Chan podcast on suffering. That might not have been the best subject for the doctor's office, though. There is more "free time" in waiting rooms for me in the future. I'd love to hear your suggestions for using that time wisely.