Prayer Re-thought

Matthew 6:8 NIV

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Why Do You Pray?

A couple of years ago we were awakened by a violent shaking near our bed.  It wasn’t an earthquake but for us something much worse.  Our youngest son still slept in a small bed at the foot of our bed and in the middle of the night started having a seizure.  He had never gone through one before and we had not experienced a seizure ourselves nor seen one of our kids have one.  The disorientation caused by just having been asleep and the shock of witnessing one of our children experiencing something so terrible threw us into a panic.  His eyes were rolled up into the top of his head and his body was stiff as a bamboo pole.  Not knowing what to do, we called 911 and soon emergency personnel were at our house helping us with Ben.   I rode with him in the ambulance and after a couple hours, we were sent home, reassured that the seizure had not harmed him and did not mean that he would have other seizures.  Throughout this ordeal, both Mary Jo and I prayed for Ben, prayed for wisdom about what to do for him, prayed for the nurses and doctor to know how to help him and prayed that he would recover without damage to his brain.  We did not hesitate to pray when the seizure began and never questioned the value of continuing to pray on the way to the hospital, while in emergency and after we returned with the doctor’s clearance.

Prayer is one of the most frequent activities engaged in by people world-wide and specifically within the Christian community.  Those who pray rarely question the logic of it or its validity when doing so yet there may be many times when we wonder if we should keep praying about a matter and countless hours and perhaps even days when prayer does not cross our mind.  Why do we pray?  What is a father whose child is addicted to meth hoping to accomplish by praying?  How come a woman going through a divorce prays or a young man needing work prays?  Why does a high school student pray when facing a tough final?  Is there a reason why a mother prays for her family or a grandparent prays her health?  What do you hope to accomplish by praying?

It seems so simple, right?  We pray to get something.  We see in the Bible plenty of examples of people who prayed and did hope to get something.  The accomplished and mostly good King Hezekiah found himself in a tough spot.  In the fourteenth year of his reign, Hezekiah’s country Judah was being ransacked by a huge Assyrian army and now they were at his doorstep, surrounding his hometown of Jerusalem.  It was an impossible situation; he had no hope of being able to fight off the Assyrian invaders…starvation or capitulation seemed to be the only options he and the people of Jerusalem had.  The general of the Assyrians mocked Hezekiah and the Hebrews for believing the Lord might answer their prayers and rescue them.  "Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The Lord will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?  Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?" (2 Kings 18:32-35 NIV)

Many of us have felt like it was hopeless to pray and perhaps Hezekiah did too.  The Bible does not say that Hezekiah himself prayed for deliverance from the Assyrians although we might assume he did.  We do know however that he sent messengers to Isaiah the prophet and asked him to pray for God to drive off the Assyrians.  Isaiah’s reply was, “Tell your master, 'This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard — those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.  Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'" (2 Kings 19:6-7 NIV)  But the Assyrians did not leave immediately.  More threats came from their general and Hezekiah himself prayed.  Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God." (2 Kings 19:19 NIV)  That night one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers were struck dead by a plague sent from the Lord and Hezekiah gained fresh insight into the Lord’s power and care for him and the nation of Judah.

At the age of thirty-nine, the Lord told Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah that he was about to die.  Devastated by the news, he prayed for God not to take his life.  Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, "Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. (2 Kings 20:2-3 NIV) Of course Hezekiah was overjoyed when the Lord through the prophet Isaiah promised him fifteen more years of life and he did gain them.  Something interesting happened though in those fifteen years.  Hezekiah lost his interest in praying.  Things went so well for him and he was so prosperous that it seems he became comfortable and his interest in God casual.  There were all sorts of issues he faced we can be sure but he solved them on his own.  Hezekiah was smart and a talented leader and it seemed to him that everything was going so smoothly that he didn’t need to waste his time praying or bother his head with it…and it is true.  He was doing well.  He was successful, popular and content.

