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. 

Do You Have Ears?

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:19-22

This week we head into what is known as "Holy Week" in the church. In some ways, what we remember this week is a microcosm of what I've been talking about in this series on Laodicea. As Laodicea may have seen it, there is the triumphal entry, some lag time, community time, then a turn, because things didn't turn out exactly how we thought. To Laodicea, the church that began well but then got distracted by their own goals and desires and perhaps the every day, finding that what they thought would match their ideals turned out not to, so they refused it; "We are rich and in need of nothing" (from God). God's reply to them, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire..."

But what does it look like from God's perspective? Jesus told the apostles to go get the donkey upon which he would enter the city. That should have been the first clue that Jesus was not what many wanted Him to be in this "triumphal" entry. You see, a donkey is a symbol of one who comes in peace. Had Jesus ridden in on a horse, now there would be the image they wanted. A horse was a symbol of a war won, a conquering hero. Still they lauded Him as a king, but they still held to their belief that Jesus would be the conqueror and not the redeemer/reconciler bringing peace. And then He did nothing. For days, nothing. So they turned back to their own needs and desires and wrote off God. But God did not write them off. He gave them one more time to understand, the last supper. In essence, He once again offered gold refined by fire, His body and blood, a sacrifice for redemption. Some of those who had spiritual ears heard, others heard and were unsure of what it meant, and Judas heard that this Jesus was not the one He wanted. "His Jesus" would have been something else. And so he refused. But God was not done. Through pain and suffering and death, he sacrificed Himself for us, and then completed the salvation event through His resurrection, His defeat of death. And He gave us the opportunity to be one with Him.


So wake up from your sleep, Laodicea! Though we rejected Him time and again, He still says to us: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock..." and even Laodicea has the chance to repent and return and join in the victory won over spiritual death and into life in community with our father, as victorious heirs: "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne..."

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Whitewashed Tombs

A few years ago on vacation, I entered First Mega-Church of the Love of Jesus and it was marvelous. Glass, lots of light, welcome center in the lobby (nobody came and greeted me, by the way) right across from the bookstore with posters of the pastor and his newest book release. Walking into the auditorium, I mean sanctuary, I took my seat up front. The music started, lights and sound were amazing. In fact, the worship team did everything "right,"  but there was something wrong with the sound. No, not the sound from the platform - that was fine. It was the sound from the congregation - or should I say the lack of it. It felt like a worship concert and not a worship service. It felt lifeless, like the congregation was going through the motions. It was, in fact, disturbing to me. There was no community prayer time, no attempt to connect the congregation. Follow that with another sermon about how "if you follow these steps, and here's how I support them from scripture..." and you have a very man-centered and not God centered experience. Where was the spirit? It was a cultural event, something we do because we were born in America between the '40's and the '70's.

A few months later, I was in another church with a membership of over 10,000. I walked in, and it looked very similar. There was a welcome center, and kiosks to tell of all of the small groups available, and I was greeted personally. I entered the sanctuary, referred to by the congregation as "the family room." Lighting, sound, platform, all the bells and whistles like the other church, even a cool follow spot that tracked an infrared device attached to the pastor's collar. They too "did it right." But something was very different -  the sound from the congregation was there - it was engaged, it was connected, it was worship! There was a prayer time for the community, not necessarily an altar call, but it included the option for people to respond to the movement of the Spirit - and the Spirit was moving.

So how does this connect to the title and to the series on Laodicea, the lukewarm church? Do not hear me saying that I am opposed to large churches, I am not. Its about what happens inside churches, large or small. Even ones that like the former one I described can be used by God as an entry point for new people, but it is about what happens after that. It should be fairly obvious if you "have ears to hear." You can look great on the outside, the trappings of worship can be there, but you can still be dead inside, Spiritless, powerless. It's not about what it looks like on the outside - it's what is happening on the inside, both on a church level and on a personal level. The Spirit does not come in, power is not unleashed because of appearances. It happens because people are connected, on a deep level, to their God. Here are two very  similar looking "Mega-Churches" but with dramatically different worship experiences. They both followed a model described by Sally Morgenthaller in her book "Worship Evangelism,"  but with a different slant. The service was not necessarily "Seeker Sensitive" in the second church, but very much so in the former. In the latter worship was focused on the movement of the Spirit in the family.

In a conference a few years ago, Sally announced that she was deconstructing her book because it wasn't really working. Then people argued with her about that - they were getting people in. But what were they doing with them? Its the whole milk vs. meat discussion:

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.

