Christ prayed for you!!

It's Passion week - the time after Palm Sunday where Jesus is welcomed into Jerusalem to cheering, and before his crucifixion just days later. 

Just before his arrest, Jesus is distraught and retreats to the Garden to spend time with his disciples and alone in prayer.  The gospel of John records Jesus' prayers for them, and one of my favourite passages:  a prayer for all believers:

John 17: 20b-23 "I pray also for those who will believe in me through [my disciples'] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

At CCS, we believe that Christ was praying for us!  As we celebrate this unifying event for all Christians, we pray for increased unity going forward - that we may show the world God's love and good news!!!

Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!

Grace and Justice

During staff devotions this morning, we reflected for a few moments on the paradoxical intersection of justice and grace at the cross.  As we work through the daily difficult work of finding restoration and reconciliation in community when hurt occurs, this continues to strike a chord.  In a world that is hungry for 'justice' in the form of punishment, we find ourselves at the foot of the cross baffled that we do not bear the weight of our sin, but that Christ bore it for us.

Often I hear in Christian prayers "Lord, help us to be Christ to one another....".  This is a calling that none of us is able to fulfill, but to which we must continue to strive each day.  It's important that grace and forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration become a habit of our mind, heart, and body.  If we choose otherwise, we become a community of 'un-grace' - (a term I first encountered in Philip Yancey's "What's so Amazing about Grace").  

Yancey writes:  "That, at least, is the vision of the church in the New Testament: a colony of heaven in a hostile world. Dwight L. Moody said, "Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible; the ninety-nine will read the Christian." 

When the world encounters Covenant Christian School, what story will it read? Will it encounter a colony of heaven?  Thank God that we have the cross, where justice is intersected with grace to give us the strength to forgive and to restore!!!

Finish Well

Progress reports

Philippians 1:6-7a:  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace....

Our term two reports are coming home this week.  It's been a time of reflection for the teachers to look at what has happened in their learning communities over the past few months, and to look forward to finishing well.  For our grade 8 class, this is the second to last report of their elementary school career!

It is in a community of grace and encouragement that we look forward to finishing well.  A community of grace shares struggle together, and celebrates accomplishments together.  As you reflect with your child(ren) on their progress, keep in mind that the central purpose of the report card is to encourage growth in learning.    Develop a plan forward on how to finish well, how to challenge your kids in their learning, and how to encourage them and praise them for their efforts.  Parents magazine had a short but simple formula for setting goals with kids.  For a quick, but helpful read, have a look here: http://goo.gl/daO9BC (a few copies in the office if you wish)

One of the biggest challenges the spring holds is distraction.  As the weather warms up, new activities begin, and we look forward to all the summer holds. As a familial community of grace, keep celebrating the accomplishments your kids experience and stick to your plan to 'finishing well'.

Lent: road or intersection?

Lent is a difficult road... It is a road that we know ends well, and we live in hope of a risen saviour who pays for our sins.  It begins, though, with the acknowledgement of sin and of needing Christ.  The practice of 'giving up' something has its roots in meditation and focus on purification and enlightenment as we rededicate our lives in very real ways to Christ.

"Making things right" is a focus of reconciliation... "Reconciliation with God and forgiveness for our wrong-doings are major themes of Lent, but the focus during this season needn't be confined to our relationship with the Divine. In our heart of hearts, most of us yearn for a world where all human beings are reconciled to each other. We yearn for a healing of rifts, for lasting, deep-down, unshakeable shalom - Peace."  (taken from: http://goo.gl/iFRhzi)

Can we be productive when we continue to carry our burdens in the form of grudges?  Can we be productive when we continue to carry our burdens in the form of pain?

Taking hold of God's story becomes possible when we take hold of his forgiveness.  Taking hold of God's story becomes possible when we let go and forgive the wrong done to us.  Taking hold of God's story happens at the intersection of who God has made us to be, and the good works he has prepared in advance for us to do.  It's a cross-roads.  Perhaps lent isn't so much a road as an intersection.  

I pray for God's lasting, unshakable peace for you and for this learning community as we journey through the intersection of Lent.