Later, a contingent of Babylonian merchants and politicians came to Jerusalem to meet with Hezekiah and the king welcomed them with open arms.  Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses — the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil — his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. (2 Kings 20:13 NIV)  Now, this seemed like a lovely gesture of comradery and neighborliness.  Hezekiah was smartly hoping to form an alliance with an up and coming international power that could help both him and his country in the future.  Of course it was a little boastful on his part, showing off his riches and bragging a bit about his accomplishments but he had great reason to be proud of his work and what harm was it anyway to show off some.  The Lord immediately sent the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah to explain the ramifications of what he had done in welcoming the Babylonian contingent into Jerusalem.  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord:  The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." (2 Kings 20:16-18 NIV)

Hezekiah’s reaction to this rebuke from God is fascinating but quite representative of how the mind responds to the Lord when it has lost its sensitivity to the way God thinks. "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?" (2 Kings 20:19 NIV)  God had nothing more to say to Hezekiah after that reaction to the warning.  Hezekiah was not thinking like the Lord; it was as if they had nothing in common with each other.  Now we realize that there are plenty of people who don’t care how their actions will impact the generations that follow them.  They don’t worry about what their career move will do to their children, how their divorce will impact their grandkids, what will happen a hundred years from now if they choose one school over another.  Who thinks that way?  God does.  He cares what sort of life we lay down for future generations and it matters to Him the decisions we make and their ramifications for ourselves and others.

There is an interesting statement Jesus makes about prayer and praying that has confused many Christians and non-Christians.  Talking about pagans and all who misunderstand what is to happen when we pray, Jesus commented, Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:8 NIV)  Now it is easy to confuse this statement with those of atheists who teach that praying is irrelevant and useless.  That is not at all the gist of this as Jesus goes on to explain how prayers should be presented to God.  In fact immediately after this verse He then gave us the model prayer to be certain we all know how praying should go.  If prayer is not giving God key information that He might not be aware exists, then why do we tell Him about what we want and what we need and about our concerns?  It is because as we pray, our mind comes in contact with God’s mind and all we care about becomes immersed in Him and is transformed by His thinking.  The panicked minds or the calm and faith-filled minds are all changed by going to the Lord in prayer.  As  we bring before Him the things He already knows and cares about, we find that we lose our own view of what we face and we begin to see it as He does.  It is not a terrible storm.  It is Christ in the boat.  It is not a devastating loss.  It is the Lord lifting us to a new opportunity.  It is not the end of the world.  It is the beginning of a more important journey.

Every situation we face, whether we deem it good, bad, frightening or inconsequential, we can go through it with God’s mind thinking through our mind or push forward on our own.  When we pray to Christ for help or guidance or simply to honor Him, we put ourselves in touch with God who miraculously guides us through what we face and gives us His thoughts about what is before us and what we do not yet see.  Hezekiah stopped thinking that it was important to see things God’s way but you haven’t!  You want God to tell you to relax and trust Him.  You look forward to being guided by Christ through your next crisis or job opportunity.  You want the Lord to tell you what to think about your trials as well as your victories.  Prayer is how our Savior shows us the way…even when we don’t realize we need directions.  It takes practice learning how to recognize when it is God leading you and when it is just you forming an opinion.  That is why we need to pray all the time that His voice is not a stranger to us when we need to know it is Him!

Sin Unbound

We see that there is a deep advantage to being hurt by the badness of people.  It awakens us to just how profound the ramifications of Sin are.  Sin strikes at the core of every relationship we have and impacts every thought we possess.  Sin runs deep into our unconscious and percolates up into our dreams and odd reactions to circumstances...tempers we don't expect, lusts we thought we didn't possess, depressions and anxieties that seem unfounded.  The world is permeated by Sin and the cruelty and rudeness that exists is mind shattering if we give it much thought.  Even school-age children are severely damaged by the prevalence of Sin in the classrooms that we would like to believe are sanctuaries for them.  Thank God He did not close His eyes to the cruelty and corruption of Sin.  Our Lord took it on His own back and wore the brutality of it in His muscles and skin and He absorbed it fully until it was clear, "it is finished".   When we feel the weight of Sin upon us and it's cruelty marks us too, we can at that moment recognize the assignment God has given us to intercede for those about us.  Pray for the ones you see suffering from the agony of Sin induced sorrow and pain.    No heartache or wound is too deep for Jesus Christ to heal and redeem.  No fury is too great for Him to calm and no lust too powerful for Him to tame.  The Cross of Christ brings victory at every point where Sin has had its way.  The Cross is God accepting in Himself each outcome of Sin within His own body and thereby making every sin we commit and face  a broken chain that once bound us but does so no longer.  Sin still wrecks lives and brings misery but Christ Crucified gives the peace and joy of God  entrance into every human heart that looks to Him for salvation.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV

Rest for a Weary Soul

We love to make much of our choosing God and doing something for Him when it is all backwards.  We did not choose Him.  He chose us.  And our work for God is like a candle set up against the sun when compared to the work of His for us.  We get disappointed when ministries do not go well.  Sometimes we grumble about how tough we have it and how hard is our lot in life.  Take a moment to stare up at Christ crucified.  Listen to Him groan as tries to lift up to gather in one more breath.  Taste the blood that drips down from His forehead and onto His cheeks and falls down to the dusty hill below Him.  Smell the sweat as the soldiers pass by you after they finish flogging Him.  Feel the vibrations of the hammer beating down upon the spikes going through His wrists and into the beams of the Cross.  Watch as His body trembles with another blow across His back.  Weep with Christ as the Disciples flee and Judas hangs himself.  Shake in agony over the crowds calling for His crucifixion and the nine lepers running off without looking back to thank Him for their healing.  Stare in bewilderment at the Disciples who fall asleep in Gethsemane and cannot pray with Him for just an hour.  It is all too much to consider, the agony of Christ as He worked His way up to Jerusalem without a single soul walking  at His side that He could count on to lighten His load; to reduce His burden.  The whole mass of humanity was upon Jesus' shoulders and He kept going to the end without a grumble or a complaint.  We live in a fallen world filled with disappointment and suffering and ministry is almost unbearable at times.  Yet we are not alone.  We have a Savior who lifts up from us the full weight of our troubles and carries them upon His own back as we regain our strength and have our hope restored.  Sit down for a moment and let the Holy Spirit sweep you up in His arms like a shepherd gathering a fallen lamb to his breast and be still with all your sorrows and pain.  Our Lord loves you and He will carry you in your time of trouble and heartache.   Give Him time to hold you for He knows how you have suffered and how hard it is for you to breathe.

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."    Exodus 14:14 NIV

Dynamic Change

There are many of us who are weary; we have tremendous burdens that wear down our souls and we are tired of all the difficulties we face.  Not everyone is like this.  Some are cheery and pleased beyond measure with their lives.  All the "breaks" seem to fall their way and nothing much troubles them.  There is though, a great number of us who are going through the motions at work, just trying to get by at home, trudging through mud at school and we need more than just a pat on the back; we need the supernatural hand of God upon us.  Thomas the disciple lived in such a gloom that even the good news of his fellow disciples that Jesus was alive could not shake him out of it.  Only Jesus Christ Himself could lift the despair of his heart.  Our age is one of disbelief; that there are no devils tormenting souls, no satanic power working amongst us.  It is just the circumstances, broken relationships and troubled pasts that we have in the middle of our darkness.  Amateur and professional counselors alike do their best to try to "get at the root of our issues" and after years of probing and manipulating and prescribing, the "terror of the night" is still there.   The misery and torment so many of us suffer is real and it cannot all be explained by our experiences; the wise must take into account the very real presence of unseen evil forces in our world.  Perhaps you have tried your best to get at what is wrong with someone you love dearly and you have gotten nowhere.   You are at the end of your rope with this person and you don't know what more could be done.  God may never show you what is causing the "jangling of nerves" and anguish but maybe if you would give the Holy Spirit space, Jesus Christ could be brought in contact with the broken soul and do what was done for Mary Magdalene.  Are you willing to intercede with desperate determination for the weary souls you know and by God's grace, bring Jesus Christ to them through your praying?  Remember that Jesus told His disciples that some people could only be helped through prayer!  Prayer was not in Jesus' mind the feeble alternative of weak and unsophisticated minds; it was the great blast of dynamite that alone could break loose certain people from their despair and turmoil when the "wise and skilled" come up against those cases too big for them to handle.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"  He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."     Mark 9:28-29 NIV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsY6UrFIsNs

Hunger is the Best Sauce

There is no one Satan is quite as ruthless with as the person who once walked with God and has turned aside.  The enemy shades this person's eyes and takes away his peripheral vision spiritually so that he cannot see how far off the narrow path he has turned.  Everything seems so good and true about what he is doing.  The older brother who despised the mercy his father provided his younger brother felt not the least twinge of guilt for thinking as he did.   Yet he could not have been farther from God if he had shot his father in the head.   The root of the older brother's falling away is that he wanted what his younger brother had...the life of sin and then the easy way out of it.  He was not satisfied with all the good he had done working along-side his father; he had to own the party his father threw for his brother.   Christian people who begin strong are most likely to fall away when they look around and want what God has given another.  The discontent seems holy at first; I deserve better and I am certain God will realize how badly I have been treated.  As soon as God becomes the "unjust judge" or the "inadequate master", Satan has the upper hand in the Christian's life and he is cooked.  There is only one way back for such a believer.  Repent.  Acknowledge your sin and turn to God in humble acceptance of your guilt.  Our Lord does not beg us to return to Him when we drift off and in fact He may become as silent as an Antarctic iceberg.  He did not chase after the younger son who walked away from Him and He let the older brother boycott the party.  We are free to hold our grudges and search for life away from God but it is a glorious day when we realize what we have done and seek out again the Savior who redeems us from Satan's velvet grasp.  What should we do if we have a friend who has fallen away from God?  Rely on the Holy Spirit to make you so alive in God that the person who has made his home in "Balaam's country" will hunger for Christ again.

 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!   Luke 15:17 NIV

Attachment

Jesus gave a simple expectation of those who have become His disciples.  Remain in me.  The implication is that we might not...that it is not automatic for us.  The great deception that runs rampant through the Church is that we can only get so far with praying and then we have to "do something".  It is as if all the pronouncements of Christ on prayer were the ravings of a lunatic or the naïve expectancies of a child staying up late waiting for Santa Claus to come down through a chimney not built into the home.  We pray but not like Christ told us we could pray.  Of course we give it a shot and then when we get bored with it or frustrated by its "failure" we move on to more important business.    Prayer is not a means by which we achieve something, whatever that achieving might be.  Prayer is what makes something, something.  Unless there is prayer in it, what we do is chasing after the wind; fruitless harvesting.  Jesus, noted, "What good is it  for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul."  We mistakenly file this comment away as a final judgment saying when it isn't.  It is about life here and now.  If what we strive to gain has nothing of Christ in it, then we have cut out our soul then and there and cast it aside.  Do we not realize that our soul is Christ joined to us in a new personality that is born again?  If our Lord is not in our striving, if we are not so completely attached to Him in what we do that our "soul" is in it, then our striving is fuel for the fires of hell.    God expects us to be immersed in Christ at every moment because we can.  The bloody death of Christ makes it possible for us to be attached to Christ so completely that whatever we do is the will of God and whatever we achieve is good fruit. 

If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  John 15: 7 NIV

Martyr's Hill

One of the most devious tricks of the devil is to get us to say, "I can't" to God.  Is it really that you can't or that you won't?  Every creature, from the snail to the leopard is made perfectly by God for whatever purpose our Lord has planned.  We make much of genetic deformities as if that is sensible.  What we may call a deformity is in fact a way of expressing disbelief in God's handiwork...as if He is a flawed artist.  If at any point God gives you direction and you are clear it is God, you can be certain you are equipped and prepared for the task.  Nothing about you is out of place or lacking.  It must be dumbfounding to the angels that any born-again Christian would question God's call based on skill sets and talents.  Yet even Moses stood at the burning bush arguing with Almighty God over his fitness to lead Israel out of Egypt!  What slander to confuse defamation of God's work in you with humility!  It is not humble to turn down our Lord because we think we are inadequate for the task!  It is rather outright rebellion against His rule.  Nothing amazes the world quite as much as the fisherman who stands the world on its ear with his preaching or the tax collector who composes the very first book of the New Testament or the lunatic who Christ proclaims will be remembered eternally for her holy devotion.  How will heaven remember you?  Will you be compared to all those called by God who turned aside out of fear or indifference or will you be known as the one who scorned the devil's mocking of your readiness for the task and gave God all you had for your Savior's glory?   Will you stand on the hill of your martyrdom and plant the banner of Christ there, declaring the land irrevocably God's and His alone? 

 "Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.     Jeremiah 1:17-18 NIV

Certainty

2 Timothy 1:12

Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

How Do You Know That You Know?

Twenty five years ago our family packed up all we had and moved from New Orleans to

Northern California.  It was a dreadfully long trip but on the way we decided to take some educational side trips.  One of our stops was at the world famous Carlsbad Caverns.  As a child I had looked seen pictures of it in National Geographic and had dreamed of one day going to it.  I had been to a number of caves before; seen stalactites and stalagmites, explored creepy caves and stood in caves with all the lights out deep below the earth.  What intrigued me most about the Carlsbad Caverns were the stories I had read of all the bats in the cave.  I had seen pictures of bats flooding out of the cave but I couldn’t imagine so many bats coming all at once.  When we had the opportunity to stand at the entrance to the cave when the bats all came out to feed in the evening, I was not prepared for what took place.  As if shot from a cannon, just as the sun was setting, without warning, millions of bats in a great cloud of flapping fury exploded out of the cave, covering the sky as if a thunderstorm had come upon us.  For several minutes it was nothing but bats whizzing past until the great host was gone.  It was far more bats than I imagined existed in the entire world came out of that cave and I was struck by how inadequate were the descriptions I had read of the bat exodus from Carlsbad Cavern.  The experience of it went far beyond my imagining.  I was no longer a “doubting Thomas” that something so spectacular was possible as millions of bats flooding out of a cave all at once was possible.

Have you ever had a hard time believing something you were told could be true?  Perhaps a movie everyone is talking about can’t possibly be as good as they say.  Maybe a book your friend is raving about won’t live up to the expectations.  It could be a TV show that you have been told is “so funny” won’t be.  A speaker you have been told to catch on a podcast won’t keep your attention.  A college that has been recommended to you is not going to be as good as you have been told.  It could be that someone told you to move to a certain town because it is such a wonderful place but you don’t think you will like living there.  Maybe you don’t believe that someone’s story about what they did is true.  Have you been skeptical of the hype about a political candidate or of a religious teacher or perhaps all that is promised about Christianity?  Do you have some doubts about what you believe?

Of all the people described in the Old Testament, I am most intrigued by Moses.  He was one of only two people who met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and he is known by many as the “Great Deliverer” because of his role in Israel being freed from slavery.  He was a man of great passions and yet described as a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3 NIV)  He most likely had a troubled marriage, was a bit self-righteous and like many of us, blamed others for some of his biggest mistakes.  Most importantly, for the sake of our discussion, Moses was not always certain he could trust God.

We are not sure how he came to this conclusion but Moses at some point, before he turned forty, believed God would use him to help his fellow Israelites escape the bondage they were under in Egypt.  His childhood was unusual.  He was born during a tempestuous time in his nation’s history.  The Israelites had settled in Egypt some four hundred years earlier and now were a persecuted people in their adopted land. The king of Egypt became afraid the Israelites would revolt if they continued to increase in number so he ordered that all male Israelite babies be killed.  Moses’s mother put her baby boy in a water-tight basket to try and keep him from being discovered by the Egyptian soldiers and the daughter of the king of Egypt found him floating in the Nile River while she was bathing.  As soon as she saw baby Moses, the Egyptian princess decided to adopt the boy, thus saving him.  Now was this a coincidence that Moses survived the pogrom of Hebrew babies this way?   Was it just luck Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses floating in the basket and when she saw him, loved him and wanted to save him, raising him in her own house and making sure he was educated by the best teachers of the land?  Or was this a miracle and it was God who saved him through Pharaoh’s daughter?  Your interpretation of this fortunate circumstance depends on your point of view.  Those who don’t believe in God would call it a random fluke of life; those who believe in a personal God who operates within our world might say it was God who rescued Moses and prepared him for leadership. 

Certainly Moses had decided something about his survival as a baby and how it came about and by the time he was forty, he had an opinion about God’s existence.  We know he believed God was working through people in normal circumstances of life because when he was forty he was convinced that God wanted him to kill an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite.  The prophet Stephen, in his last sermon lets us in on Moses’s thinking when he came upon the maltreatment of the Israelite.  "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.  He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.  Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. (Acts 7:23-26 NIV)  It did not turn out well for Moses though.  The Israelites did not rally to Moses as their deliverer; in fact they rejected him and it was reported to Pharaoh what he had done.  Pharaoh was furious and word got back to Moses that he would be executed for his crime.  Moses escaped to Midian where he lived forty years as a fugitive.

What is intriguing about this biographical account is the shift in Moses’s thinking about God and God’s presence in the world.  We can understand how Moses could have thought God wanted him to kill the Egyptian.  It was just as sensible for Moses to think the Lord wanted to use him to lead a rebellion against Egyptian domination as it was for him to decide that God saved him as a baby from the fate suffered by other baby boys of his generation.  An atheist might come to another conclusion.  The fact that Moses lived when other’s died was just a quirk of chance and his belief that he was to lead Israel was something he concocted himself or through the influence of friends or family members but there was no God involved in any of it.  This may very well have been the evolution of Moses’s thinking as he developed a new life far from his fellow Israelites and the Egyptian oppressors.   He fell into a very ordinary existence.  He got married.  He had children.  He raised sheep.  He watched his children move through the normal stages of growth.  He looked for watering spots for his sheep and fought off bears or lions that tried to attack the flock.  Moses kept moving his flocks about in search of pastures.  He fought with his wife and made love to her, had interesting conversations with his father-in-law and the other men of the village.  Slowly he gave up on the idea that God wanted him to help rescue his fellow Israelites from slavery.  Thoughts of God may have continued and he might have even led his family in prayers but any vibrant expectancy that the Lord was personally involved in his life gradually faded.  He had bills to pay and mouths to feed and you can’t look to God to do those things for you.  Forty years without any sign of God makes you more of an atheist than you might care to admit.  Not all atheism is created equal.  Some forms of it are casual and incidental; not a well thought through view of life…more a developed disregard for anything personal about God.  Atheism can be a way of life; it doesn’t have to be a philosophy.

