Coming to Our Senses

"When he came to his senses... Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you."  Luke 15:17

OBSERVATION:
When he came to his senses he smelled stink, he saw a pig pen, he heard snorting and oinking, he felt... alone. A Jewish boy standing by a hog trough longing to eat what he saw them eating, but he couldn't even get any of that.
Up until this moment his senses were dulled by the deafening sound of... SELF. It was louder than anything else, more captivating then anything else, and more desirable than anything else. Self had led him to this day. Self had wanted what it wanted when it wanted it... NOW! No waiting, certainly no patience and not once ounce of self control. Self had said "if I get what I want, when I want it that will be...??? "well, self was not sure what would happen but Self still wanted it. It would be pleasing, it would take the edge off, it would satisfy?  But Self, left the boy in a place he would never consider being... alone with himself.

Sin will take us further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you can afford. And for this young son it had stripped him of all dignity and hope.

Except for one thing... the Father. There was hope there. And the son knew that at minimum he would do better than he was doing at the moment. Even as a slave in his father's house.

So, he practices his speech. It's reminiscent of Joseph when he ran away from Potiphar's wife..."I can not sin against my God nor my master Potiphar. In other words our sins not only offend God's laws but they hurt people. The son's repentance was clear. His understanding of what awaited him was not at all on his radar. That would be a surprise. A stealth grace bomb. All he knew is that he was leaving his stinky, messy, noisy, lonely place to go...HOME!

APPLICATION:
Wow. And double wow! Such grace demonstrated by the Father-- available to all who will repent and come home.
"O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

PRAYER:
Father Thank YOU, for the overwhelming measure of your welcoming grace. When we come to our senses and start back home YOU are on the road to welcome us the rest of the way in--- I love you!

myWillamette

40 Days of Love | Day Two | The First Day

I remember the first day I met my new brother. Veteran's Day 1977. Mom and Dad drove him home in our brown Honda Accord. Mom held him in the front seat. (car seats wouldn't become mandatory for a few more years).  He was wrapped up in a cotton blanket. And I couldn't wait to unwrap him... he was like the best present ever. I was more than excited.

I had been the youngest of 4 brothers. Being the baby of the family, I was "thumped upon" quite a lot. BUT on this day, November 11, 1977 the tide had turned. I was now the BIG brother. I could do some thumping of my own. At least I could, if I wanted to. But I didn't want to. I was overjoyed. I couldn't wait to play with him. I cherished him.

Perhaps no other calendar date is more emblazoned on my mind. It was on this day I started learning about love. I learned you could love someone you have never met, but somehow already knew. And that you didn't know when you started loving them or how it happened, but it felt good. Like the best decision you had ever made.

I had no way of knowing that first day's lesson would be written on the chalkboard of my heart and would never be erased. Ben was the recipient of my love. He hadn't done anything to earn it and he couldn't do anything to stop it. God's love is like that... only better!

More later.

VAN

40 Days of Love | Day One | Lessons on Love

On May 30, 2010 at 10:15 AM during our preservice prayer time I felt compelled to pray "Lord, get glory in this day." I remember I repeated it... "Lord, get glory in this day!" What I didn't realize was at that exact moment God was doing just what I was asking.

I was thinking about the next hour and a half that we would be in our worship service at Willamette. I was thinking about people worshipping God and hearing and responding to His word. I was thinking, praying and believing that those were the ways God would get glory. Yet at 10:15 AM on May 30, 2010, 600 miles away, God was getting getting glory.

2 Timothy 4:18 says "the Lord will bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever."

That's just what God did for my brother. He brought Ben safely home. He started that process at 10:15 AM when Ben had his first of two seizures. He answered my prayer in a way unexpected and frankly undesired. Ben died about a hour later. God got glory on May 30. How?  By proving how faithful He is in every situation. In fact for the 32 1/2 years previous, since that wonderful and yet dark day on November 11, 1977 when Ben was born, God has been getting glory.

Ben was my teacher. Though he was my baby brother with Down's Syndrome, he taught me about love. God's love. I want to reflect on these lessons over these next 40 days. Lessons on Love taught by God through Ben.
More later.
VAN

Why Portland has a port

I love this ad inside the C terminal at PDX. Makes me smile every time.

ONE: conversations on marriage

Intro Video for new series on Marriage.

For all you WCC Planning Center Online Peeps!

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Planning Center, now with Facebook Integration

September 22, 2009 at 9:47 am · Filed under Planning Center

We are very excited to introduce our newest feature, Facebook integration. For the past several months we have been learning about how to develop on top of the Facebook platform and thinking about the best way to do this integration. I am really happy with what we have come up with and I hope this helps your volunteers become more informed about when they will be serving. Let me go ahead and walk you through the integration process:

1.) Install the Planning Center Online Facebook App: You can install this by going to http://apps.facebook.com/planningcenter/ . We will shortly be adding a link to this from the Planning Center Online Dashboard & Schedule pages. Make sure you click “Allow”.

2.) Enter In Your Login Information: Enter in your e-mail address and password and we will link all accounts with that information to your Facebook Account.

3.) View Your Schedule: This will show you all the dates you have accepted or have pending plus all the times you are scheduled for. You can also accept and decline from within Facebook.

4.) Receive Facebook Notifications: Whenever you are scheduled to serve, a notification will appear to alert you.