Author: Fred Shope

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Third Sunday of Advent

This season can be a stressful time with all the busyness that can capture our attention. As we anticipate the celebration of Jesus’ birth and look ahead to his return, let our joy be unrestrained and infectious.

Enjoy:
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TGIF

This has been a busy week. Basketball season began this week. My team has started slowly, but there is a lot of potential for a really good season. We’ll see. It’s still frigid here in the sunny South, and it looks like it’s not going to warm up anytime soon.

Here is the good stuff:
Matt Mile on encouraging untruths.
God with us, from Lisa Dye.
Matthew Paul Turner has an interesting picture.
Scot McKnight rants about leadership.
Ronnie McBrayer on religion…and underwear.
Jared Wilson says we will outsing the enemy.
Alan Knox has a series on the dangers of Sunday. Part 1 is here.
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TGIF

It’s been an unusually chilly week here in the sunny South, with lows dipping down into the twenties. We had a great time last weekend visiting Jan’s sister and her family in West Virginia. It was nice to get together with her family. Jan and I went to our town’s Christmas parade tonight. It’s the first time we’ve been able to go in the fifteen years that we’ve been here. It was a good parade, and the downtown area looks nice all lit up.

Here are this week’s top links:
This is pretty cool.
Thoughts from Donald Miller.
Enjoy your weekend.
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Waiting

There is a lot of waiting this time of year. Shoppers wait in traffic so they can get to stores and wait in line to pay for their merchandise. Students (and teachers) wait for vacation to start. Children wait to see what gifts they will receive. Other people wait for the season to be over. One thing that seems present in all the waiting is stress and conflict. Sometimes the very act of waiting causes the problems.

The people of Israel were waiting. Waiting for the promised Messiah, waiting for God to speak again, and deliver his people. They had been waiting a long time. Today, we wait for that same Messiah to return and deliver us. It has been a long time.

Some in Israel had grown tired of waiting and were content with just getting by. Others had put their hopes in their religious rituals, or political works. Before we are too hard on them, let us ask ourselves how we are waiting. Are we waiting for a trip off this old earth, up into the sky? Are we waiting for the right leaders to be elected or the right laws to be passed to turn our nation back to God? Have we given up and been reduced to just getting by?

We are told to not become weary in doing good. Jesus is King, and one day he will return and set
everything right again. Their will be justice, mercy, and peace. Creation will be renewed. The Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. That is what we wait for. That is what we long for.

This Advent season remember that we wait in anticipation of a Kingdom that is here now, and is still to come. We wait in anticipation and in hope.

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How Far Would You Go?

This was posted a few years ago.

The other night I was watching American Idol (no, I’m not really a fan – I was watching it with my son, who is a fan). Anyway, there was this girl who came on knowing she has no singing talent at all. She wanted to go on to Hollywood so the Idol people could teach her to sing and remake her into a pop star. She was desperate to move to the next round, and I wondered just how far she would have gone to get there. If Simon and the others were cruel enough, how much would they be able to put this poor girl through, how much would she have put up with to become famous – to become the next American Idol.

I was going to write something about how easy it is to allow ourselves to be caught up in being “famous”, popular, well liked, etc. But instead, I’ll ask how far we who call ourselves followers of Jesus are willing to go to be taught by him and to be remade into his image. Do we say, “Yeah I want to follow Jesus, just don’t ask me to give up my dreams of a great career, or to spend time with those who are outside of the mainstream, or to get my hands dirty serving the poor and needy.”? Or, are we like Peter, who was willing to get out of the boat and risk drowning to be like his Rabbi? Do we want a Savior who gives us all sorts of good things and wants us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Or are we willing to do whatever it takes and take whatever comes our way if it will form us into the image of Jesus.

Which Jesus do you follow?