Sorry about the down week--between a wedding/vacation in Colorado and team teaching my first grad class here in Nashville, we've been out of sorts. Here's a word on our series to end the summer: Grace Beyond Borders: Life in the Global Village. This completes a summer that has gradually looked further and further "out" in our vision for God's work in the world. We began focusing on God's work in the home and family. Then we streched to look at how God reveals his message in and not just to contemporary (American) culture and now we're ending with a look at how the grace of God is not just something to be received, but something that compels us to bring that hope to the farthest reaches of our world. As I heard John preach powerfully today about different places we might locate ourselves in Jonah chapter three, I can't help asking myself again and again, where is the surprising place "beyond borders" that God wants to send us to reveal his hope? Where is our Nineveh today?
Let me end by sharing from Mark Buchanan's challenging book, Your God is too Safe: "What is God mostly interested in? Strangely, anticlimatically, it has to do with concerns--with what our hearts fix on, with what stirs us in the depths and makes us rise to the heights. What are we concerned about? Is it what God is concerned about?. . . The last thing Jonah wants is for God's concrens to be his own. . . Jonah just wants to dwell on borderland, undisturbed and safe."
May God call us beyond safety, beyond our expectations, and beyond the borders to display his global grace in our world.
Dean
You can find the latest series at http://web.mac.com/woodmontwebcast/iWeb/Woodmont%20Webcast/Podcast/Podcast.html
3 comments:
Wow, College Hills was sure blessed by your words tonight, Dean. Thank you for the time you put into preparing - you were right on! I heard so many people saying that they really needed to hear what you had to say about calling.
Hi Dean,
I'll have to pass along some comments later; we got hit by lightning a couple weeks back and have been scrambling to repair (used our vacation to go appliance shopping, really.) Thoughts coming when I can get them down.
Thank you Amy, it was great. And, Melanie served your recipe for that wonderfully titled dessert this week when we visited with some friends. I loved hearing the story!
You guys are wonderful hosts. God bless,
-D
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