Hidden Lamps

How has Yahweh called and gifted you - and what are you doing with it? Stories and warnings abound throughout scripture about people whom Yahweh has called and whom initially respond and then, for whatever reason, walk away, turn their back, refuse obedience to the call. Jesus (who, by the way and in case you were unaware is Yahweh) even speaks to this in Matthew 21:31 and following where two sons are asked to go and work in the field. Still others may fall into complacency, others allow the enemy of our souls to distract us, life situations not grieved well or resentments or a laundry list of things that make our surrendered life about us and turn us from our call - and we hide our lamps under a bushel basket. We have been given much, and so much is required of us and what do we do with it? If we refuse to walk in the call, we will have it taken from us. I am going to walk through several blogs about what I believe God is speaking through several images from scripture.

There was a man named Saul, and when the people clamored for a king refusing Yahweh as their king, the Lord had the prophet Samuel anoint Saul as king to lead over Israel. Saul began the work well, but faltered, and it wasn’t about his behavior, it was about who held the throne of Saul’s heart. In truth it was Saul’s failure to follow the commands and leadership of Yahweh, he took matters into his own hands. It was Saul forgetting who was really the strength of Israel. He became as bad as the people who clamored for a king in believing that it was he who was the true king over Israel. Power went to his heart. Samuel says to him “But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.” (1Sam 13:14 - NIV) In chapter 15, we see Saul directly disobey Yahweh’s command through the prophet Samuel. Saul has the kingdom ripped from his hands not because of what he did but because of his disobedience of heart. It is here we find the oft quoted scripture “to obey is better than sacrifice” as Saul tries to deflect responsibility by claiming that he just did it to offer a pleasing sacrifice - as if Yahweh was incapable of seeing past that and into Saul’s heart. In 15:12 we see that Saul has set up a monument “in his own honor.” Even in his “repentance” Saul’s heart shows through: “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel...” (1Sam. 15:30 - my emphasis). Saul recognized his own skills and forgot who they were from and for what purpose, to glorify Yahweh not Saul. Saul forgot who it was about, and it broke the heart of Yahweh. The broken heart of God, however, did not keep Yahweh from carrying out his own plan for his people. There are consequences to rebellion. He removed the blessing and from one whose heart was not aligned with his, and he called another. As one lamp was hidden, God set another one on the hill.

How does this strike you? Where are your gifts? Are you allowing anything to keep you from glorifying Yahweh? How is your heart?

Next time: The next lamp - David

Proving God?

I am a Biology teacher. I am a Worship Pastor. Its amazing how many people think these are mutually exclusive terms. "Do you believe in evolution or do you believe in creation, or is it intelligent design?” I get questions like this all the time. Lots of times I want to answer like Jesus did: “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine” then ask them why they don’t demonstrably care for the poor and oppressed in society. You see, that’s the rub. We spend so much time arguing points that don’t matter and we lose sight of what Jesus really wants - for us to have honest relationship with him and to behave like we are part of his family, and I don’t mean to rebel and be the black sheep of it or to be a spoiled little brat who wants everything our way. The Bible was never intended to be a science book. Is there science in it, yes; there is more history than there is science, but its not even a history book. Certainly poetry abounds in the Older Testament, and those books are intended to be poetry, but it is poetry about Yahweh and His activity in our lives. My biology texts locate scientists in time and geographically, but it is neither a history nor a humanities book. Do I believe in evolution? That’s not the question for a scientist. The question is do I have empirical evidence enough to support something or not - its not about belief, its about evidence. I could go into a long diatribe about how evolution is simply the shift in allele frequencies within a population, and that we have real world proof of that, and that the whole speciation argument is not as clean, but that’s not the point. Don’t hear me saying I don’t believe scripture, you’d be way off base there. I could argue science and scripture all day long, but that won’t change anybody’s mind, and that is the point. We need to learn the lessons of scripture as God intended - and those lessons are not found in natural science.

