This Christmas I am coming clean. Enough hiding over the years. I have kept silent long enough while people made jokes and laughed about the very thing I had kept secret. Yes, it is true - I like fruitcake!! (Did I hear you gasp? snicker? smirk?) Yeh, I already know that there is only one fruitcake in the whole world and it keeps getting passed around. And I know that they stopped making fruitcake years ago and all the ones you see now are simply being re-gifted. I know all the snide remarks and cute jokes about fruitcake. It’s just that I am tired of eating my fruitcake alone.
Fruitcake has always been a symbol to me. It represents things I like but hate to admit to others. I have a whole slew of them. But since this is a church newsletter, I’ll just focus on a couple of things closer to home.
First, I admit that I am absolutely needy for God’s love and presence. Embarrassingly needy! If you only knew!! You might think I am a bit unbalanced. You might recommend a pill I could take. But I have always been this way. And I have spent a lot of time with people who aren’t. Sometimes I feel sort of weird. How come something that is so compelling to me, so overwhelming, seems so underwhelming to others? (Or maybe they keep secrets, too? I wonder!) I question if I am called to the ministry simply because I can’t focus on anything else long enough to make any headway. I am an absolute sucker for anything that promises God’s nearness.
Second, I love church. I mean, I love it! It’s the place where they will talk about what I think about all the time. I know that this one mystifies a whole bunch of people for whom 2 out of 4 Sundays a month at church is a sign of near canonization. I’m not critical (ok, maybe a little). I just don’t understand, never will. Will someone explain it to me? A little cough, a little cold, a little time pressure, a little whatever and soon there is reason enough not to be in worship. I can’t fit that into my world, doesn’t compute. That’s like saying you’re too busy for the Superbowl or an invitation to the White House. At times I wonder if those who do not need church so badly are somehow just stronger than I am. I seem to need the church’s celebrations, fellowship, teaching so much more. I lose the focus, the resolve, the encouragement that come from assembling together. Do other people get these things on their own without the church?
If I admit these things, will you laugh at me? Feel sorry for me? Feel glad you don’t have my hang-ups? Maybe you’re right. I just don’t understand normal people. (I’ve been told that more than once). Normal people don’t like fruitcake. Normal people don’t get obsessed with religion. Normal people don’t get caught up in church.
Well, it’s almost time for lunch. I’ll eat it alone today, and then when I’m done I’ll take out a slice of that fruitcake. I won’t eat it all. Maybe someone will come along and ask, sheepishly, “got an extra slice for me?”
What does being strong look like? We can be fooled can’t we? People we thought were so strong can in no time at all be curled up in a fetal position crying ‘uncle’. Jim Bakker can lose it on the court room steps and have his misery pictured across the nation; Martha Stewart can go to prison and find that orange is her favorite color; the powerful politician can become a nobody overnight. People we fear, respect and exalt can end up lower than the low.
I think there is one undeniable sign of strength. It is joy. The world is full of blows to joy. Joy is a castle that is constantly being stormed by the battering rams of disappointment, pain and regret, all of which the world is full. And most of us find that our castles have gaping holes through which the enemy comes. We can never outrun or outlive the principles and powers of this age. The world is fallen and the devil remains the prince of the power of the air. He is a defeated foe but he does not cease to be dangerous. He may be on a leash but he still bites. The victory was won at the cross but the enemy still struggles. The person who is joyful clearly has something greater than this world gives. He is a Samson of this age. If you have joy, you are stronger than this world. Agree?
Joy is not only a sign of strength. It is a strength. It has a power all its own. Joy gets things done in the kingdom of God. It moves mountains, walks on water, skips through valleys, finds its way through darkness, melts icy hearts, turns away words of wrath, and makes friends out of enemies. There is literally nothing that can be done to a joyful person. Joy is unstoppable.
The Bible reads, “the people of Israel will become like mighty warriors, and their hearts will be happy as if by wine.” (Zech 10:7) Happy warriors! Warriors who conquer by joy. Warriors whose weapon is joy. Warriors who never fatigue in the battle because joy is their fuel. As the Bible so clearly teaches, “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” When all the weapons we use fail us and we are left weak and disappointed, consider that we have relied on the wrong things. Try joy. Above all, get and protect this most marvelous of weapons.&nb sp; Live joyfully and change the world!!
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I’ve got a problem. Surprised? Who doesn’t? No, listen for a minute. It’s a strange kind of problem, one that pops up so often that I hardly recognize it. It’s like eyeglasses that are dirty. I can get so used to them that way that I can’t see the dirt that is right before my eyes. (By the way, thanks for telling me I need to clean my glasses. It makes my world a whole lot brighter.)
Here’s the problem – I love being right. (Once again, surprised?) The experience of being right is a thrill! If people recognize I’m right, then there is the adrenalin of importance. And if they don’t, I can play a wonderful martyr role. Either way, it’s a rush.
But loving to be right gets me into trouble every time. In Alcoholics Anonymous they talk about anger being an experience the alcoholic can’t afford to have. Others might be able to handle it, but for an alcoholic it’s a luxury he has to pass up. I’m not sure I know how to handle being right, either.
Being right can get in the way of relationships. When was the last time you wanted to have a cup of coffee with a person who is so right so much of the time? Being right gets me used to not apologizing and needing forgiveness from others, a forgiveness that draws them closer to me. Being right g ets me used to not learning. Being right often refuses the necessary authority others should have in my life. After all, if I am right, how could I allow anyone to be the “boss of me”?
Robert Frost expresses this danger in this short poem:
Right’s right, and the temptation
to do right
When I can hurt someone by do-
ing it
Has always been too much for
me, it has.
That’s the problem. I get dangerous when I believe I’m right. (Everybody down! The bullets of truth are going to be flying.)
&nb sp; Of course, who would ever love being wrong? What are our options? Are we to love what is ‘unright’? Consider this: there is a difference between loving being right and loving what’s right. It is a great difference rationally but a small difference psychologically. With just a hair’s width shift of our thinking we no longer find ourselves rejoicing in the truth but rejoicing in being right. And that makes all the difference.
How do I know when I have made that fatal shift? When truth doesn’t bring joy but anger, the unholy kind that snuffs out the flickering wick and breaks the bruised reed. It’s the kind of shift that leaves a trail of bruised bodies and spirits in our paths.
Jesus wasn’t only right. He was and is the truth. But His truth ended up healing and restoring and resurrecting. He really is the only One who could be trusted with the truth.
I hope that someday I can be, too.
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Well, recently I hit the wall on the Coastal Bible reading plan. To be specific, it was time to read Leviticus and the beginning chapters of Numbers. Can you say heavy eyelids? Can you say, “Hey, I’m the Pastor. I’ve got to read it.”? My theology keeps me from skipping ahead anyway (“all Scripture is outbreathed from God”), so I got out my easier-to-read Bible version and faithfully huddled under the brightest light in the house. All that fine print threatened a bit of eyestrain.
My impression? No doubt about it, being an Old Testament Jew was a full time job. Laws for this, laws for that! On one day this ritual, on another day that ritual. Let me see, do we burn the whole offering on the altar or only part and take the rest outside the camp? Is the blood to be applied to the horns of the altar, sprinkled on its south side or poured out on its base? Is it two doves and a goat, or a ram and two pigeons? (Gee, I hope someone here knows what they’re doing). Let’s just say, you had to stay awake. Drifting off could have some un wanted consequences. Can you say “outside the camp”!!
The question occurred to me, did anyone have time for anything else than being holy and ceremonially clean? Each day you had to pay attention. And some days more than others. And some months more than other months. And some years more than other years.
Of course, the Bible student knows that these laws were there to remind us that we don’t just barge in on God; coming near is on His terms and in His way and in a way that does not defile His moral perfection. These laws were never meant to give us the impression that we could earn favor with God. Being prone to wander, these laws would keep us awake, reminded, and sober.
Glad you are in the New Testament period? Of course, we are. Free access to God, joyful entrance, expectantly adventurous and not timidly cowering. Not slavish ritualism but heart relationship. And yet….
Holiness and purity are actually more pressing in the New Testament than in the Old. Je sus didn’t do away with the Law, but intensified it. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Mat 5:21-22) Jesus isn’t less concerned with righteousness than Moses. The Apostle Paul goes on to write, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.“(1Co 10:31) Notice that word ‘all’ in that verse? It’s not about obeying this or that law, observing this or that ritual. Giving God all is what counts. Not part but the whole.
So the Christian life is a bit simpler - not this or that law, but all. All on the altar all the time. But don’t forget - now I have all of Him all the time, too. I can live with that.
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The Ten Commandments have been in the news a lot as of late. (3,600 years after Moses received them - not bad!) To post them or not to post them? Does this violate the separation of church and state? Does this establish the Judaeo-Christian heritage in preference to Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism or whatever? The arguments go on and on. (By the way, I say post ‘em, Dano).
But I have a question! Should the Ten Commandments be posted in church? It would only be natural. But I can’t recall the last time I saw them in a house of worship. Can you? How come? It just makes sense that churches would be doing what we want our government to do.
I have a guess. Maybe it’s because the Ten scare the daylights out of us. You might not be able to have one of those inspiring, positive, upbeat, and practical worship services everyone seems to want with God forgiving everybody and being kind to all as those tablets stare back at you. The Ten Commandments would introduce a little of the courtroom into our services. Fear and trembling stuff!
Of course, we believe in the Commandments. But in a serious way? Us evangelicals divorce our spouses at the same rate as our culture. In fact, we pretty much do whatever our culture does - debt, bankruptcy, abortion, alcohol consumption.
Recent surveys at Christian colleges indicate that an alarming percentage of our children believe that truth is relative, Christ is not the only way to God, sex outside of marriage is not always wrong and that homosexuality is an option that the Christian community has no right to judge.
We want the criminals to see the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls. But we don’t want to be reminded that we are criminals. It would be too much for us to take. And our prayers to God to please be sure and make our lives work out okay would be shown for the shallow prayers they often are. “God, please take me seriously. Just don’t ask me to take you seriously. That repentance stuff is such a bummer! My life is already too gloomy.” (Reminds me of the lady who called up for advice about how to get her daughter to obey her as long as the advice didn’t include having to go to church! It was a short conversation).
Jesus said, “God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working. Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom.” (Mat 5:18-19)
We love the Law, not because by it we can measure up to God’s standard and earn His favor, but because it is the revelation of His character and the beauty of His ways. I say, post ‘em.
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David in the Psalms had the bravado to write it. Not sure I would have. That kind of honesty is rare. David simply penned that when he thought of God, he moaned. Not rejoiced. Not praised. Not worshiped. Moaned. Put that in the service order on a Sunday morning! “Okay, people, let’s moan!” Instead of praise music, we would have some moan music.
But we do moan sometimes when thoughts of God flood in. How is it, you ask?
First, thoughts of God can bring to you remembrance of your sins. Those two things come together. It’s a package deal. To come near Him will at some point alert you to how far off course you have been. You shudder. (Remember Isaiah? “Woe is me.”) To avoid your sin, you have to avoid deep encounters with God. It’s like blowing a diet and avoiding the weight scales. Just to look at them brings the pain of failure. You may not throw the scales out of the house, but you don’t put them in the middle of the room either.
Second, thoughts of God can bring to mind times you really needed Him to come through, and the windows of heaven seemed slammed shut and the doors double-bolted. God could have spared you all that pain. God could have delivered you from the years that it took to recoup from some loss. God could have protected you from that person who did not mean well. And He didn’t. To think about God means to think about that time He seemed to leave you vulnerable and hurt. Trust Him again? You’re not so sure you have it in you.
Third, thoughts of God can bring back memories of times when it was better between your soul and the Savior. You drifted; you grew cold; the light dimmed to dusk. You long for that day to come again, but now you feel so far away.
I’m not always sure why David moaned. But I know this - honest moaning was a way back to God. Acknowledging the distance, grieving over the sin, facing the disappointment was the way back. Anything else would have been play religion. Pretend worship. Shadow dancing.
Maybe some Sunday when you are reading the bulletin before the service begins, you will see it there! A sackcloth and ashes moment right in the order of worship. The Davids among us whisper, “thank you, God - just what I needed!”
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Well, we caught Lori Murphy at it again - plugging in air fresheners around the ministry facility. People were wondering who the Perfume Panderer was. Rumor had it that Lori was. But I had never actually seen her “plug it in.” And then there she was! When no one is looking, she swooped in and stooped down to the electrical outlet, and before you knew it there is a sweet smell wafting through the air. Go ahead and remove it. It doesn’t matter. Another one will take its place. A building devoted to God’s glory and use should smell delightful, don’t you think? Lori does.
God does, too. In Exodus 30 the Lord gives Moses specific instructions on building the instruments for worship in the Tabernacle, one of which is the altar for burning incense. And in that same chapter He gives the exact ingredients, amounts and mixing instructions for the incense to be burned there. Not just any sweet smell will do! God has a preference. After He gives instructions, He says, “Be sure to treat this incense as something very holy. It is truly holy because it is dedicated to me, so don’t ever make any for yourselves. If you ever make any of it to use as perfume, you will no longer belong to my people.” (Ex 30:36-38)
Interesting! God won’t let you wear His perfume. There is a beauty and fragrance that belongs only to God, and it’s not for sale. Any Israelite who used this special fragrance for his or her own personal beautification would be cut off from the people. This passage of God’s Word reminds me that I am to worship and live out my mission of service to Him in such a way that I don’t take the glory that belongs to Him, in such a way that others don’t get me and God mixed up. God stands alone.
One of the ways this happens is to understand that God reveals His beauty through my brokenness. No one then could ever get the impression that God owes His glory to any man. The apostle Paul put it this way: “Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty!” (2 Cor 12:7)
I am reminded that it’s not about what people think about me. It’s what they think of my great Redeemer. This is my mission. “ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor 10:31
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Everybody wants to make me a success!! I don’t know why me being average is bugging so many people, but apparently they stay up late at night just coming up with a new way to give me an extreme makeover. The amount of mail flowing through the office is just one indicator that there are a lot of people out there who think I need to get what they have to be what I should be. And what they have comes with 30 day free trial offers and easy payment plans. And enough mail to remind me that these guys clearly aren’t concerned about the number of trees being cleared out of the rain forests. Of course, I wouldn’t want to miss their once a year conference to keep my mi nistry and our church on the “wow” side of amazing. I feel like I am being avalanched with christianized versions of Dr. Phil, Oprah Winfrey and Tony Robbins.
I know they mean well (at least, mostly I do). After all, God Himself exhorts me to develop, stretch, go past my comfort zones and walk by faith. But I never connected those things so much with success as with significance, with character and not with fame or a name. Yes, I want to do great things for God. But sometimes great can mean offering someone who has hurt me great forgiveness. Or it can mean a lifestyle of great humility. Or great worship. Or great sacrifice. Believe me, I know how this sort of greatness can get left behind in the dust in my desire for greatness of another kind. When Jesus defined greatness, he used a child as an illustration. Not too many seminars out there teaching me that lesson!
Actually I do like to think about greatness - the supreme excellence of Christ whose name is above all names. This greatness brings peace, rest and trust. Sometimes I think I have spent too many years seeking a treasure I already have.
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Christians laugh!! You don’t think so? Look again at your Bible. The name of the child born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, the child who was promised to them by God, was “he laughs.” That’s the meaning of the name, Isaac. It was the laugh of surprise, the laugh of joy, the laugh of defiance. God laughs, too. See Isaiah 59:8. In Jesus’ very first sermon He promised us that we would laugh. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”(Lk 6:21) As St. Teresa of Avila put it, “Mirth is from God, and dullness is from the devil.”
I can’t find the chapter and verse but it seems wholly in keeping with the Bible that laughter is a sign of God’s presence. For we are children again and believe that we are in the Father’s care and live in the Father’s world. The weight of sin has been lifted, heaven is our home, and all the way to heaven is heaven. We skip, we dance, and we look for new songs to sing.
Maybe it’s my temperament, but when I am at my best with God, I laugh. I am a bit suspicious of those who don’t and quite sure they won’t understand why I do. Perhaps they will think I am a jokester who never quite grew up. Maybe they will think I am flippant and not wholly aware of other people’s pain. Or it could be that I need to be more professional., like I was once told by one church leader in a previous church who felt I told too many jokes when I baptized people and should baptize people without making such a splash. Of course, I immediately thought of a joke about putting Downey in the baptistry so we could soften people’s splash down. (No, I didn’t say it!) But my guess is that if they knew how much laughter I hold back, they might be more generous in their criticism.
; So if you hear me laughing a bit too much, cut me some slack. Sometimes it’s the most spiritual thing I do.
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Church! Put that word on a table, step back and take another look at it. Think about what comes to mind when you say that word. Think about what it might mean to someone when you ask them to come to “church.”
It means so many different things to people. For some it is not a warm, cozy and inviting kind of word. Church can mean harsh authority, judgmentalism, demanding. For others it can be a word that is synonymous with clique, a place we can never fit in. Still others think of church as a moral lobby group that watches every move sinners make, ready to censor any wrong move from a Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” at a Superbowl to a KidRock performance for youth at the Presidential Inaugural.
Sometimes Christians are not so sure what we think about church. Yeh, we know we should “go.” And since some of us (like pastors) are actually paid by the church to go, we for sure had better be there. But we are ambivalent. And because we are ambivalent, we drift - we go to this, participate in a little of that, change a church, change a denomination, and sometimes just sort of hang around. And for periods of time maybe don’t hang around at all. For some reaso n we don’t deeply connect.
I think of church as the way a Christian does life. It is no more a place that I go to than my family is a place I go to. It is where I am, not where I go. Among you I raise my children, serve and worship my God, learn His ways, express His love, understand His call on my life, struggle with my fears and failures, receive support and learn the ways of God’s kingdom. I think St. Augustine was on to something when he said that we cannot have God as our Father unless we are willing to have the Church as our mother. Something that God wants to do in me is short-circuited when I remain distant from the very family that God Himself created.
I want to say thank you for being my family in Christ. I find pleasure in you. Thank your for giving to me your worship of God in Christ, your aspirations to be His pure bride, your prayers, your dependence on Him, your struggles and your humanness. It’s great to be home.
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The annual Christmas issues of Time and Newsweek have come out and, like usual, they are among the bestselling issues of the year. Religion is a money maker. Somehow I think well-meaning evangelical Christians buy them out of some hope that the culture has “come around.” I guess we like the attention.
But it isn’t long before you realize it’s the “same ole, same ole.” Newsweek seeks to explain how the story of Christmas came to be, the assumption being, of course, that it did not come to be because it’s true. Explanations are to be looked for elsewhere. The “elsewhere” is the current speculations of liberal scholarship. It is explained to us that the story of the virgin birth is a myth devised to mask the reality that Jesus had an illegitimate birth. Or perhaps it was a literary device used by the Gospel writers to show that Jesus was divine, much like Greek mythology contained stories of the gods mingling with women to spawn godlike beings among us earthlings, like the great kings, conquerors or Caesars of the ancient world. After all, what should we expect of pre-scientific people? This was “normal” for the people of that time, so we are told. Or maybe the church needed a miracle story at the begi nning of Christ’s life like there is a resurrection at the end. These two separate miracles seem necessary, so that even if it didn’t happen, it has a certain appeal to the mind and the senses.
Of course, this wouldn’t be historically accurate but an article of faith we are told. But this line of reasoning has several gaps unaccounted for. The first is logical. If the virgin birth is not historical and therefore false, we have the strange situation that a lie has done greater good for mankind than the truth. Second, these arguments assume that the writers of the birth narratives knew they were not telling the truth. In most people’s judgment those who intentionally lie, even if the motive is to do good, are doing a bad thing and in other things should not be trusted. If they showed themselves willing to distort truth and stories, have they not given up the right to be believed in anything else they teach as true? And thirdly, such explanations of the origins of the virgin birth story assume a gullibility and ignorance on the part of the contemporary readers that is not in fact born out. Is it true that a first century man is more likely to believe that he saw five loaves and two fish turned into sufficient quantity to feed 5,000 than a 21st century man who was there at the same event? Is it true that a first century man is more likely to believe in a virgin birth than a 21st century man when, in fact, even first century men had never witnessed a virgin birth either?
Liberal scholarship assumes that Christianity took root because it first developed among pre-scientific people who were more easily duped. Where is the evidence? The bottom line for us who believe in the virgin birth is that it was recorded by the Gospel writers because it is true. It was believed to be true by Mary, Mary’s friends, by those who knew Jesus, by the apostles appointed by Jesus and by the developing church. It is true because it is history. And because it is true, I want to believe.
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Give Terry Schiavo back to those who love her!! Mr. Schiavo has forfeited the right to speak for Terry’s best interests. But, one asks, what about the law, which asserts that though Terry’s husband has what would qualify as a common law wife and children by that relationship, he remains her legal guardian? The law is the law, after all, isn’t it? But , I ask in return, what happens when the law, interpreted woodenly in its present form, can no longer speak for the value of a person? How can we stand by an interpretation of the law that allows a ‘husband’ to starve to death his brain damaged wife and puts in handcuffs a twelve year old boy who tries to feed her, as pictured in the newspapers. Congress’ recent attempt to legislate in this matter was merely a recognition of this intolerable state of affairs.
In Matthew 12 the religious leaders accuse Jesus of breaking the law by working on the Sabbath. Hungry from their journey on a Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples were plucking heads of grain to eat. Jesus responded by drawing their attention to an even bigger transgression. King David had once, Jesus points out, entered the very Holy Place of the Tabernacle to eat the loaves that it was only lawful for the priests to eat. David had ‘defiled’ the dwelling place of God, strictly speaking, and should have been banished from the Israelite community. But he wasn’t. Jesus was, in effect, asking the experts in the law to explain that. How did David get away with such an obvious affront to the authority of the law?
& nbsp; There was only one explanation, and Jesus gives it: man wasn’t made for the law but the law was made for man. The law is a guide into the ways that bring glory to God and blessing to men. And when the law is interpreted in a way that only ties heavy burdens onto backs and grinds people into the dust, something has gone wrong. Here’s the point. “And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Mat 12:7) Terry Schiavo is guiltless and condemned to die. For her there is no mercy.
There have been times in our history when Presidents have refused to carry out unjust laws because to do so would be to disobey a higher law and a greater good. Their defiance brought conviction to our nation and laws were changed. Our culture cannot hide behind legality and starve brain damaged people to death – people who are not terminally ill but who simply cannot feed themselves.
People of good conscience cannot wink at the life choices of Mr. Schiavo and approve of his legal status to s peak for the bests interests of Terry, even as it cannot permit reckless parents to speak for the best interests of their children. The value of the person is our guide.
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This upcoming Sunday is the time we turn the clock forward to catch more sunlight during our day. Rather than the sun rising at 5:28 AM we can have it rise at 6:28 AM. (I just wish I could set the time as conveniently for the bank – “hey, guys, I have an idea; let’s open the bank when no one can come!”) Of course, there is always the same amount of sunlight during this time of the year, no matter how you set the clock. Clocks have nothing to do with how much sunlight there is.
Human time schedules have nothing to do with God’s shining either. In fact, He shines through the soul’s windows when you would least expect Him. He is light, always light. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows…”(Jam 1:17)
&nbs p; There are times He comes to me when my spiritual life is “off the clock.” Unfortunately there are times when I don’t expect God to show up or at least be a quiet sunset rather than a startling light. Like when I am in the midst of a movie marathon to get away from it all. Like on Sunday afternoons when I don’t think I can have one more “God-thought” without springing my spiritual jack-in-the-box. Like when I look at a bill that there is no way to pay. Like a really bad decision there is no way to change. Like when I mulling over a temptation.
And then there are those times I expect Him to shine, but the light is not glaring. Doesn’t He know that this is a convenient time, a good time for Him to show His glory? Doesn’t He look at the clock I set? Doesn’t He know that I am ready to be spiritual for a while?
We don’t see God’s light by scheduling, clocking or forcing. All I know is that He is always shining, and when I least expect Him in no time at all I can look like a deer in the headlights – startled, unready, with a rather dumbfounded look.
The light is always on! It might creep in under door sills or explode as if the curtains are thrown back at midday. Just be ready.
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I don’t know why it was so hard but coloring within the lines could be tricky. Any talents I had in art were exhausted by the effort to come right up to those lines and not over. The thicker the line the easier. Thin lines and dull crayons made for a disaster. I gave up. Painting by the numbers was worse. I could feel the tension as my brush got closer and closer to the boundary. Those watery colors could seep over the line if the paint was too thick. If I couldn’t even paint by the numbers, what hope was there for me to draw something really beautiful!! I quit.
But I wonder – does God draw within the lines? It seems He doesn’t. I draw the lines for Him and hand Him my coloring book. “Okay, God, here is the picture – keep your crayon sharpened and please don’t mess it up.” He takes my picture, and when He is done, hands it back to me. To be honest, it looks like a first grader’s scribbling. In fact, it doesn’t look like a picture at all. The coloring book I created had all those great pictures to fill in. It could have been something beautiful if God had only stayed within the lines.
A wise person asks, whose lines? Mine or God’s? God might seem like He is drawing free hand with no respect for guidelines, order or beauty. But you can be sure that when He draws, He isn’t just making it up as He goes along. J Gresham Machen reminds us in his book The Christian View of Man that God is the most obligated being in the universe. All of God’s acts are determined, clear and ordered because they are based on His unchanging nature. My lines are drawn according to moods, fancies, phases and wishes. But God paints according to purposes, righteousness, truth and goodness. And those do not change. God is obligated by His own nature. He is infinite in His wisdom; therefore He can never do anything that is unwise. He is infinite in His justice; therefore He can never do anything that is unjust. He is infinite in His goodness; therefore He can never do anything that is not good. He is infinite in His truth; therefore it is impossible that He should lie.
Maybe rather than handing to God my lines for Him to fill in I should just hand Him my life. And then I should ask of Him only one thing: make me like Jesus. “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.” Rom 8:29
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It seems I have always done lawn care the hard way. The lawn seems to be more in charge of me than I am in charge of it.
My lawn reminds me of a statement by CS Lewis to the effect that only really lazy people work hard. Lazy people are those who just don’t get to what needs to be done when it needs to get done. In the long run they work harder than anyone else because in addition to the work itself now they also have the consequences that mount up. And consequences can keep us really busy. (Can I get a witness?)
Lawns are a good example. This is the time to thatch the lawn so the old dead grass doesn’t strangle new growth. Get out there and apply that fertilizer and weed killer. Plant some grass seed in that bare patch. And if I don’t, you ask?
A couple of things are going to happen. One, you are going to have to do a lot more mowing, because weeds grow faster than grass. Also, if you want your weeds (yes, yours-you grew them and you get to keep them) to look like grass, you have to keep them cut short. Weeds can start looking pretty “weedy” in no time at all. So there you go again, cutting that lawn.
People who are not doing the really necessary work in moral growth actually end up working harder than people who do that work. They are very busy with consequences! A lot of things keep going wrong! And they have to keep the lawn cut short so others will not notice that their moral lawn is all weeds. Covering up takes a lot of ingenuity, thought and hard work.
So the next time you look at a really nice lawn, don’t think about all the hard work. Think about the work spared. And when you witness a life of moral goodness, don’t think they got that way because they must work at it harder than you do. After all, they may just be people who thatched, planted and fertilized as a pattern of life and have spared themselves a lot of trouble that keeps the rest of us very busy.
My friends keep me worried. There’s a lot of bad news out there and some of it happens to them. I am amazed what they can go through. I have now lived long enough to get some idea of what life can do to people. I gave up my rose colored glasses a long time ago. The “happy ever after” that ends every fairy tale evaporated. The Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthian 11:29 ring so true to me. “When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones.”
I care. I really do. You can tell me a story of your loss, go home and get a good night’s sleep – and I will be the one who stays awake. It’s not so much because I am a good guy. It’s because I am a sufferer, too. And my heart resonates with your loss and pain. It’s natural and understandable.
But I wonder about this. I ask how spiritual this really is. Do I have the kind of reaction to suffering the disciples had when Jesus told them that the hour of darkness had come, that the ruler of the world was going to do his worst to Jesus? Their response was to rescue Jesus, to refuse the suffering. Understandable. Good friends. Loyal. Sacrificial. And wrong.
Jesus said to the disciples that they had to understand something they had missed. The suffering will come but it has no power. I can hear them saying “huh?” They could have responded, “No kidding around, Jesus. That’s going to be real blood you’ll be shedding. And that pain will be no Christian Science illusion. Very few men will know the kind of hurt to which you’ll be introduced. Your humiliation will become legendary.”
Jesus’ response? “The world must know that I love the Father.” Take away the test and you take away the proof, the kind of proof that wins the world and reconciles it to God.
Jesus’ response to His disciples was “don’t try to rescue me – just be with me. I have work to do.” And, of course, soon, very soon, the disciples would carry their own crosses, too. All but one died a martyr’s death. And Jesus didn’t do for them what He asked them not to do for Him – keep Him from suffering.
Every one of us as Christ’s followers has this mission, to prove to the world the worth of our faith and the love for our Father. But don’t worry. The ruler of this world has no real power over your friends. At times they may think he does. But he doesn’t. They are simply on a mission of which you cannot relieve them, to suffer for the Name.
So be with them. Understand the nobility of their mission. Pray for their courage and endurance. Support them in their noble perseverance. Minister to their need. Wash their feet, anoint their heads, break bread together and remember Christ. But let them get on with their mission!
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Last Friday and Saturday was another whirlwind trip to the University of Pittsburgh – drive 11 hours, pack Ben up, drive back 11 hours the next day, unpack Ben. What can I say? It’s a way of life. And two more years to go.
But as routine as the trip is, there’s always a twist here and there just to keep me awake. This time it was driving through fog up and down I-81 in Pennsylvania. There’s not a lot of time to spare on these trips, and though fog is never good news, it can be particularly irritating when there is no extra time. Surprise of surprises this trip – I made better time in the fog!!
No, I wasn’t in a Stephen King movie, entering the fog in one place and being mysteriously transported to another. For some reason all the cars went faster in the fog. No kidding. Though you could only see the taillights of the one car ahead of you and the headlights of the one car immediately behind you, the traffic started moving 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit.
&nb sp; This is crazy! It’s like everybody is deciding to die together at one time, like whales beaching. And then it struck me. There’s a rhyme and reason to this. (“Hey, Ben, get me a piece of paper and a pen. I want to jot down some thoughts while I go 75 mph in this fog. No, I’m not too old to do this.”)
First, the police can’t see me. If the car right in front or right in back isn’t a police car, I’m free. The car behind me will get pulled over first.
Second, I want to keep up with the car in front of me. That way I’ll have a warning if something is in the way because he’ll crash first.
Third, the car behind is following me closely because he thinks I’m his warning signal, too. In fact, he keeps close enough that I speed up just to get some distance.
And before long, when everybody is thinking this way, you have a whole line of cars getting ready to go down in I-81 car crash history.
How do you stop the madness – all fog, all speed, all cars?
How do we stop some of the madness of our culture? We, too, are in a fog. In fact, we sort of like fog. No moral absolutes, no police, no laws and some cover. And we are traveling at insane speeds to keep up with one another. With the absence of an absolute moral compass our only guide is what others are doing and valuing. And even though we know the majority can be wrong, we do it anyway.
And then comes the crash when the house of cards we were so busy building comes down in a moment. We thought there was safety in the pack. In fact, there was danger.
Lord, I pray, when I am in the fog help me not to look to others but (to change the metaphor a bit) help me to do an instrument landing, steering this life you have given to me by the words of your Book. Fog is always scary, but your words are always true.
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Sometimes something can be so true that it can’t be avoided. It is so true that it must be submitted to. So true that you can’t talk yourself into believing it isn’t there.
When Jesus said he was the truth, that’s what he meant. You can’t brush Him off by making Him a sentiment, a moral aspiration, a religious quest. He is truth like a concrete barrier on the road is truth - traffic has to follow or pay the price. He is truth like gravity. There is a reason that we as a matter of habit don’t jump out of windows but use the elevator or the stairs. You don’t wonder if you will fall. You just simply know it, and adjust accordingly.
I see people go through “Jesus phases” all the time. It’s something they will try on for a while. Being religious might help they think. But when there is no short term payoff, or a sacrifice that is too concrete, too real, too deep, it’s time to move on. As if this can be so easily dismissed and discarded. As if it was just a personal preference that is subject to change without notice. As if it ne ver really ever had anything to do with what is true, what is real, what lasts and in the long run must be faced.
CS Lewis had it right. Jesus either a liar, lunatic or Lord. Those are the three options – the only three. And if He is Lord, then that settles the issue of how life is to be lived.
Jesus put it this way. “But he looked directly at them and said, ‘What then is this that is written: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”? ‘Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’” (Luk 20:17-18)
Jesus is a stone. You can either build on that stone or be broken by that stone. Jesus is as real a spiritual law as physical laws are real. You can’t change the laws – you can only adjust to them.
In the upcoming message series “Moving from Hunches to Convictions” I want to strengthen you in your faith that Jesus is the immovable and eternal truth. When you are weak and are tempted to abandon conviction and commitment, when you are afflicted and wonder if it is worth it, when you see something else that seems much more real than a Jesus in heaven, I want you to seriously know that staying with it is something you have to do – because you know it’s true. You didn’t make it up or get sucked in because of your friends. No, it’s real. And you had rather know the hardest truth than be deluded by the sweetest lie, because only the truth can set you free.
