mbjones

Sunday night at house church we spent quite a bit of time as a group praying for trust — that we would trust in God, that we would trust in His promises and what He is doing among us. On the way home afterwards, “Quicksand” by Sleeping at Last came on the iPod. It’s curious is quite simple, yet quite fitting after our time spent praying:

Trust is quicksand, Claiming everything I have, All to give me life, all to give me life…

Last night was celebration at church (the once a month meeting where EVERYONE is together). Not only was it celebration, it was also the “celebration for the nations” where focus was directed towards Norman Community’s involvement with missions. The summer trips were announced (Rome and South Africa, the latter of which I will try to go on) and our pastor, Ken, talked about the nations as pearls of great price.

Specifically he drew from Matthew 13:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44-46

A couple of salient points:

• One major aspect of the kingdom of God is how the “nations” relate to it. In truth, the kingdom is made up of those from ALL nations, tribes and tongues. Other passages in the Gospels and elsewhere make this clear enough (Ken drew from Revelations 5 — and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation — and there are many like passages)
• The pearl is not without a price. Truth be told, both analogies make clear that it costs pretty much all that we have and all that we are. The price is worth it though.

I’m excited about the prospect of going back to Africa this coming summer. I loved Mozambique and look forward to the possibility of spending time with Floyd McClung and his Capetown to Cairo vision team.

What is most crucial to martyrdom is not whether or not the person killed intended to act out of love or for justice…but whether or not those with eyes to see are able to discern the body of Christ, crucified and glorified, in the body broken by the violence of the world.

William Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist, pg 64

Life has been busy of late. Mostly, I’ve been busy with a combination of work and church stuff. There are a couple of big projects that at work that have been black holes for time (but the holes are beginning to close). I’ll certainly be glad when they have slowed down. As to church stuff — that’s also made for busy times (but good times!). I’ve gotten to meet a lot of neat international students and it’s been exciting to see God work in even the small things.

In other news, my birthday was last Thursday. I am now 26, or as I have put it, I’ve finally entered my late 20’s. I celebrated on Thursday by going to a Young Life banquet and then watching the Office later that night with friends. On friday, I hosted a birthday party. I made a lot of food (tabouli, 3 different varieties of hummus, burgers, brats, queso). A friend brought some vanilla porter which was really quite fantastic and we all played Apples to Apples and Mafia (both are great party games, fyi). If you weren’t there, you missed out. Saturday and Sunday I relaxed to finish out the week.

For my birthday, I got several books that I look forward to reading:

• Torture and Eucharist by William Cavanaugh. As I’ve been studying ethics, the kingdom of God and my political role this book keeps coming to the top of my reading list so I broke down and ordered it. I spent about 3 hours reading the first bit of it last week and am really, really enjoying it. I will probably soon start blogging through it (hopefully when I finish blogging through A Community Called Atonement).
• The New Friars by Scott Bessenecker. The description and several favorable reviews led me to pick this one up. It’s probably next on my reading list.
• The Voice of Luke by Brian McLaren. This is essentially a modern translation of Luke with devotional notes interspersed. It comes highly recommend by Sam, and after reading the first 5 chapters I concur.
• They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball. This is one that I got for super cheap at Mardel’s ($4). It looks at emerging generations and their fascination with Jesus and their dissatisfaction with “church”. I’ve read good things about it and will give my thoughts when I finish it.
• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. This is the second $4 buy. It’s been a couple of years since I read this (a borrowed copy) and I look forward to returning to it with pen in hand whenever time allows.

Parties this weekend will be keeping me busy but I’ll try to keep up with the blogging biz better. Until next time…