I have launched a side-blog that is called Very Short Stories.  These are twitter length short stories and I will probably update them a bit more regularly than this blog.

So without further ado here is the first entry: The Curve

I bought a cheap LED reading light so I thought it would be fun to combing it with photobooth on my mac for some high contrast pics.

I just Brady Bunched myself!

By most accounts, condescension is considered a negative in today's language.  Condescend has been re-defined as a tone of superiority that patronizes another.  This is not it's original meaning however.

John Wesley once wrote, "God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God!" God's condescension is not patronizing, it is rather his making himself known to us on our level of understanding.  God has let himself down into mankind out of love and respect for his creation.  This takes place mainly in The Word–the Logos of God–that is Jesus Christ, through scripture, and through his Holy Spirit.

How beautiful and good is it that the Lord of the universe should come to us then on our own level, where we are at?  God strips away the barriers that keep us from him, and does so in order to pull us towards him.  As Karl Barth notes:

Sin is obviously the negation, the opposite of what God does for us in Jesus Christ in condescending to us, in humbling Himself, in becoming a servant to take to Himself and away from us our guilt and sickness.  This is the grace of God in its first form: God gives Himself to us, He makes Himself responsible for our cause, He takes it into His own hand.  And the commandment is clear–it is necessarily a matter of our basing our being and activity on the fact that God is ours, that we are the recipients of this gift which is so inconceivably great.  Sin in its first form is pride.  When God condescends to man, when He makes Himself one with Him in order to be truly his God...

Rather than a force of oppressive weight, God's condescension is our very means of salvation.  As followers of Christ then we are recipients of the salvation because of our identification within the community that is the Body of Christ.  As co-recipients of that grace we are then drawn into God through the same love that binds God the Father, Son, and Spirit as one.  Not only are we bound to God, but to each-other in God as the Body of Christ.

So, next time you think of the word condescend you might have a different perspective.

Today I wrote four blessings.  These were specific blessings written for the four men I am taking a course with in seminary.  It is easy to gloss over the discipline of blessing others.  It's kind of weird in our culture to physically (or in my case virtually) embrace another, look into their lives, and speak into them the Spirit of God in blessing.  Compliments are hard to come by, but blessings are even harder.

There is power in blessing others, and in being blessed.  Not our power, but the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.  Just as God breathed the breath of life into Adam, we continue that life-giving act today.

If you want to transform the life of another today then take them by the shoulders, look them in the eyes, and bless them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Pray God's guidance on their life, his strength in their limbs, his love on their lips, his mind in their vision.

I pray that the Lord would bless you!  That he would guide your steps, and enter into your heart in a powerful and healing way!  He is not just the Lord of our souls, but the Lord of the universe!  His power is infinite, his love is majestic, and his holiness is dumbfounding.  May you walk today knowing you are blessed and loved, unique in all creation!