This is the first time in a year that I have blogged.
It has been a deep year. I am not sure how else to put it. I think the Father tucked me away in the shadows as he did some pretty weighty work in me. It was not an easy time but I trust the Father. I guess he knew what he was doing. If he can still use an "old crusty" like me, then I am most certainly available.
This blog was actually born two years ago, this month. There is a story in the bible about the rabbi Jesus, his 12 apprentices, a fig tree and a mountain. It is a simple story, yet the more I reflected on it simplicity, the more captivating it became.
Amidst the many various ways one can teach this text, what if a major component looks like this: Jesus wants to eat from the fig tree, but there is no fruit. This is just too great a moment for him to teach his apprentices (I do like that word).
My read on this account (Matt 21:18 - 22; Mark 11:12 - 25) had an air of empowering faith... Don't keep looking for last season's fruit, it is done. It completed its assignment. Turn around, look at the mountain I am placing before you...and speak to it...nope don't look at it. Speak to it! "Have faith in God...speak to the mountain ...believe and forgive" Mark 11: 22 - 25.
That was the textual catapult that empowered Meryl and I to partner together to get her to complete her Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. That was her mountain. As a grandma who had not formally studied for 32 years, she went back to university. That is what she had to face and speak to every day. That was her mountain. That was where she had to lay her doubts and moments of vulnerability down. We kept saying to each other..."this was God's idea, so He will get you through"
It has been a journey of faith rediscovered. A deeper faith, a bigger mountain, a great challenge, but it was his idea.
This blog series will journey you through a review of the wonder and catalytic nature of faith. "The just shall live by faith" was not simply a reformational revelation. It is the daily reality of each Jesus follower, where the Father places us in assignments beyond our wildest dreams and natural abilities.