Heb. 5:12 NIV

Laodicean churches are milk-fed churches. Lukewarm comes easily from an entry level understanding of the scriptures yoked to long-time attendance. When the early movement of the Spirit wanes because people are not discipled well and they are distracted by the world's cares, and not focused on God; when church becomes a place to go and not a place to grow, when we put God into a compartment of our lives and do not make Him the center of our lives, we become lukewarm. The Word of God is still revolutionary, still rings out against the cultural sensitivity of our ears. When we back away from the message because we are afraid to make people uncomfortable, because we are afraid that we might be labeled "intolerant" where Scripture speaks against sin, because we fear we may lose people from the congregation, we water down the message and we become lukewarm. Its comfortable, but its powerless. 

God will not have His Word come back void, so He says that to be lukewarm, to be fence sitting "Christians" is to be spewed out. God is powerful, His Word is powerful, culture changing, not culture absorbing; And it goes way deeper than appearances.

At Ease, Church

The church in America today, at least the one most non-churched people see, is one of ease. It is a cultural construct, just something people do. It doesn't seem to have much impact in changing the life of the churched people that non-Christians have experienced. You go in, have a great light and music show, someone talks to you about how much better, more blessed that your life will be if you just follow these steps, and "oh, by the way, here are some verses from the Bible that happen to support my points." Then we go our way and live out the other segments of our lives - for we are rich and have need of nothing.

"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17 NIV)

And those to whom God would have us bring His word see right through us; So we lose the power to impact our world.

As I logged in to the blogspot this morning, I noticed the scripture verse of the day posted, it was Phillipians 1:29 (NIV)

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ 

not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him

So what does "suffering" look like? The aesetics took it literally and deprived themselves of pretty much everything. I believe that, taken in the context of Phillipians, suffering means that we stand firm in the Gospel, no matter how we are opposed. For us in America today, there is not much in the way of physical opposition, but rather it is and intellectual or societal opposition. So how do we stand? Do we stand by the Gospel or do we become "tolerant" of things that scripture speaks against so that we don't ruffle any feathers and are considered enlightened? God has always been God and has not changed His commands in our lives, though it is not about the rules but about right relationship with Him. Today we struggle with that, we want it both ways, we want the benefits without the submission to the one who gives us the blessings. This is not a new issue. On Sunday mornings we are studying Hosea. It is odd that, as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. In Hosea 10:2, scripture says "their heart is deceitful." The Hebrew word translated deceitful is hlq or halaq. This word can mean both smooth, as in a smooth talker, or divided, not being of one heart or mind. It's a really long story, Hosea is, but very informative for where we are today. God's people wanted both Yahweh and Baal, in fact, they called Baal, "Baal-Yahweh." And you wonder why God is so hard on adultery? But that's another story. In the words of Pastor Win, they wanted the blessing but not the blesser. 

So do we. we want the benefits without the commitment to be who God asks us to be. Just in case you wondered, God doesn't want us to be "rule followers" first, He wants us to be Yahweh followers. Israel, and religions ever since, have tried to boil God down to following rules, which is both easier and impossible at the same time. It's easier because we can feel if we can balance enough obedient behaviors against our disobedience we can feel good - even superior. It's impossible because we can never meet all of the rules (hence the need for a savior?) - and so it has to be about relationship, not rules, and relationships are hard. We divide our hearts still, we compartmentalize our faith to Sunday and Wednesday, and then we have the rest of our lives to live "normally." We become Laodicea because we want it both ways. We want the blessing without the blesser. We want to feel good, because that's what our world tells us we want. In the words of Paul to the Phillipians though, we need to take a stand for the Gospel:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved - and that by God. (Phil. 1:28-29 NIV)

So instead of "Church, at ease" with little to no impact, we need to be "Church at attention," focused, undivided, one in the Spirit. Then, instead of lukewarm impotence, we'll have the hot potency in Yahweh that changes the world.

To the Church in Laodicea - Today

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

   These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

If we take a good look at the church in America today, you may be left with a feeling of "Uh, oh well." The Church seems to have no power today. Perhaps there is a reason for that - we are impotent because we are more ours than God's. We reshape the Word to be our words. We use scripture to support our own notions, we have created a Christian self-help message, supporting our ideas with quotes out of the Bible. Dilute God's Word and then question where the power is? Hmmm... it doesn't take Lloyd John Ogilvie to figure that out.

The next few blogs will take a look at this topic. I don't believe all of the church is here, but it does seem to be a major problem. By the way, a church does not have to look lukewarm to be lukewarm. Some of the most vibrant, high energy congregations still do not remain faithful to God's revealed word. For many, it is more important to attract people and keep them than to take people from milk to meat. So, we'll get a bit more specific in the next few spots. Stay tuned - and respond or question if you like - make it a discourse. I'm in - are you?

IM or I AM?