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It has been said that people will believe almost anything if it is whispered to them. Somehow a whisper gets our attention, holds out a promise, slows us down to get in on something we would normally miss. Lower your voice and speak so that only one other will hear you, and before you know it you’ll have a crowd. If I am walking down the hallway at the Ministry Center and spy two people off in the corner whispering, that’s the conversation I want to be in on. Why is this?
If you have lived l ong enough or at an early age were wise beyond your years, you have already learned that what seems to be obviously true isn’t. How many times do we have something all figured out only to be frustrated in our plans by something we did not see, something small and unnoticed? How easy we have found it to be to be tripped up. We need an inside track, a tip, a hint, a nod of the head or the furrow of a brow. How many intelligent and otherwise sophisticated people carry a good luck charm of some sort! It is an unwitting ackn owledgement that we do not really know the laws of the universe and that those laws may be very different from all that we call reason. People who carry these charms realize the truth that enormous things do often turn upon tiny, unseen and overlooked things. The athlete who has spent years perfecting his swing and should trust his skill will often be superstitious, somehow intuitively knowing that the truth is in something he overlooked. “Just in case…,” he thinks.
When a whisper comes our way that this or that one tiny thing is the key to all things, something deep and not altogether senseless in human nature tells us it may be true. Shout something loudly enough, and you’re likely not to be believed.
&nbs p; And sure enough when I turn to the Bible, I find God whispers. “He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.” (Mat 12:19) Jesus certainly spent a lot of time preaching to the crowds, but we find him most often whispering to individuals in personal conversation. Almost as if to say that we do not “do truth” in groups very well. Yes, group experiences can get us whipped up into a frenzy. We can find something very real in the natural enthusiasms that come from group experiences. But I’m not sure that the kind of truth that gets inside us comes from such moments. I think truth requires the kind of listening that works hard to hear whispers. The kind of listening that says to God, “Could you say that again, this time more slowly? I really want to hear clearly. I can’t afford to miss this.”
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There’s two ways of receiving God’s blessings. The first, and most often tried, generally fails. The second is sure. The first way leaves you tired, depleted and not a little frustrated with your Christianity-not to mention a little cool toward God. The second replenishes. The first is taught by almost all the popular Christian books. The second is the oldest, truest, but quietest.
Those two ways? You can either ask God to bless what you are doing or you can do what God blesses. The first way can lead you to increase your religion – read the Bible more, go to church more, pray more, give more, fast more, more, more, more, more, more, more…. Until when? Until God gives in!
The attractiveness of this way is that it makes you in all things very religious. Each of these things you do is good in and of itself. After all, you aren’t out heisting banks, selling drugs, or refusing to help little old ladies at traffic lights. Doesn’t this put you in the place of blessing? Aren’t they things you should be obedient in anyway? And if they are obediently done, won’t God reward?
But, I ask, can’t this turn your walk with God simply into a matter of “more”? And how long can you keep up? I talk to a lot of “more” Christians. They& rsquo;re doing the more, just waiting for God to do His more. (Name your version of the “more”; everyone has his own). The way is littered with exhausted, disappointed and rather embittered Christians who couldn’t keep up any longer.
What about this second way? How about simply wanting what God wants and being available to what God wants to do? What God wants and what God does has to be the place of blessing. It’s not a matter of keeping up, achieving, earning, dealing or bartering with God. It’s about being available, open, honest and willing to give up personal agendas. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
Yes, we can be religious for all the wrong reasons – “my kingdom come, my will be done.” And instead of living the purpose driven life we are living the disaster driven life. Wrong motives, runaway desires and secret agendas regularly lead all of us into catastrophes. At some point God can’t help but let you down when that is what is going on in your interior world. And when He does, all that “more” you gave will haunt you.
In other words, all this boils down to the simple word, “follow.” That’s the word with which Jesus began His ministry. Don’t make it up – follow. Don’t try to get me to do your will – follow. Don’t try to horn in on the glory that belongs to God – follow. Don’t try to make this world your home, as if God would change His residence – follow.
Two thousand years after Jesus spoke that word, it is still the best way to blessing.
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If you have ever been in an Orthodox Church, you are immediately struck by their use of brilliantly colored icons, images of saints and biblical figures and realities. At the front of the sanctuary there are panels elaborately painted with these icons, behind which is the altar where the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated. The Orthodox Church validates their use of icons to create “windows” into heavenly truths, to remind worshipers that they do not worship alone but are in fact entering into heavenly communion with the saints.
In the eighth century the iconoclast movement reacted against the use of images in worship. Often the iconoclasts would storm churches smashing images and disrupting what they believed to be defiled worship. Though eventually the Orthodox Church ruled this movement heretical, the term “iconoclast” entered into our vocabulary to refer to anyone who challenges or overturns traditional beliefs, customs or values.
CS Lewis called God the Great Iconoclast.. “My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? All reality is iconoclastic.” As soon as I think I have Him confined to a neat little category (a category, by the way, that usually gives me in some way power over Him), He shows up with a hammer in His hand. Can we say bull in a china shop?!
When my images fall, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist. It means that my images are unworthy of the God who does exist. It doesn’t mean that everything I believe about God isn’t true, but that even the truth I have isn’t appreciated for how true it really is. I never really go far enough with the truth I have. It is truer than I know.
And, as Lewis observes, all reality is iconoclastic. The world as I experience it is always saying to me that my images fall short of the God who is. Like a sculptor chipping away stone until the true image appears, God is chiseling away ideas and beliefs that are unworthy of Him.
I think that all of my life is about this one thing. The disappointments, regrets, failures, and hurts that threaten to undo my relationship with God are in fact invitations to know more about Him and to receive more from Him. And because I lean on my own understanding as a matter of course and by a spiritual law of gravity develop fallen concepts of God, (as John Calvin so wisely observed, the human heart is an idol factory) He has to be continually about the business of breaking images.
There is a reason that the prelude to the Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the commandment I break more than any other. And this requires the painful intervention of the hammer of God to destroy my idols. But pain leads to joy when I find Him, the real Him, the Him I would have missed. But didn’t!
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Just finished watching Hotel Rwanda! Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.
The tagline for the movie was: “When the world closed its eyes, he opened his arms.” It makes me ask, what is it I don’t want to see? I go even further and ask, what is it our church, our churches, don’t want to see? Romans 15:2-3 puts it this way: “Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?" That's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it.”
Shakespeare put it this way: “He who does not show his love does not love.” Left to my natural tendencies my love turns into sentiments and wishes, not plans and actions. And part of my plan should be to let the suffering of the world into my heart, keep it within my vision. But, alas, I am an escapist, sometimes afraid that I will see too much. And that means much change. And that means not being a part of the carefree crowd.
CT Studd, the great missionary pioneer, wrote, “Some may wish to live with the sound of church and chapel bell--I wish to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
; Those words have haunted me as many years as I have had this quote. They are not only uncomfortable but scary. I just don’t want to see how deeply people can suffer. But if I am a Christian, I must. I am making a bet, though. When I see how much pain there is, I will also see how much greater the salvation. And that is something worth seeing.
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Engineers give their clients three options when they are engaged to manage projects for them. Of those three options the clients can choose two. They can have it 1)fast, 2)cheap, or 3)good. If it’s fast and good, it won’t be cheap. If it’s fast and cheap, it won’t be good. If you want it good, you can do it more cheaply if you don’t go fast. But if you go fast, you can’t go cheap. Well, you get the picture!!!
The Christian life doesn’t give us those choices. It can’t be fast. True growth is growth for a lifetime. Jesus compares the good things God wants to do in our lives to fruit. And fruit in the natural world takes time. Some lessons can only be learned much later on. Ask Moses or Abraham. It takes a whole lifetime to do the whole will of God.
It can’t be cheap, either. True growth comes out of death. Not only must we die to sin, but we are the ones who must wield the knife. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…
Col 3:5 The Apostle Paul says that we are to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). This is pretty violent kind of language. This is not a church tea we are invited to but a war. And anyone who has ever seriously engaged the old nature we all have with a deep desire for change knows that it’s a very bloody mess.
CH Spurgeon put it this way: “All the way to heaven we shall only get there by the skin of our teeth. We shall not go to heaven sailing along with sails swelling to the breeze, like seabirds with their fair white wings, but we shall proceed full often with sails rent to ribbons, with masts creaking, and the ship's pumps at works both night and day. We shall reach the city at the shutting of the gate, but not an hour before.” The Apostle Paul writes, "This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels." (Eph 6:12)
Cheap and fast don’t lead to good. But the fact is we want a bargain basement kind of Christianity – all the benefits with not much waiting and very little cost. Can’t be done. And part of growing as a Christian is adjusting to this reality. The kinds of feats God wants to teach you to perform, the kinds of victories he wants you to have, the kind of courage he desires for you to experience come at a great price and not easily gained. But God is with you, working into your life his good and perfect will. He is the best of all engineers.
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& nbsp; I think we all are a bit stunned. The Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in courtrooms if it can be demonstrated there was a religious reason behind it. Now it’s getting ridiculous!! (Telling a country that is 97.7% Christian, Jew, or Muslim – all of whom believe in the Ten Commandments – that their agreed upon ethical code can only be posted if their reasons are secular is like telling an atheist that he can only post his position if he did so for religious reasons; it won’t fit).
The Court reasons that if there is no higher purpose for posting the Ten than a recognition that the Mosaic Law lies behind the American system of justice as a matter of historical fact, then it’s okay. But if anyone actually puts the Ten Commandments up because it describes our ethical duties to the Deity, then it can’t go up. If it is only historical, then up it goes. If it is eternal, then down it comes. As one person has commented, “I've heard people say the Supreme Court is out-of-touch. I've heard them say the Supreme Court is activist and liberal and a little too interested in reinterpreting the Constitution, but I really feel like we've veered into 'just plumb crazy' territory this week.”
In a democracy religious devotion is at the root of good government. The great question before any democracy is how can we vote beyond mere self-interest and make decisions on the basis of virtue. After all, democracy does not possess the ability to make us good and selfless. It can only make us free. But freedom in and of itself cannot produce good things. Only good people can do that. And what happens if there is no longer a consensus about the good, the true and the beautiful? Good government in a democracy requires that the vast number of its citizens are a religious and moral people.
We expect people who vote to go beyond self-interested hedonism, the “more for me” attitude. We should expect rich people to vote on the basis of the good and the poor to vote on the basis of the good, as well as men and women, management and labor, the black, white, brown, red and yellow races. The rich man may vote for higher taxes of which he will bear the greater weight because he desires to do for others what they cannot do for themselves. The poor man may vote for lower taxes which will benefit the rich man disproportionately because he knows he does not have a n atural right to have what another has earned and which rightly belongs to him. In other words, they both can decide on the basis of a standard that rises above the merely human and the merely immediate, even when it seems to work against them.
It is the truth of the Bible which has fueled this successful American experiment in democracy. It is not just an accidental historical phenomenon. There is a cause and effect here. If we want the effect, we must seek to protect and cultivate the cause.
Our hope is that the right minded and the spiritually committed will not give up. We are a culture that is poised on the precipice of great darkness. The fences are falling fast. May God move again to give to the Church such energy, such moral conviction, such virtue that the love of darkness and unrestrained license will not be able to stand up to the light.
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I listened to a radio program the other day about “slow jazz.” This is jazz that is played at a pace as slow as 42 beats per minute. Time that one out with your finger beating out the time. Isn’t easy, is it?
There is something natural, easy, tempting about speeding up. And there is something unbelievably unnatural, hard and unattractive about slowing down. Quite frankly, it takes more attention to slow down than to speed up. We speed up without thinking. And as we speed up, we often aren’t thinking. Most of the bad decisions I have made have been made in a hurry.
In slow jazz, so the program explained, the artist is a bit more exposed, has to be a bit more intentional, and mistakes hang longer in the air. You can’t cover mistakes with speed. But, on the positive side, the listener can hear more, think more, appreciate more and see the true complexity and creativity of the artist. The artist just has to be willing to go slow enough to let all this happen.
Everyone of us has an audience, and they need us at times to go slow. They need us to give them time to catch up with us, feel our peace and confidence, our groundedness. We can’t make up with speed the absence of these things.
Think with me about the things that have to be slow – raising children, making strong marriages, teaching students, nurturing strong churches, building great nations. Press these things too strongly and too quickly and you get a disaster. It might look like strength immediately, but inside it is hollow. Because it is growth at the expense of solidity.
Human gestation has to be slow. Rabbits can have a litter a month. Humans can only give birth to one child a year. This makes sense. In light of our value and complexity, some things just take more time. And they require a commitment that takes this into account.
Questions for you: How slow can you go? How long can you commit? Who are you unfairly asking to speed up? Are you obeying the Sabbath commandment?
So what will you need to slow down? You’ll need faith, a trust that all things work together for good. You’ll need the promises of God rather than walking by sight. You’ll need patience like the farmer who has done the planting and now can only watch.
And find some patient people to hang around. I don’t mean people who will counsel you or listen to you. I just mean patient people. Watch them. Share their rhythms. See their trust. Feel their peace. Let your heartbeat adjust to theirs.
And then go out into your world and be used of God to calm someone else down.
Abracadabra! Open-says-a-me! I love a magic show. I don’t mean card tricks. It has to be people getting out of dangerous situations, able to survive catastrophe. Escaping the inevitable is a rush. Houdini, Copperfield, the Red Sox!!!!
The Bible talks a lot about magic, you know. Magic gets things done. It’s impressive. A shortcut. All action. Could you use a little of that? Don’t, the Bible says. The Bible insists on a relationship, not results. Results are to grow out of an intimate relationship with God. Jesus put it this way: Abide in me and then ask whatever you will. Asking is directly related to abiding. And abiding changes what we ask for. Prayers are shaped differently when Jesus is the lover and loved of our heart. There are prayers we can no longe r pray, like prayers focused on getting and having. Because the God in whom we are now abiding is a God of giving.
A lot of us get religion and magic mixed up. But the difference really matters. Let me enumerate three:
1. Biblical religion is rooted in a moral consciousness and the imperative of holiness. Its focus is the good, the true, the beautiful. Magic is not. Magic makes no moral requirements, just the right formula for success. Modern day evangelicalism comes close to magic, don’t you think? It focuses on the same goals the world has – financial prosperity and security, vocational achievement, getting your perfect life’s partner with whom you are totally compatible (less work, don’t you think?), the attractive body, etc. – but adds that God will help you get them. Increasingly the church is not about shaping the soul, moral growth, deep wisdom, the redemptive value of suffering. It’s about God getting us out of parking tickets and into the best seats on planes.
2. Biblical religion is about worship. W orship completes us. It allows us to be small again and take our place in the universe and quit demanding of God that everything orbit our lives.
3. Biblical religion is about God getting His work done through ordinary acts of kindness, service, sacrifice and humility that we extend to one another – and all of these done daily for a lifetime. It’s painfully slow. But it is the way God mostly works.
James Michener in one of his books writes that the ultimate source of the Susquehanna River was a kind of meadow in which nothing happened: no mysteriously gushing water, merely the slow accumulation of moisture from many unseen and unimportant sources, the gathering of dew, so to speak, the beginning of the unspectacular congregation of nothingness, the origin or purpose, a slow accumulation-the gathering together of meaning.
And that is what biblical religion is all about. Outwardly, not a lot happening – just the slow accumulation of meaning that comes from deep love and deep service to God. But such a life pushes up through the concrete of this present world system and sprouts gr een in a world that is dying. And that’s something that magic could never do.
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Nothing really good comes from drifting. But we, as a matter of course, do it all the time, hoping that somehow and someway something good will come our way no matter what we do or where we are.
But if you survey the good things that have happened in your life, most of them were planned, pursued and passionately wanted. It often took years to realize a goal and long stretches of time when nothing seemed to happen except training, trying and dreaming.
Vocational success usually comes to mind as an example. A college degree. A reasonably happy family with healthy relationships. Physical health and fit bodies. None of these things just happen to us. They are ours because we want them and keep focused when things come along that threaten to bump us off the path.
But when it comes to a relationship with God, there is a lot of drifting going on. William Ham put it this way. “Real spiritual capacity requires at least as much concentration and training as learning to play a musical instrument. Nobody has ever drifted into a genuine Christian experience.”
Well said. The reality is that we get as much of God as we mean to. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 7:7. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” It is a principle of life that we generally get what we want if we are willing to have a long obedience in the same direction.
So here are some pointers for focusing and not drifting. First, choose your god. “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’” (1Ki 18:21) Settle the issue of Lordship. What, or who, is going to call the shots in your life?
Second, choose your church. That’s like saying to an athlete choose your gym. Show up at a particular place at a particular time with your particular team mates and work at the disciplines that will keep you moving toward the goal. I have met lots of Christians who “go to church” like lots of people “go to gyms.” Yes, they belong. They can identify the place and point to it from a car window. But the truth is they are on their way to another “sure thing” seminar or concert or event that will trip their lever. The routines of church life are just too, well, routine. So is the gym. But that is where athletes go.
Third, choose your training routines. And don’t compromise them. Training comes first. It’s about developing patterns that open up opportunities that aren’t there otherwise. What are the routines?
*A daily time with God, listening to His Word in the Bible.
*Casting all your care upon Him through prayer so that you can walk in faith without wearisome anxiety.
*Keeping connected with the fellowship, working at relationships with Christ-followers, especially those you find hard to love.
*Worshiping with the local church.
*Using your gift week in and week out to make the church strong.
*Sharing Christ with those who do not know Him.
Parents, train your children!! Keep them rooted in the routines—give them the experience of “this is what Christians do.” Root it in their young minds and hearts that there are certain things we do each day and week to draw close to God. Insist. Sure they will complain. So what?!
I ran across a web site called “churchmarketingstinks.com/” It is a website devoted to religious marketing schemes that don’t really work and weaken the church and those who go. Pretty fascinating. I think the ultimate marketing tool is a man or women who doesn’t drift but decides – and does. The world takes notice!
I have heard a lot of evangelists preach that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. True! I have often used this expression as well to demonstrate how attractively different Christianity really is. But I could be missing something when I say this too easily. The reality is that for many religion often looks more attractive than a relationship. Before you react strongly, think about it.
John Ortberg tells the story of a young man he knew who grew up in a violently abusive home. His conversion to Jesus was a remarkable thing to see, and to anyone looking on he is a model of faithfulness. He is very active at church and well disciplined in his devotional habits. He witnesses regularly and can argue fervently and persuasively for his faith. But hi s discipline masks a fear that he will never really experience God. He tells John that he is secretly thinking of converting to Judaism because it doesn’t emphasize as much a personal relationship with God. Stunned? I think I understand.
Rules we can do. We know where we stand. Try harder. Be firmer. Go for the gold. Hear the applause. But the heart is another matter altogether. A relationship doesn’t submit to such externals and doesn’t have such clear markings of success and failure. It is full of give and take, patience, understanding, loyalty, humility, and forgiveness. If you are married or have been, or otherwise have relationships you work at and try to maintain, you know exactly what I mean. Relationships are much harder than rules, and you’re not sure you know exactly how things stand, how far you have come or how far you have to go.
Quite frankly, I’m not sure we have much of a clue when we repeat along with King David, “search me and know me. See if there be any grievous way in me.” There’s a depth in that prayer that makes my knees weak. It’s a relationship prayer.
And besides, God doesn’t play by the rules. Or to put it another way, the rules are always on His side. He invented them, He owns them, and some of them only He knows. He shows up late, sometimes doesn’t answer back, and at other times wants to get very close just when it would be very convenient for us if He wasn’t. And then for some strange reason He isn’t all that impressed by our exhausting rule keeping and busy obedience. Doesn’t He know how committed we are, how hard we are trying?
The reality is that almost all of us don’t do relationships well. There’s a lot of brokenness along the path. And then when we find out Christianity is a relationship, we can get a bit unnerved, afraid. That’s the one thing we don’t have an inside track on. If you think you do, consider that Jesus said how you relate to people is a measure of how you relate to God. If that is anywhere close to being true (and it is), there is so much farther to go in this life of faith to which Christ has called me.
Unlike Ortberg’s friend, don’t let the fear tempt you to go b ack to religion, ritual and rules. It’s a trick of the Evil One. Substitute religion for a relationship and all you will have is the best you can do – and that is never enough.