Joel, Author at Joel Bidderman

Josh 4: Stacking Stones

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00July 25th, 2011|Abandonment, memories, Stacking Stones|

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, "Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, 'Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.'" Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you [...]

Trust, Part Four: of transcendence and immanence

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00July 10th, 2011|Manning, trust|

Manning wrote in Ruthless Trust (2000):...We can no more catch a hurricane in a shrimp net or Niagara Falls in a coffee cup then we can grasp the infinity of God's reality. A one-sided focus on his Otherness reduces the Holy One to a cosmic observer, a distant outsider disengaged from the yaw and pitch of human struggle.Immanence is not the opposite of transcendence but its correlative, immanence and transcendence are two sides of the same coin, two facets of the same divine reality. Transcendence means that God cannot be confined to the world, that he is never this rather than that, here rather than there. Immanence, on the other hand, means that God is wholly involved with us, [...]

Trust, Part Three: the waiting factor

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00June 24th, 2011|discipleship, prayer, trust, Waiting|

I know that I'm in the middle of a series on "trust," but since the topic is pretty much synonymous, I decided to include this bit on "waiting." I wrote the following article for a prayer site that I've been developing:Waiting is something synonymous with being human, and something that has been a muse for my creativity for some time now. I actually wrote a song entitled “Waiting” that is on my CD Depravity, Grace and Reckless Abandon. The lyrics go:This road is dustyAnd it’s getting to my eyesSo that I can’t see where I’m goingOr even the time But I’ll trust in YouThough it feels hurtin’ to meAnd though I can’t see Job, Abraham and SarahWe could [...]

Trust, Part Two: the scars remain

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00June 22nd, 2011|Abandonment, Manning, trust|

The love of God is not a pastry - it is a meal. Or for that matter, perhaps it is the protein that makes up the food. While fame, money, self-reliance, or the many other things that we fill our lives with, may keep us going, they may substitute but cannot replace the building block for a healthy life. Sometimes western Christianity has a tendency to cast the vibe that the love of God is a garnish to an 'American Dream,' when it is so much more. Journeying beyond calorie induced metaphors, I sense more and more that the love of God is the very air that fills our lungs. Every moment is grace. Frederick Buechner [...]

Joel

About Joel

Josh 4: Stacking Stones

Trust, Part Four: of transcendence and immanence

Trust, Part Three: the waiting factor

Trust, Part Two: the scars remain