Have you noticed an interesting phenomenon that is occurring in our churches on Sunday morning? I'm talking about an electronic one. 3G, 4G, 5G, many people are using Kindle, Nook, various apps and internet weblinks to follow along during the worship service. Some congregations have begun to notice and address this issue. We discuss whether or not this is a positive development: Does this enhance or detract from our "worship experience?" Probably the answer is "It depends."

When I am listening to a sermon, I frequently find myself looking forward and backward in the bible, contextualizing the passage being dealt with, following references and the like and honestly, sometimes following rabbit trails that come up. I can't help it, I think that the Bible is pretty cool, but I am, at that point, distracted from the message the pastor is giving. Is that different from the distraction of the electronic device? I don't think so, at least in the case of a person using the device for the Bible app or concordance or commentary features. But what if it's being used for something else?

Last Sunday, as I moved through the congregation to get a note out to the worship team, I noticed several people using their electronic devices to access social media, or text, or check email and I thought "Seriously? Can you not stay with me one hour?" Are we in our churches on Sundays to be with the One God, to focus our lives for a short time solely on Him, or has our outside world interrupted that as well? Even when we are perusing the Bible separate from the sermon, it would appear we are still engaging with God. With whom are we engaging when we are on facebook? I haven't seen a home page for the Triune God. The enemy would love to distract us, to pull us from our attention to God and place the attention on other things, specifically on ourselves. In the movie The Fighting Temptations when Cuba Gooding's phone goes off in the sanctuary, the pastor remarks "Son, if that ain't Jesus calling, shut it off..." When do we take that approach? How do we address this issue?

I am all for the positive, effective use of electronic media. It is a part of our world, we effectively use technology to enhance worship. The technology itself is benign, it's the application that concerns me. Our world distracts and inundates us every day of the week. We are "connected" constantly. Don't you wish sometimes at work you could have a "no email" day? Why do we have to bring that to our places of worship? I think that we could at least take the time we are worshipping and commit our focus for even that brief time on the God who gave all for us. So what is it - IM or I AM?

The God in Me

Okay, so the title may be a little misleading, but in writing they say you need a hook. Really, I want to talk about self-centered “faith.” This week I had several conversations with people that included phrases such as “Well, it’s working for me...” or “The way I see it...” or “I feel that..” and then go on to describe how they can twist who God is to suit their particular needs or current place in life. I call that a “god of my own making.” By the way, I’m not talking about non-believers here, and it’s not a new problem. Historically, God’s people have made excuses, set our own agendas, tolerated sin because God’s word seemed a little intolerant about it, put our own rules in, applied our own slant, and so forth. We have tried to make God fit our system of beliefs, based on “what works for me.” The problem is, we are not God, so what works for me, where it conflicts with the Word of God as it is written, cannot be truth.

Let’s start with the easiest one: “I feel...” Stop right there. Feelings lie. That’s the truth of it. As I have said in other blogs, perception is NOT reality, reality is reality. Our feelings frequently get in the way of truth. That’s why text messaging can become the source of arguments. We read emotion and intent into the message we receive based on our immediate circumstance, emotional state, perception of the words, etc. Feelings are just that, feelings and, devoid of comparison with truth, relevant data, information, they lie! “I feel” is self centered. “I believe,” when based on evidence, is another matter and perhaps another blog.

In my everyday job, I am a science person. I know research, I know what makes good research and what makes poor research, and I know when research is setting out to prove a pre-conceived notion. A friend shared with me some, what I will loosely call research, which they said supports their new belief system about who Jesus is - I won’t go into those details here. The problem is, scientifically speaking, and they were purported to be science, these studies were filled with fatal flaws. No peer reviewed scientific journals would print the studies because they had so many errors in design, implementation and analysis. Yet these were being used to convince people of who Jesus really is - that if we can get past things in our mind, we can be the Jesus we need. Really? Is that what scripture says, in essence, that we can be God? Then why did Jesus show up on the scene? I thought it was because I was trying to be God and couldn’t, or trying to get there on my own and, again, couldn’t.

In chapter 3 of his book The Blue Parakeet, Scot McKnight talks about the puzzlers - those people who read the Bible as if it were a puzzle, if we put all the pieces together, then we will understand the mind of God. He discusses four basic problems with this, but in finality, the puzzle that we piece together is fraught with error and in the end, “my puzzle is not the puzzle of anyone’s in the Bible. It is my puzzle, not the Bible’s.” So, the “way I see it,” has its basis more in me than in the reality of God. It is difficult to read scripture without filters, because we are human, but we need to be keenly aware of it when we do apply those filters. Are our thoughts consistent within the context of the Word, is Holy Spirit guiding us, have we asked for that guidance, and are we listening?

A mantra of the Evangelical Covenant Church is “Where is it written.” This is our starting point. We need to read scripture as the story of God’s relationship with us, not as an explanation of God or a defense of a position or belief. We have to submit and take God on His terms, whether or not (and especially when not) it fits our system of belief. Until we do so, we will continue to be ineffective little gods of our own making.

Return

Well, It's been a long time since anyone found me here. It's been quite a year in my full time job at school. "Bi-Vocational" means I have a full time job as well as the pastoral one. This year I have given up coaching girls' soccer so that I could spend more time with the ministry. As the girls' season is just around the corner, I will use the time off to study, meet with people and prepare for worship. And I'll return to the blog business where I reflect on things I am learning, and talk about things I believe God wants me to say. Look for regular postings each week. The current plan is to write Saturday, but it may be sooner. See you here.

The First 2 Chapters

I have heard it said that the Bible was only supposed to be the first 2 chapters. It is in Chapter 3 of Genesis that everything "goes to hell in a hand-basket." Chapters one and two set things up as they were intended and then the rest of scripture is the story of repairing the damage done in chapter three.

Today I began my summer study. When school is out, I take a sort of sabbatical from that job and get to spend more time in my Worship Pastor role. This summer, I am studying Psalms, specifically how God's constancy and faithfulness is born out psalm by psalm. The psalmist frequently asks for protection and in the end of the same psalm, iterates how God has been, is or will be our refuge and salvation. That is the main focus, but today I noticed something else about Psalms 1 and 2; They set up the whole story. It is the story of God and His work. Here it is all laid out quite simply:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on His law he meditates day and night

If you read the rest of Psalm 1, you see that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will perish. If you try to place that in the here and now, it doesn't seem to be the case but, as the psalmists know, in the end, God will be true to His word. In Psalm 2, the psalmist lays out the next part of the story, one we experience all too frequently in the day to day lives of nations:

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together against the Lord

and against His anointed one.

As we continue reading, we find one of my favorite lines in Psalms:

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them

God laughs because He knows the vanity and insanity of their efforts. "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." God's already got it done, and the efforts of the feeble rulers of earth are of only passing interest. Once again, in the first two chapters of a book, God has set forth how it is going to be, no matter the efforts of the wicked to stop it. Picture the angry rantings of a four year old saying to his parents "I'm not going!" No matter how many stampings of his feet, no matter how many tantrums he throws, he is going. In my house growing up, I learned quickly that at best, these outburst only became a frustration for me, at worst, they ended in punishment, and I went anyway. So it is with God. His way is the way, and in the end, we will all go before Him.

So again God gives us a choice: We can be like a tree planted by streams of living water, thriving and plentiful, or we can choose to plot against the provider and attempt to have our own way, for a time, but we will all end up in the same place, before the One enthroned in heaven. At that point, I'd rather hear what is described in Psalm 2 verse 7:

He said to me "You are my son, today I have become your Father."

Ummm...Really?

Every knee shall bow,

Every tongue confess

God is love,

Love has come

For us all

-Really?

I was driving home tonight and I heard this song on the radio. It's about how life is filled with sorrow and pain, and that there will come a day when that will end. But when the artist plays the hook, he paints a picture of Christ returning through the clouds "...and in that moment.." then comes the chorus written above. Now, before I start sounding like a cranky old man telling kids to "get off my porch," I understand what he is saying through the song, God's love is for us all. But I think that when you place songs in front of the masses, you need to get it right:

Phil 2:5-12 (NIV)-

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father

¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose

The scripture referenced is not about love, it is about obedience, it is about judgement and working out your salvation in fear and trembling. You see, God already came as love. He did it in His Son, and in the Cross. Love came as sacrifice, and we now have the chance to choose. If we choose now, he will come for us, if we are still on the earth when he returns. So say that! Don't say that when He returns, He returns as love. Read Revelation 19:

¹¹I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

Does that sound like love? My issue is that we focus too often only on the attributes of God that make us feel good. Can we avoid this judgement? Absolutely. How? Respond to the love He offers now, that is how God has already come, as I said earlier. God is Love and Love has come for us all. But when the clouds split, we had better have made the choice already, for then it will be too late. As for me:

My knee has bowed

My tongue confessed

Jesus Christ is Lord

To the Glory of the Father

Prayer in the Theater

As a scuba diver, I have always been amazed at the richness of the colors, the diversity of life, the amazing creatures that God placed beneath the waves. I am also a bit dismayed at the condition we have allowed this piece of our superintendency to fall to, but that's for another time. John Calvin referred to the world as a "theater of God's glory." There is nothing in it that is left to chance. Most often, things work precisely in harmony as God intended, no matter our interference and the impact of our fall on His creation. As a scientist who studies things under the seas, I have seen such things as what is called "social foraging" in which two unrelated species travel together, one following another, one uncovering food for itself and in the process stirring up food for the other. I have also seen what we may consider the violence of predation, one species killing and eating another. There is beauty, and cooperation, there is sand - there is violence and conflict, there is mud; yet all of it is a part of the real world.

We are part of that same real world. We live in it, make our way in it, love in it, plan in it, experience pain in it, experience joy in it. Every part of this "theater of God's glory" carries His fingerprint. And so we live in this material reality, and it impacts us. Prayer also exists in this theater, and is every bit as real. In "Answering God," Peterson says it this way:

"....there is no prayer, real prayer, outside the theater. Dissociated from creation, prayer drifts into silly sentimentalism, or snobbish mysticism, or pious elitism.

....The Word did not become a good idea, or a numinous feeling, or a moral aspiration: the Word became flesh and then went on to change water into wine and wine into blood."

I think about the real grit of the psalms and of the psalmist. When I was young, I encountered the "heroes of the Bible" as just that; glorified men and women who rose above the everyday, seemingly above it all. But they were not. See David as he hides from Absalom his son, who instigated a coup and ran David off into the wilderness, the same wilderness in which David hid from Saul years before, fighting for his life. Consider David as he sinned and repented before God - he was no spotless lamb. He was, however, "a man after God's own heart." He was cold, he was hungry, he was dirty, he was scared. He rejoiced, he danced, he praised, he sang. No mere enlightened gnostic spiritual teacher, David was fully immersed in the physical, he was a "theater-goer." And he prayed like it. Many times he begged, pleaded, bargained, argued, complained, was dismayed and all was not always to his liking - and he said so to God. Yet each time, he seemingly went back to the same place - that God had it under control and David acquiesced to Him. Why? Because David knew who God was. How? Because he talked with God, he listened to God, he knew God's words, and he believed them. He walked with God from his youth, he prayed. David prayed in the context of the material, physical world in which he lived, and that is how we should do it. Prayer is never separate from our story, it is not a compartment of our life. Prayer is not a laundry list, it is a conversation, perhaps about the laundry, but a conversation none the less. Share your life in the theater with the One who created it, and then listen for His answer.

Get Small this Christmas

“They put their minds together to rid themselves of this word so that their words can rule.”

-Eugene H. Peterson

Answering God – The Psalms as Tools for Prayer

One of the nice things about this time of year is that I get to spend some focused time catching up on reading. The quote above comes from some of that reading and relates to Psalm 2, which reads:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and rulers

Gather together against the Lord

And against His Anointed One.

“Let us break their chains,” they say “and throw off their fetters.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Ps. 2:1-5 NIV

There are people in our world, and always have been, who would try to live lives apart from God, and to do so, actively plan how to discredit and diminish His words, so that their words rule over us. Removing “In God We Trust” from coins, trying to force public citizens to take down crosses displayed, doing their best to eliminate “Merry Christmas” in favor of “Happy Holidays” are only the latest in these plans. And God Laughs. He laughs because He knows that these “kings of earth” can only see a microcosm, and He is the entire Cosmos and beyond, so beyond there are not words to describe Him.

So God invades our realm, our small piece of His creative expression. In Psalm 2, Messiah is introduced. The word used in Psalm 2 for anointed is “Mashiyach” and simply means “anointed one.” This term is used in scripture repeatedly and is not strictly for Jesus of Nazareth. It is the same word used in 1 Chronicles 16:22 where it says “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” The prophets were also “Mashiyach.” I could go on here, but my point is this. God sent anointed after anointed to tell the people about Him and to try to restore broken relationship, to try to get those plotters to see a picture much larger than their own measly power allowed. In Mark, chapter 12, Jesus recounts that very story. The owner of the vineyard sends messenger after messenger, some are beaten, others killed, and then he sends his son, and they kill him too in hopes of getting the inheritance for themselves, "throwing off their fetters" as it were.

At Christmas, we remember that God sent us THE Anointed One, God presents Himself in the flesh. In His doing so, in the way of His doing so, He reduces the power of earthly kings to insignificant rhetoric. Without humbling themselves and accepting a baby, they and their kingdoms will come to nothing. Without acknowledging that their words are no match for His words, that their sphere of influence is far too small and His all encompassing, they will fade into insignificance. And that has been the way of things throughout history. Kings and kingdoms have come and gone, but the Word of the Lord, The Anointed One of Israel, the baby who came thousands of years ago still remains.

Christmas is the story of how God invaded our world, working from within its “smallness” to bring us to His limitless love. If we reduce ourselves, give up the petty control we think we have over things, God will lead us to a world beyond our imagining.

The wolf will live with the lamb,

The leopard will lie down with the goat,

The calf and the lion and the yearling together;

And a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6

Perception is NOT Reality

We live in a world of moral relativism. Truth is only truth if I see it as truth. Some things are not as evil as other things. I was on a website the other day on which people were defending the legalization of marijuana, and the common argument was that marijuana was “not as harmful as alcohol.” Did you ever think of this: the lesser of two evils is still evil! I am tired of hearing “perception is reality.” What a crock! Perception is not reality. Reality is reality, truth is truth, God is God and I am not! What does the last comment in that sentence have to do with the first two parts? When we determine what is true and what is real by our perception of it, we put ourselves in the place of God. We are now the supreme being, everything revolves around us – we are the center of the universe and people should spend their lives pleasing us. Now, I know there are many that do not believe God exists, but this seems to be relatively new. If we look back through world history, some research indicates there are fewer believers today than ever before. This, of course, makes sense. If we can eliminate God, society becomes more permissive, more self-centered than ever before. Not only do we not need God, we don’t want God, because that would displace us from our desired position.

Moral relativism is a consequence of extreme self-esteem. We are always right, what we want is penultimate, our perception of our world is all that matters. Narcissism is rampant in our culture of self-esteem. When self-esteem becomes the be all, end all of how we function, we wrap ourselves in self-love that excludes, by definition, placing the others in the forefront. How many times have you heard the phrase “you can’t love others before you love yourself” or “if you don’t take care of you, no one else will?” This is totally backward. If we all spend our time loving and taking care of ourselves, when do we reach out in relationship and in love and take care of others? It doesn’t happen. Protectionism, entitlement, self determination and “Manifest Destiny” do not work in our world on a political, world level, why should we expect it to be true on an individual level?

We love because God first loved us. That is our example, we have it backwards. God loved us before we even knew who He was. I know someone who said that they never understood what love was until they loved in a situation in which there was no way the object of their love had the ability to love back. What a great lesson! Can we do anything for God to deserve His love? I don’t think so! Yet He loves us anyway. If we spend all of our time loving ourselves or loving others only when we get something out of it, we miss the point of love itself. We give because we love, not because we get. If we act like we love, if we do loving things and expect to get something out of it then it is not love, it is selfishness. If we put ourselves first, we are always asking for more, and resentment builds because we didn’t get what we expect, what we believe we deserve (there’s that entitlement thing), and the relationship breaks down. When people in a true loving relationship submit themselves to each other, give selflessly, there is mutuality in love. People in that sort of relationship get because both give without consideration of self. When we get it right, everyone gets loved. For God so loved….

Change the World

I recently received an e-mail from a friend that I felt the need to respond to and then as I wrote, realized that this message was not just for them. The context was one in which the person was calling for us to "move to a nobler goal - the ascension of humanity to a level of moral and ethical behavior based on love, trust and respect." These are truly noble goals, ones we should aspire to, yet when placed in a context outside of Christ, are impossible. So here follows my response:

"Most importantly, and you need to hear this from my heart, we will NEVER ascend to nobility as a race until we bow the knee to Christ. If I said otherwise to you, I would be hypocritical. If you hear me judging other religions, okay, but that's not what I'm saying here. Human beings have long proven their inability to rise above themselves as a race. I have seen evils done by ALL religions, and that is not the issue, or maybe it is. The issue is personal rather than societal or corporate or an organizational one as many religions (and by this hear organizations, not faith systems) have made it. Unless I bow my knee to Christ, then I have set myself up as my own god. The problem with self-made men, I've heard it said, is that we tend to worship our maker. I make a pretty weak god. Jesus never said come to me and hate everyone else. He did say I am THE way, THE truth and THE life, NO MAN comes to the Father but by me. Jesus never set up an organized religion, yet He held to the truth. The warnings about failing to bow the knee are both 'prescriptive' and 'descriptive.' In other words, they are not just a warning of judgment, they are also a warning of the consequences of our decisions. I have seen the impacts of this regularly. For example, in our local church we have many people in recovery, and I have rarely seen someone truly freed from the power of their addictions without turning to Christ and submitting their lives to Him. They have tried to place many things in that place as their higher power as it says in the 12 step programs, but nothing, not even self denial, has brought them the freedom that Christ does. When we submit ourselves to Christ, we get freedom. That submission does not come from praying a prayer, from joining a church, from submitting to worldly authority (though in its proper context, that too is important), it comes from submitting our lives to Christ. Christians who fail to act in areas of social injustice need growth. Scripture abounds with areas in which God tells us this. I have, however, begun to learn something that is new to me - mercy. One of my spiritual gifts is prophecy (not fore-telling, but 'forth'-telling). I have in the past been very quick to use that as a hammer to stamp out wrongs. I am learning, however, that all this does is attempt to destroy the bad without building anything life-giving. Part of what I am learning now is that social justice is more than undoing the evils - it is much more about showing mercy. The propet Micah says 'Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God' He doesn't just end with the 'do justice' part - mercy and humility are crucial to the true righting of wrongs. But I ramble here. Bottom line, the only way for us as arace to rise to true nobility is to fall from the pedestals of ourselves and submit to Jesus Christ. Only in this way will reform ever happen. And it doesn't happen on a national level first, never has, never will. It has to happen on an individual level."

"Over the years you have asked me to pray for you, your family, situations, and I have. But I have always wondered who you wanted me to pray to - Allah, Buddha, my ancestors, or Jesus. I have, or course, prayed to the One God - and I have prayed that you and yours would come to a saving knowledge of Him - I pray that now. Why am I responding to you in this way now, well, I'm not exactly sure, except that yesterday I challenged the church to talk openly about their faith more, not to hide it, to tell people the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and so your e-mail came perhaps as a divine appointment for me."

That was my response. We often hear calls that people, nations, or the world needs to change, to become better. The truth is that this will never happen without Christ. There may be people who read this and disagree, but what evidence do we have to show that people, left to themselves, can do it? This type of change can only come from the One God, working through those fully submitted to Him. That, after all, is the point. Jesus came to free us from ourselves, our sins and our weak attempts to rightly handle things with ourselves on the throne. He restores with justice, with mercy, and with grace. Who of us can do the same without Him?

Humility.... or Upside-Down Pride?

Have you ever heard people talk about "gentling" a horse? When you do that, you take the unharnessed, uncontrolled power of a horse and rein it in (excuse the pun). The horse is now strength under control, which, strangely enough, is how humility is often defined. When a horse is gentled, it does not lose its power, it does not lose its confidence. Imagine a horse, under saddle, thinking "Oh my, I can't do that little jump anymore because it might be misinterpreted as arrogance." or a quarterhorse after a win saying that it was all the jockey, but thanks. Yet this is what we are taught as humans, that if we show confidence, we are arrogant. Arrogance is not thinking more of yourself, it is thinking less of others. I once coached a soccer team that believed, every time out, that they were going to win. Now, they understood that in order to do so, they had to play to their potential and work hard, but they knew they were gifted enough to be successful. This is confidence, not arrogance, and something that is very hard to achieve in high school athletes. Some of the parents, however, came to me worried that the team was arrogant. We never belittled an opponent, never took anyone lightly, we just went out and took care of business.

In the church, I often see a false humility in people that does not honor who God made them to be. False humility does not point to God, but points to our weakness and thus, in my mind, is what I call "upside down pride." I personally have had a hard time taking compliments, but I am getting better at it. You see, if you frame your gifts as God has given them, you should have confidence in yourself and in what you were built for. I, for example, believe that I am an average guitar player, an average vocalist, and I am certainly not a detailed planning person. These seem to be things you need to be a successful worship pastor. I think that this is an accurate assessment of my skills. God, however, dealt with me on this issue several years ago showing me that the soft heart He gave me, the training I had through choirs, musicals, drama, band, even the Corps of Cadets at Texas A & M, were all part and parcel to getting me to the point at which I could not just lead His people in worship, but also pastor. For me, it is not so much the effect of one or two amazing gifts, but the combination of many smaller ones that is my strength. So I have been successful in leading worship and pastoring, and I feel comfortable doing it, like that is what I was made for. Too many people dishonor God by dishonoring their giftedness through false humility. You know; "Well, thanks, but...." and then breaking down why they should not have been complimented, or "it was all Jesus." No it wasn't all Jesus. Yes, we gain our strength through Him, but he gifted us and made us co-heirs with Him. Christ died to restore us to what He intended for us. What has been our response? We have elevated low self esteem and demeaning ourselves to an indicator of being spiritual, and that is wrong. In His book The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, Kris Vallotton tells it this way: If we look at a picture and say things like "What a stupid looking painting" or "the colors are all wrong" and "That thing is not very good," does that make the artist look good? Does running down the painting exalt the author? Of course not, so why do we do it with God's creations - us? The problem is that our culture has made it unacceptable to be confident. To the insecure, confidence always looks like arrogance. We do not glorify God by demeaning ourselves, we glorify Him by acknowledging that He is our strength, that He is the source of our gifts. The problem for many gifted leaders, especially in up-front pastoral positions, is that there are many in the congregation who do not get the simple fact that humility is not weakness, it is strength under control. God hold the reins, but He has not taken away the very strength He gave us to do what He designed us for.

