Good News From Mark

The descent to Hell is easy, and those who begin by worshipping power soon worship evil. —C.S. Lewis

On the cross, Jesus is getting what we deserve so we can get what he deserves. When you see the great reversal is for you, when you see that he gave up his cosmic wealth and came into our poverty so that you could be spiritually rich, it changes you. —Tim Keller, Jesus is King

But love without power is less that what it is meant to be. … This is why the love that is at the heartbeat of the Christian   story, the Father’s love for the Son and, through the Son, for the world, – is not simply a sentimental       feeling or a distant, ethereal theological truth, but has been signed and sealed by the most audacious act of true power in the history of the world, the resurrection of the Son from the dead. —Andy Crouch, Playing God – Redeeming The Gift Of Power

The Passover meal had to be prepared in a certain way and had a distinct form. It included four points at which the presider, holding a glass of wine, got up and explained the feast’s meaning. The four cups of wine represented the four     promises made by God in Exodus 6:6-7. These promises were for rescue from Egypt, for freedom from slavery, for redemption by God’s divine power, and for a renewed relationship with God. The third cup came at a point when the meal was almost completely eaten. The presider would use words from Deuteronomy 26 to bless the elements — the bread, the herbs, the lamb — by explaining how they were symbolic reminders of various aspects of the early Israelites’ captivity and deliverance. For example, he would show them the bread and say, “This is the bread of our affliction, which our fathers ate in the wilderness.”

One more example: I read some years ago in National Geographic that after a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, some forest rangers began a trek up a     mountain to survey the damage. One ranger found a bird of which nothing was left but the carbonized, petrified shell, covered in ashes, huddled at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by this eerie sight, the ranger knocked the bird over with a stick — and three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother’s wings. When the blaze had arrived, the mother had remained steadfast instead of running. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings lived. “And Jesus said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” Luke 13:34). He did indeed gather     Jerusalem’s children under his wings — and he was consumed. All real, life-changing love is costly, substitutionary sacrifice.

Jesus says, “Take it”. He lets us know that we have to take what he is doing for us. We have to receive it actively. It is common to distribute the Lord’s Supper and say, “Feed on Him in your hearts by faith.” You don’t get the benefit of food unless you take it and digest it. You can have a meal piled high in front of you, all the food cooked to perfection, and you could still starve to death. To be       nourished by a meal, you have to eat it. The excellent preparation of the food doesn’t help you if you’re not willing to pick it up and take it into yourself. Taking it is the same as saying, “This is the real food I need — Christ’s unconditional commitment to me.

—Timothy Keller, King’s Cross

Until the unlimited,
Unbridled and unrelenting
Love of God
Takes root in our life,
Until God’s reckless
Pursuit of us captures
Our imagination,
Until our head knowledge
Of God settles
Into our heart
Through pure grace,
Nothing really changes.
—Fil Anderson

What can we expect from God? What is He really like? What will He do with us once our denial and sin is disrupted and our hurt and fury drawn forth?
It is in the dark struggles with God that we are surprised by His response to our anger and fear. What we receive from Him during difficult battle is not what we expect. We assume He wants order, conformity — obedient children. Instead, we find that He wants our passionate involvement and utter awe in the mystery of His glorious character…In the darkness of our emotional wrestling with God, we grow in our understanding of Him. When He does not respond to us as we expect, we learn about His surprising character. We attack Him with anger, but we do not receive His judgment in return. We plead desperately for Him to save us from terror, but He does not necessarily rescue us with immediate resolution of our circumstances. However, what He does reveal is His heart for us.
—Allender & Longman, The Cry of the Soul

One day, in the course of a rambling lecture, my old professor made a statement along these lines: “There is a new problem in our country. We are becoming a nation that is dominated by large institutions — churches, businesses, governments, labor unions, universities — and these big institutions are not serving us well. I hope that all of you will be concerned about this. Now you can do as I do, stand outside and criticize, bring pressure if you can, write and argue about it. All of this may do some good. But nothing of substance will happen unless there are people inside these institutions who are able to (and want to) lead them into better performance for the public good. Some of you ought to make careers inside these big institutions and become a force for good — from the inside.”

It is part of the enigma of human nature that the “typical” person —immature, stumbling, inept, lazy —is capable of great dedication and heroism if wisely led. Many otherwise able people are disqualified to lead because they cannot work with and through the half-people who are all there are. The secret of institution building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be.

—Servant Leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf