Lynch Update (Feb, 2008)

Hey all! We' re missing you scattered abroad terribly but have grown used to the upsides of spending winter in Phoenix, Arizona while our Chicago mates hibernate away amidst this season's blizzards!

We continue to be ever-grateful for our temporarily free housing situation while we remain uncertain on where God wants to plant us here in the Valley. We have Christ-loving, mission-minded friends in North Phoenix, Tempe, and now Central Phoenix that give us ideas, but nothing definitive yet. That last one is particularly interesting because it's the first real potential urban partnership we've discovered.

There's something about urban life and opportunities for Christ's relational gospel there. Ethnic diversity, outdoor socializing, expectations for outdoor interactions, etc. As we drove around the area last week, my heart was stirred with a fondness for city life and the rhythms of its people. Maybe there's something there. We're still checking into it and remain open to anything.

One of our steadfast convictions since arriving is that God desires for us to live in community with other passionate believers with whom we would partner in reaching our neighborhood, city and world. We're aiming at close proximity to one another, even within walking distance, in the middle of some area of social and/or economic need. Please pray with us for our discernment in this and for these partners to be made known!

Our frequent gatherings with friends for worship, prayer and Bible study have blossomed in new ways these last several weeks. The Lord keeps bringing new folks to the group; and an energetic, grace-filled, love-focused, Christ-centered, ethos is taking shape among us. It's sweet, loving and mighty. Praise God.

Aleta leaves in two weeks for India and Bangladesh where she'll be visiting a friend ministering to prostitutes in Calcutta's red light district. We 're confident that God has something special for her and our friend as they serve and edify one another. Please pray for travel details and safety and that God has his complete way with the experience.

Also this month, Aleta moves to full-time employment with her design firm while I move into my new construction position as a field engineer. These are crazy blessings for us. Aleta's job, for example, is far above and beyond what we had been praying for. It's a stellar work environment with tons of affirmation and relational opportunities. The financial implications are that we'll finally be able to become aggressive on getting out of our student loan debt - an earnest desire for us. In addition, my site assignment will change in April; so please be praying that the Lord places me strategically where he wants me. We know he will.

We miss our Chicago friends and family very much and are ever-grateful for your love and prayer. And to our new and emerging Phoenix family, we are deeply humbled and full of praise for you. May the Lord shape us into the community his heart smiles at.

In Christ's love with you, John.
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God Is All About ... Life

To really understand God (and ourselves) we must begin with this one thing: God's purpose in all of creation is... LIFE.

The first and last books of the Bible (amazingly encompassing the whole of human history on this earth - beginning to end) are marked by two trees, the trees of life (Genesis 2 and Revelation 22).

God created human life... "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7); and then redeemed it through Christ... "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him might not die but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

God's all about life. Life for the body, life for the mind, life for the heart, life for the spirit... eternal life. Sounds reminiscent of God's commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5 quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:30, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." It's the command Jesus explained as the one that embodies the very heart of God for humanity (along with loving others as ourselves).

Good and evil are defined by God's heart for life and against death. That's the standard that dictates what is "right" and "wrong" in his eyes. "The mind set on the flesh (i.e. sinful nature) is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

Does this change how we feel about God and his plan in human history? Does it help us unlock some of the mystery surrounding our understanding of him? Does it help us see some of the raw essence of his heart? How do our hearts connect with all this?

(P.S. Real life is far more than mere survival. Our tendency to reduce things to their unrecognizable minimum is maybe why Jesus emphasized in John 10:10 that he came to give us life "abundantly".)

God is all about life. Everything flows out of this one thing... But then again, there is one other reality even deeper than this. More on that in the next post.
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Seeing the Invisible God (3)

Listening.

My wife always tells me to do more of that. I'm so eager to fix and contribute (or maybe just judge and control) that I often jump into her personal stories to offer my solution to her challenges... sometimes discovering I didn't really understand her challenges in the first place. I hadn't listened enough.

Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19).

Listening is a dynamic exercise implying both attention and intention. Listeners selflssly devote their attention to an other with the intention of understanding them. It expresses our belief that someone is: 1) acceptable enough to capture our heart's attention, and 2) significant enough for us to invest what's needed to understand them.

When these attitudes are combined with affective, loving action, listening becomes a profound relational step forward that recognizes and celebrates the glory of another.

Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers (James 1:22).
If anyone thinks he is religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:26-27). Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom (James 3:13).

Listening is inherently humble, the attitude necessary for cultivating life-giving relationships. It's, by nature, opposed to the pride that drives much of human speech.

Let not many of you become teachers for as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well (James 3:1-2). Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:10).

The point of all this is simply: To experience our invisible God we must quiet ourselves and spend time really listening from the heart.

I know... genius, right? I didn't say it was a complicated reflection (most of mine aren't). The prophet Elijah learned this simple lesson on Mt. Horeb in 1 Kings 19 when God humbled him through powerful winds, earthquakes, and fires before finally showing up in "a gentle blowing". God came in the kind of quiet breeze you must be very still to experience.

"Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 4:4). Or as Jesus says, "They who have ears to hear, let them hear."

"Abba, teach us to listen."
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Seeing the Invisible God (2)

The Sixth Sense.

How can we see an invisible God? I'm talking about perceiving God, about knowing him in real-time... here and now. Not knowing about him or even believing in him but encountering him in relational dialog that extends beyond mere words into deep and intimate interaction.

It's tragic how we've relegated our spiritual sensibility to the realm of mysterious diversion. Human beings are spiritual beings as much as we are physical. Our spiritual sense is a sense... a mode of interaction not unlike sight or taste or smell. It's as real as physical touch and as necessary to our intimate experience of God as physical touch is to our intimate experience of our mate.

If a man joins himself to a woman, he becomes one body with her, for the Scriptures say, “The two become one flesh.” In the same way, the person who joins themself to the Lord is one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)

Perceiving God, knowing him in real time, is a relational reality. That sounds so simple, but it's nothing short of amazing. The lessons from this realization are profound. For example, as a relationship, intimately knowing God grows with time and faithfulness. Other biblical terms for faithfulness include righteousness and obedience. Maybe that's why Jesus so frequently called his disciples to abide in his love by remaining obedient. Look for the elements of time and faithfulness in the following passage and for how they relate to perceiving God:

Hebrews 5:11-14 … There is much more we want to tell you about Jesus but cannot because you've become spiritually hard-of-hearing. By now you should be teaching but you still need to learn the basics of God’s word - like infants who still need milk and aren't ready for solid food. Milk is for infants who can’t understand the word of righteousness; but solid food is for the mature who have trained their senses through practice to discern the ways of good and evil.

I've been married to my wife for only five years, but the growth we've enjoyed through our increasing time and faithfulness to each other has yielded a depth of awareness and intimate experience of each other that is difficult to explain. It's humbling, amazing, and far sweeter than I ever imagined. This is the reward that awaits all who invest time and faithfulness in their relationship with God: depth of awareness and intimate experience.

With the mature, we speak the hidden mystery of God's wisdom that is far beyond the wisdom of this perishing world and its rulers. The wisdom predestined before the ages to our glory which this world's rulers failed to understand and so crucified the Lord of glory, just as Scripture says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” But to us God has revealed it by his Spirit; for his Spirit understands everything, even God’s deep secrets.

A person’s spirit penetrates their thoughts just as God’s Spirit knows His thoughts. And we have received God’s Spirit - not the world’s spirit - so now we can know the things God freely planned for us. We don't interact in human wisdom but speak from the Spirit, spiritual words and spiritual wisdom. People who aren’t spiritual can’t understand God’s Spirit. It's foolishness to them because they don't have a spiritual sensibility and aren't spiritually aware. Those who are spiritual understand God's mysteries and even appear, themselves, mysterious to the world.

Scripture says, “Who can know God's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we, unlike before, now have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:6-16)

The goal of our faith is not miraculous power or worldly prosperity (so popular in our culture). The goal of our faith is the culmination of a love relationship with God and with all who share that pursuit. It's a goal achieved as the result of a relational process of time and faithfulness.

"Lord, please develop our spiritual sensibility so that we might know You more as we commit ourselves to loving, faithful obedience to You over time."

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Seeing the Invisible God (1)

Humility.

100 years ago, Albert Einstein had a faith crisis. He admitted that the complexity and organization of the universe implied a powerful and organized source at its origins. Ultimately, however, he couldn't get over the question: If God is real, then where is he? Einstein concluded that whatever this source was, it must be impersonal; for if a personal God truly existed then surely he would reveal himself to his creation, right?

2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus claimed to be one of three united persons making up the one person of "God". He said he came to take on humanity so that he might pay the consequences of human moral guilt and reconcile us to God. To reconcile is to reveal, to uncover a relationship that was lost.

John 14:19-26 … Jesus said, “Soon the world won’t see me but you will because you will be alive like me. In that day [when you have the Spirit] you will experience intimate unity with me and my Father. You who love me and so follow my words and obey them will receive my Father’s love and my own and I will reveal myself to you.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, why will you reveal yourself only to us and not to the rest of the world?”

Jesus replied, “Those who love me trust and follow me and so are open to my Father’s love so that we might come and live inside of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me rejects me and my words which are ultimately from the Father. Even now I'm speaking to you from the Father who sent me while I'm still with you; but when the Father sends the Holy Spirit he will speak to you and explain everything I'm saying.”

Where is God? He is hidden behind the wall of our loveless, arrogant, independence. He is concealed by our pride that will not submit to such exhortations as "obey me" and "follow me". As we swim in the muck of our self-destructive ambition, God stands in the bordering meadow, inviting us home, reaching out his hand that we might simply grasp it, be cleansed, and discover what we have shut ourselves off from.

God loves those who open up to his love. God reveals himself to those who allow him to be revealed. God becomes visible to those focus their attention on him.

Is it hard to understand? The prodigal son could not see the father not because the father had gone but because the son had run away. The father remained waiting at the gate, full of love, eager to welcome his lost son home. Would you not do the same? God waits at home, at our home, the home we left... calling us back to it. Back to himself. He reveals himself, in Spirit, to those who respond to that homecoming call. To lost children who recognize themselves as just that... children.

"Unless you change and become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 18:3).

"Lord, please make us open and humble through Your Spirit's help... that we may be the children we are."
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What Is Ministry?

A great discussion is happening on this question over at "kingdom grace". Check it out!
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Psalm 139

O God,
... You have searched and known me.

You are mindful of my thoughts even from far away,
examining my journey and my rest,
intimately aware of all my ways.
You know my whole heart ...
... even before I speak a single word.

You are all around me, covering me behind and before ...
... and laying Your hand over me.

Such intimate knowledge is beyond me!

Where could I go from Your Spirit?
Where could I flee from Your presence?
Whether I am in heaven or the nether world,
in the glory of the dawn or hiding in the depths of the sea,
You are there ... leading me with Your faithful hand.

You even see my darkest fears and You overcome them all
because You value me as one of Your wonderful works.
You created me fearfully and wonderfully
and my soul knows it!

Everything I am is totally from You.

You knew me even before I existed.

I long ...
to know Your precious thoughts
... even though they overwhelm me.

I long ...
to know Your nearness.

I long ...
for You to cleanse this world and my own person
of things that oppose You.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my many thoughts.

See if there is any hurtful way.

And lead me in the way that lasts forever.

"Abba, I ask that You make us to know You much, much more. Please reveal Yourself to Ben & Dierdre as You provide him with the best job for this season. Please reveal Yourself to Dave & Pam by giving them new revelation into Your desire for their experience, life and ministry. Reveal Yourself to Dawn by liberating her from her setting past into her rising present. Reveal Yourself to Brandon with strength to overcome. Reveal Yourself to Jeremy & Emily by restoring new hope and uniting it with a clear and compelling vision from Your heart to theirs. Reveal Yourself to Grant & Christianne through wisdom in where to go and through Your abundant provision of new community and new life for them. Reveal Yourself to James & Casey by breathing new, utter, life-giving, soul-uniting surrender into both of them. Reveal Yourself to Aleta by providing deep and mutually life-giving female community. Reveal Yourself to me by showing us where to move and partner with. We all long Lord God, for You and the life You created us for. We are knocking and we will not stop. We are waiting and we will not relent. We are seeking and we cannot turn away. Please, please, please... do not ignore us. Do not leave us as orphans. Do not abandon us. Do not disappoint us. Be who You are. Do what You do. Not seeing from afar but near and involved, opening our eyes to see Your hand all around us. We need You, Abba, like oxygen. Holy Spirit, pray for us with tears more bitter and sweet than we can make. Pour them all out on the feet of the One we worship...

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