I want to preface this paragraph with the understanding that I am not arguing either side of a literal or figurative reading of the following stories, I am proposing what I believe are more important issues. Take Adam and Eve: in my humble opinion, this is way more about how a loving God acted to have relationship with us and how we chose our own way. By choosing to be "like God," we really messed up life in paradise. It is way more about how God restored relationship than it is about dust and ribs. It is also about how, even at the earliest of our choices of disobedience, God redeemed, in a highly prophetic manner, and by that kept us from bondage to ourselves and to sin in the garden, guiding us to the worship of Him instead of ourselves. Was the Exodus story more about plagues and miracles or about God freeing his people from bondage and oppression - and giving us the option of worshipping Him? The "why" is more important than the "how." Follow Exodus with story after story of us believing we were “god enough” and doing things our ways, ignoring Him. The story turns to God intervening when we chose his way instead of our own and once again, you guessed it, freeing us from our self imposed bondage and into life and freedom in Him. Even when Yahweh applied discipline to His rebellious children, He had already provided the redemption. Yahweh or Yeshua, the story is the same because the God is the same. God loves us enough to let us choose, though He may discipline us when we need it, but it is always His sacrifice that provides a way for redemption and restoration into positive relationship with Him. So is scripture about plagues and miracles, of history and poetry, of Arks and fire from on high? Well, yes - and no.

We do not need the Bible to tell us THAT God is, rather we need it to tell us WHO God is and that He has done everything, even in light of our obstinance,  to have relationship with us. I do not believe God cares if we can “prove” Him or not, I think if we could prove He exists or that He doesn’t, someone would already have done so. The intent of scripture has never been to reason God’s existence to us, but to reveal His desire for relationship with us.

Upward Prayer

"God doesn't hear us because we are obedient, He hears us because of the Atonement."

- Oswald Chambers   

How many times does our prayer seem like a "Honey do" list that we present to God? We dump all of our cares down before God and say "You do it!" Then we immediately have 17 different reasons why God won't answer. "I haven't been that obedient lately, why should he care?" or "If I'd do this or act like that, then God will..." It doesn't take much effort to see that this kind of thinking puts the responsibility for answered prayer in our hands - how foolish is that? If we could have handled those things on our own, would we have brought it to God in the first place? This kind of prayer is what gets us put off with God because it isn't about Him - its about us. The problem with this is that, while God wants us to bring our intercession to Him, prayer should be more about deepening our intimacy with Him, to receive more of His revelation for us.

When we pray in intimacy with God, our prayer direction is changed - it goes upward instead of inward. When Chambers talks about intimacy, he speaks to “Your will be done.” We must not say this in depressed resignation that nothing we can say will change things in any way, that we are beholden to a capricious master who will do what He wants no matter what. Instead, it is about submission, not in defeat, but in a true understanding of His right grasp of all that we speak about and our limited understanding. God raises each of us up for His purpose, and through intimate prayer we learn what His purposes are more clearly.  “The difficulty with the majority of us is that we will not seek to apprehend the vision; we get glimpses of it and then we leave it alone.” Rather, we need to pursue God in His vision so that we may truly grasp what it is He has for us to be and to do. 

As a leader, without fully understanding His vision, how can I bring others to that vision? I can’t, so I need to pray, to pay attention. When I first sensed that God wanted me to begin leading our church into prophetic worship, I understood that much, then I left it alone. Maybe I was too busy doing the week to week work of worship that I neglected the vision. Chambers says “Interest is natural, attention must be by effort.” I need to take the time to truly pay attention and so gain more fully the mind of Christ here.

A Cunning Avoidance

To preface this blog, I realize it has been nearly a year since I last posted a blog. Frequently I have gone long periods between writing and then apologized for my lack of postings. I was in Chicago this January for a class and during that time we did an activity that, to make a long story short, made me aware that I am urged to write when I have been more fully and intimately engaged with God. The last year or so has been hectic and I have been remiss in creating intentional time to take sabbath time but have had my life filled with stress and busy-ness. I realized that while I don't journal my thoughts as such, I am inspired to write in blog form when I feel God is speaking to and through me. I have been guilty of being so engaged in activity, both in the church and in my teaching that it may have become "...a cunning avoidance of spiritual concentration in intercession." (Chambers) Of course it is not intentional, but the impact has been the same. And so I return with the following blog.