Worth Reading - Vanderbilt discriminatory non-discriminatory policy

As many of our friends know, one of our daughters and sons-in-law work with CRU at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, raising and mentoring future Christian leaders.  You may not know that they have been embroiled for some time in a new policy established at Vanderbilt that I tend to describe as the discriminatory non-discriminatory policy.  I have followed it through video feeds of meetings, articles, and it has the potential to be one of those land-mark kind of issues.

The issue is even being discussed at State-government levels here in Tennessee as folks begin to understand how it discriminates against faith-based organizations.

I was greatly moved this morning reading this write-up that explains CRU's decision to not agree with the policy, despite the difficulties it will cause for them.  It is a great devotion and clearly articulates the Christian message - lives transformed through Christ.  It's not an intellectual assent to Christ, but a radical transformation from the inside-out.

Here is the link.

http://cruatvanderbilt.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/so-why-are-we-as-cru-at-vanderbilt-continuing-to-have-faith-based-leadership-requirements/

I will write more in the coming days as I have good news on the expansion of the church planting work of Mozambique into two new areas - one of them a goal we established over four years ago that is coming to fruition.  I am awaiting promised pictures.  One of these areas is a difficult work where a different kind of discrimination occurs.   We so take for granted the precious freedom we have to worship in America.

Strength through hardships, persecutions and difficulties....

Blessings this day.

May we be 'real' today....whatever that might mean in your context.  The world notices.

Dave and Ann

or as the apostle Paul says:

"That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10

Something for Nothing

In our personal devotions this morning we were discussing the significance of Good Friday.   We also discussed the rapid change in Jesus’ life from Palm Sunday to death on the Cross less than a week later all those years ago.  

There are four events associated with Thursday:  the washing of the disciples feet, the Last Supper; Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer, and the betrayl of Jesus by Judas.   Each of these events were significant as Jesus gently shared with his hand-picked band of disciples what was to come.  His example of humility and tender care was demonstrated the practical washing of the disciples feet, dirty and sore from travel.  It was love by example.  Then came the agony of prayer as he ‘was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’ as he relented His will to the Father’s.  It was only the previous Sunday when Jesus came into Jerusalem a victor to the praise of the people on Palm Sunday, only to be betrayed and reviled by the same people a week later as the Messiah they longed for was not the Messiah they expected as their reality was skewed.  I think the only time you can be virtually sure you are in error is when you are marching with the masses, moving with voices of the culture.

We tend to see the world through our own reality filters and often put way too much confidence in our perception of reality.  The people wanted a Messiah, but their reality was skewed and the Messiah they received was so much more, canceling the impossible burden of being ‘good enough’ to be loved and accepted by a Holy God.  They wanted the military leader who would lead the mob in rebellion, like we see across the world, time and time again ultimately leading to ruin, war, cruelty and calamity.

Even in the world’s failing political dramas, we look for a messiah to provide for our every need, to enforce some sort of flawed man-made reality of ‘fairness’, as we seek to find our salvation in governments, leaders, systems, agencies, religious institutions, etc.

Our realities are skewed because we are incapable of seeing how all the pieces fit together as an infinite God ‘hovers over the waters’ (Genesis 1).  There is a plan that far exceeds anything we can see or imagine.

The human condition seems to be to 'want something for nothing'.  We see it in the headlines every day in one form or the other across our culture and across the world.  We see it as we hear the debates of ‘fairness’ - whatever that might be (and certainly 'fairness' is about as subjection a term as there is).

Well, God has met that condition by truly doing all the work - we can receive an abundance we cannot fathom or contain.  Instead of complex rules and regulations that we cannot possible fulfill, He has made a way to receive God’s favor through Jesus’ death on a cross; this is the way we can receive the peace that surpasses understanding through a simple recognition of our lost and selfish state, and seeing that there truly is a God who loved us enough to give us a choice: to believe, or not.  

The expection?  Repent and believe - that’s it.  With that will come a life-time of transformation as we trust in Him.  It’s like receiving everything, for virtually nothing.

I wonder if Jesus came today, would the religious of today - would we recognize Him because of our need to appear pure on the outside, yet resisting the cleansing power of relationship with Him, that power that transforms us through and through.  May we all be  “real,”  whatever that might mean in the context you find yourself.

Sunday marks that blessed day, He is alive; He is risen; it is finished.

May God’s presence touch your heart and soul this special weekend as we celebrate receiving eternity for virtually nothing because God knew we were incapable of receiving it unless He did it all.

Thank you Lord.

Celebrate Sunday for He is risen.

Dave & Ann

“...Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  John 7:37 - 38

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:30 - 31