I’ve got to admit…it’s less than six hours away as I write this…it’s almost 2012…and I’m excited! 

Typically New Years Eve comes and goes and I don’t feel compelled to blow horns, throw confetti, or find someone to kiss at the stroke of midnight.  As I think back over the years, the millennial shift to 2000, bringing with it all the impending doom of Y2K, was the last New Years Eve I remember having any particular emotional response to…mostly a sigh of relief that my electronic equipment didn’t seize up for a lack of digits.  This year, however, I feel a sense of anticipation and excitement bordering on giddiness.  While people have been throwing out all kinds of predictions about 2012, from world-wide disaster to huge evolutionary leap, I simply believe that 2012 contains within it the seeds of greatness.  As I’ve prayed about the coming year the words of Isaiah 43 verses 18 and 19 continue to come to mind:  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  I believe God is preparing to do a ”new thing” in 2012 and He is calling his people to prepare for it so we are able to “perceive” it.  Later in Isaiah God’s word speaks of ”proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.”  I believe that proclaiming this as the year of the Lord’s favor, initially being quoted as a part of Jesus’ mission, is to become a part of our mission this year.  I believe God wants us to let go of our attachment to the past and get ready because He is doing a new thing! 

2012…Let’s proclaim this as the year of the Lord’s favor!

It is my prayer that you each have a blessed New Year celebration and that the coming 365 days are filled with peace, challenges that bring new opportunities, and great blessings.

Pastor Steve

Earlier this evening I was reading Isaiah Chapter 43 as I prepared for our Wednesday evening Through the Bible adult education/discussion group.  As I read I found myself remembering an ancient oriental picture of a Buddhist monk with his robe raised, warming his backside by a fire, kindled by a wooden statue of the Buddha.  I know, you’re wondering how the two go together, right?  First let me fill in the blanks about the ancient painting.  It’s based on the story of Tai-Shia or Tanka, an Eighth century Buddhist master who found himself staying in the temple of a very asture and formal priest in the middle of a very cold, cold winter.  Tai-Shia wasn’t sure, but he thought he might freeze to death if he didn’t do something; and, spying an ancient wooden statue of the Buddha, he proceeded to chop it to kindling and start a fire.  Before long he was happily warming his backside when, without notice, the priest of the temple walked in.  Furiously he demanded, “Why have you burned this holy statue?”  Tai-Shia thought for a moment and said, “I wanted to release its life-force from it.”  The priest looked Tai-Shia firmly in the eye and declared, “That is ridiculous, there is no life-force in that statue.  It is only wood.”

Isaiah 43 verses 18, 19, and 22 state:  “(18) Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  (19) See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not percieve it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.  (22) Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel.”   Is it possible that this is every bit as true today as it was 2,700 years ago?  Is it possible that God’s children have become hung up on old ways of doing things and fail to recognize there is no life force in them any longer…that God moved on years ago? 

I believe God is calling the Church to stop dwelling on the past because He’s busy doing a new thing that He’s designed to reach a new generation!  I believe it’s time for God’s people to begin to call upon Him.  To weary ourselves for Him and find out what it is that He is doing.  Let’s burn our Buddha…let’s set ourselves free…LET’S JOIN HIM IN HIS ENDEAVOR!

I know, you’re wondering if I could possibly come up with a more dull sounding title.  What a way to ensure no one will read your blog, right?  Just entitle it:  Ethical Practice.  As my grandson would say:  BORING!  That’s what I was thinking earlier this week as I drove to Salem to attend a six hour continuing education training of the same name.   

First, I should say that I was pleasantly suprised by the class.  While it had the potential to be budensome, it was not at all.  Both the trainer and the material she presented was quite engaging.  Class participants shared their own ethical quandries.  We discussed and worked through bizarre scenarios…the unique things you might image coming up in mental health/ drug and alcohol treatment.  All of that was really interesting, but not what captivated my thoughts over the following days.  What grabbed my attention was the discussion focused on the “whys” of ethics….why therapists and counselors require codes of ethics.  The reason given is what got me thinking.  Here it is, straight from the powerpoint slides:  ”Ethical guidelines are present in every profession that involves work with others in which the profession is greatly trusted; and, ethics are about holding a profession to a higher standard to assure the safety and care of others.”  It’s that word “profession” that started me thinking…not about responsible therapy…but about the church I grew up in as a child.  You see, at Calvary Baptist Church, whenever the pastor did an altar call he would ask something like this:  “Is anyone present who would like to come forward and make a public profession of Christ?”  (It was basically a fancy church way of saying:  ”Do you declare Jesus Christ as your savior?”)  It got me thinking.  As God’s children we really are professing Christ on a daily basis.  That brings me back to the reason for ethical guidelines…that…as God’s children professing Christ we do work with others and they trust that we will be loving, honest, and compassionate.  God has given us this world to reach and, with our profession of Christ, God holds us to a higher standard to gently care for those around us.

Living ethically is crucial to reaching this world.  Treat others the way you would want to be treated.  Gently care for them.  Love them and seek to bless them.  When God’s children live this way I believe others will likewise be drawn to the greatest profession of all…that of Jesus!  

Our prayer time in the service last Sunday focused on OCCUPY. I know, it begs the question: PlainView is all about “bringing the Divine into plain view,” what does that have to do with OCCUPY? Well, the truth is Occupy Wall Street (OWS), the recent demonstrations organized by Canadian-based Adbusters Media Foundation, describing itself as “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators, and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age” has very little to do with PlainView and our vision! However, we are really interested in advancing the Kingdom of God in this physical universe…that’s what the Church is supposed to be about! That’s why Jesus, when He was asked by His disciples how to pray, said pray this way: Our Father, in heaven, holy is Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven! As God’s children we’re supposed to be about God’s kingdom being manifested here on this earth. How will that be accomplished? By OCCUPYING God’s kingdom! By OCCUPYING His throne room in prayer…by allowing His truth and the mind of Christ to OCCUPY us…by OCCUPYING God’s presence and love. How will we see Jesus’ kingdom come? As we OCCUPY it here in this world!
Blessings

I recently wrote about our current teaching series at PlainView specifically focused on searching out the Good News in the Book of Revelation.  I believe we open ourselves up to discover new things in this life whenever we create a shift in our perspective.  I’m certainly not the first person to suggest this…Castaneda and Einstein did…its even been suggested that genius is not about IQ, but simply the ability to see from a slightly different perspective. I wonder what new things wait to be discovered as we work toward changing our perspectives?

This Sunday we are examining Revelation Chapter 16…my Bible sub-titles the chapter “The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath”…let me tell you, you gotta’ look really hard, but there’s some great news in this chapter!  Here’s the thing, reading this chapter, from the perspective of looking for good news, allowed me to see something I had never noticed before.  I had never noticed that not one of the seven bowls are poured out on the people of that day.  They are poured out on the land and the sea and the rivers and the sun and the throne of the beast and the Euphrates River and into the air (interesting to note that Paul refers to Satan as the ”prince of the power of the air”) - but never onto the people!  Yes, they experience the results of the plagues, but its like God’s love is so great, even when dealing with the worst of humankind, that He refuses to pour His wrath directly on them in this chapter. 

I believe the Spirit of God is continually seeking to change our perspective…to lead us into all righteousness.  As PlainView Church continues to ask God to change our perspectives I believe we will see His great love revealed more fully than we could have imagined!