So what does this mean for us as Christians? I believe that we are to walk confidently in the gifts and strength that we were made for. What if Jeremiah, who told God he was too young, or Moses, who told God he wasn't a good speaker, or Abram, who told God he was too old, had stuck with their own limited view of themselves? God's plan would still have been done, since he is in charge, but not through those "giants of the faith." On the flip side, how arrogant was David perceived, even (perhaps especially) by his own brothers? But read 1 Samuel 17 and see how things go. David says to Goliath in verse 46: "This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head." He doesn't ever say that he is too weak, that he is not very good, that someone better should do it, he says "I will kill Him." Then he chooses not to use someone else's weapons for the task, but uses those that God has given him skill with, no matter how unorthodox they seem to others. The rest, as they say, is history. We should do likewise. When we are asked to use the gifts we have been given, we should do so without apology. Acknowledge where our strength comes from, but operate in the strength. If we make ourselves lower than the enemy, we deny the power and authority we have been given as true sons and daughters. When we compare ourselves with others we either find ourselves wanting and feel insufficient or find ourselves superior and look down on the others. When we do what God has put us here to do and we are successful, we glorify the creator. When we allow God to work His strength through us, we may come to realize that our battles are smaller than we thought.

Who, Me? - Amos 3:1-6

As we left off last time, I asked us to look at how we, individually, pursue worship. We have a personal call to a personal relationship and we have an individual responsibility to respond. I want to lead off today's post about Chapter 3 of Amos with a section from The Expositor's Bible Commentary.

" A summons to hear the 'word of the Lord' introduces this oracle. The summons is directed against the 'whole family I brought up out of Egypt' and thus seems to include Judah as well as Israel....."
...."The pronouncement of judgment, addressed primarily to the northern kingdom, warned Judah and Israel that their election by Yahweh in itself was insufficient ground for thinking they were nationally secure; for God demanded personal obedience as well."

When God, through Amos, says to His people "you only have I chosen" Amos uses the word yada which is a word which connotes not a general knowing, but an intimate foreknowledge or purposing. God had set Israel aside for His purpose, to glorify Him, and it was not just on a national level - it was on a personal level as well, just as He "knew" and consecrated Jeremiah, He also knows and consecrates us to His purpose. He did that to the people of Israel, not just the nation. Their punishment was due to their failure to live up to the consecration and privilege in the world. With great privilege comes great responsibility. It was Israel's responsibility to live into their divine purpose. They failed to do so, no matter that God had repeatedly come to their aid and provided ways out of the messes that they had gotten themselves into. The people of Israel were to point the world toward their God - to glorify Him through their praise and their actions. Isaiah 29:13 (echoed in Matthew 15:8 by Jesus) says:

'The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."

As we saw in the last blog, the people had learned how to dot the i's and cross the t's of worship, but it was empty and not reflected in their lives. There is an individual responsibility to the worship of God. We have to give up our hearts, to become a new life, to agree to walk completely with the Lord. In another book I am reading right now, it speaks of the internal change that has to happen before we become the new birth. We must live out our worship, and not because we are following the rules, but because we have chosen to accept the divine purpose and responsibility that comes with the blessing of being sons and daughters of the King. Many people hesitate to make that choice because they are afraid of what God will ask of them. Well, he will ask you to step into what He had in mind in His 'yada' - His knowledge of us, His purpose, His design. We will find a better fit in this than in anything else we can come up with! The consequences of accepting His promise and then refusing to walk in it will end in disaster for us. There is cause and effect written here. "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a bird just randomly stumble into a trap if there is no bait? Does a trap spring if there is nothing there to trip it? (paraphrase vs 3-5) If we agree to walk with God and then fail to do so, there will be consequences, whether from God or just the logical outcome of poor decisions. Here, however, we are dealing strictly with the result of choosing image over relationship. I believe that it cost Israel their status as the chosen nation. (Matt. 22: 1-8, Luke 14:16-24)

We have the same opportunity. When we come to Christ and covenant with Him, we are agreeing to walk in His way, not ours. This may be difficult, even more so when we try to hold on to our old self, listening to the lies of the enemy, keeping us from walking in the blessing. We have to take personal stock of how we see our walk. Do we choose to walk with Him, or are we doing so out of societal norms, or because that's the way we were raised, or we are doing it for our kids? It is of critical importance that we choose covenant, that we choose the walk. We don't get the privilege because we belong to a nation - if that was not true of Israel then, why would it be true of us today? We are called into God's blessing, set apart to be holy people, to live a life that glorifies Him, to walk in relationship with Christ. But we have a personal responsibility to walk in obedience to His purpose, understanding that His intimate knowledge of us, and our obedient relationship with Him on a daily basis will allow us to live out our lives as His chosen people.