The word “zimzum” originates in discussions about creation by some Rabbi’s from a long time ago. It is not necessarily a biblical concept, rather it is a means of explaining how and why a God who is everything prior to creation, creates something and then chooses to live in it. It has to do with the idea that God contracted/restricted himself in order to have relationship with creation. As some have said, “first there was God and nothing else, then God contracts and makes something new out of nothing.”

The very first act of creation is an act of love where God limits Self so something OTHER than God can exist and flourish. The world and human beings are created by a self-giving act of love, an act of hospitality.

Which one impacts your life more, the cross or the resurrection? Do you look at yourself and relate to God as the reason Jesus died or the one who was given life?

Don't just blow this off and say, "both". Most of us have a primary lens through which we view ourselves in relation to God and God in relation to us. If your primary mode is that you see yourself as a desperate sinner in the hands of an angry God, you will function different than if you see yourself as a resurrected one in the hands of a loving God.

Like many others, I grew up celebrating Palm Sunday by making some "palm-like" craft and having a processional through the church. We waived our paper branches and sang some silly hosanna song.

The emphasis was on those that "worshipped" Jesus as he made his way into Jerusalem, so we would do likewise and sing songs of worship.

Is that really what was taking place? Was this a worship gathering or a political protest against Rome? Was it a celebration of Jesus, or a shout for liberation by a miracle worker with uncanny powers?

How many of you went to high school or college where (when) they still had a baccalaureate service for the graduates? Did you go? If so, do you remember what the message was about?

My wife and I do. We both graduated high school in 1979 and the speaker, Pastor Dave Erickson, made a very simple point. "You may get what you want, but you may not like what you get, if you leave God out of your life." It was perfect!

You may get what you want.... Do you know what that is?

One of the great restoration promises of the Bible has to do with the replacement of mourning with something else.

Jer. 31, Is. 61, Is. 51, Eccl. 3:4, Ps. 30, Jn. 16:20, 1 Thess. 4:13-14, Rev. 21:4

It is a great comfort that someday, the mourning will go away, but is that all that we have to look forward to? Someday? What about now? What do we do with the mourning that is taking place in our lives right now?

Have you ever been tempted to never trust again? Someone hurt you or a bunch of somone's did you wrong and your response was to close your heart to trusting. What about those times when your hurt is with God?

Lent is a time of exchanges. One of the most powerful of those exchanges is beauty for ashes.

I’ll never forget being in Pasadena in 1980. I was 18 and doing a Discipleship Training School with YWAM. Every week on a certain day, they would require us to fast a meal. It must have been dinner, because a couple of the other young guys and I would head down to the In n Out at lunch time and eat as much as we could so that we could “fast” dinner. That was my kind of fasting and that’s kindof what Mardi Gras is. :)

Over the past 20 years or so, Lent has begun to take on some different meanings for me, and more recently, I have been thinking a lot about the contrasts and challenges that we are faced with in the Bible and as Christ followers in the 21st century, especially here in Cascadia.

If I were to try to summarize the “why”, I would say that in Jesus, the past work of God in Israel and the future plan of God for people, came together. For the early followers, “why” was the reality that their future hope of deliverance could actually be a present experience of freedom regardless of whether or not the circumstances changed. That some were healed and delivered in front of their eyes, was assurance that the present could experience the future.

These timelines; past, present and future, could be summarized with three words that begin with "R": Rescue, Redemption and Reconciliation. These three create the mission of God for the whole world, summarize the work of Jesus and provide us with the framework of our mission in the world.

Due to the shortened discussion last week, we decided to continue on with the theme of "Why" for another week. Listen to both, and ask yourself why you are or are not a follower of Jesus.

One of the most powerful Ted Talks I have ever listened to, is the one by Simon Sinek titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”. Some of you may know it as the “Golden Circle”.

In contrast, possibly one of the greatest missing pieces from the contemporary presentation of the gospel, has to do with this concept. Why? Why would anyone want to follow Jesus? Why did Jesus think people should follow him? What was the belief, cause, purpose and mission? What is worth the cost that people would have to pay?