As the silence of God continues, our faith in Him wanes and we pay less attention to Him operating in our world.  Disappointment may be the biggest cause of atheism.  Why didn’t God help me with this problem?  How come God doesn’t change my circumstances?  I thought God would get me a job, make my daughter well, save my marriage, stop me from drinking, grant me a pardon.  We don’t intend to stop believing in God.  It just happens as our disappointments and busy lifestyles deconstruct our faith in a personal and interactive Lord.  I am pretty certain it happened with Moses.  His reaction to the burning bush is a snapshot of practical atheism.  God let him down back in Egypt, why should he trust the Lord now forty years later when God clearly was meeting him out in the hills of Midian.

Imagine if Moses continued to sulk when he met God at the burning bush.  What if he had turned around and walked away when the first sign of God appeared to him?  How different our history would be.  How different would have been everything for Moses?  It is a most amazing moment when God comes to us and it really is God.  We can’t perhaps put our finger on how we are so certain it is God but it is God and the moment we know it is God we are either going to respond with anger and disgust over all the wrong we feel He has done us or we are going to awaken, like a child opening her eyes to the morning light, and recognize the love in His call to us.

The Lord told us to watch for Him to come to us.  He means for us to be ready to see Him.  He won’t prepare us for His entrance.  There will be no trumpets blaring to warn us He is near.  He will simply come.  And when He comes it will be as certain to you as a friend entering into your house that He is there.  His entrance may not be logical…it may make no sense to you at all but He will be with you and you will know He is with you and nothing will be the same from then onward.  Micah the prophet recognized that no one else may watch and wait for the Lord to come to them but he would.  But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  Do not gloat over me, my enemy!  Though I have fallen, I will rise.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. (Micah 7: 7-8 NIV) When the Lord comes, you will be surprised by Him and you won’t be prepared for what He does next with you.  He might speak through you or love someone through you or heal through you.  His presence will be most wonderful and although you may have fallen, like Micah, you will rise.  You will rise above your sin and rise above your hurt and rise above your disappointment and rise above your failure and the Great God of All will be there with you.  Nothing can stop the Lord from coming to you.  You will be amazed and in your heart cry, “That is the Lord.”  Watch for Him!  Look for Him.  Listen for Him.  The Lord will come to you.  Be prepared to meet Him! 

Planning For Tomorrow

We make all sorts of plans.  We plan our vacations, plan for retirement, plan our work schedule, plan when we will have kids, plan our class schedule and plan on getting our haircut.  We strategize how to succeed, how to invest, how to stay healthy and how to raise our children.  There is though only one strategy in the Kingdom of God and it is as simple as turning on your computer or starting your car.  In Jesus' final instructions before going to the Cross He provided the Disciples with the only plan He had for them to operate as children of God and succeed in what the Father had in store for them.    He put it metaphorically so that it would be clear as day to us what it was.  "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing". (John 15:4-5 NIV) Our laser-like attention and focus must be on this one effort.  Remain in Christ and let nothing take you from it.  Anything that distracts you from keeping your mind fixed on Christ must be hated with all the disgust you can muster.    It is not that we are to leave this world in abandonment to some monastery in the hills.  God never gave His disciples an assignment like that.  He left them in the hard scramble of life and did not pull them from it until He called them home.  It is in the crash of living that we are to remain in Christ and stay there in Him when anything from disaster to triumph arrives.   There is no panic or fear of "night" for the one whose mind is fixed on Christ.  We can be as peaceful as a cooing dove if we will do this one thing without fail.  Look to Christ in the earthquake and the storm, in the sunset and the gentle breeze.  Refuse to give in to the temptation to fuss about what you will wear or what you will eat or how mistreated you are but glue your mind to Christ and tomorrow will "take care of itself".

But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  For I will give you...   Luke 21:14-15 NIV

Changed Mind

Matthew 21:29 NIV

 "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Have You Changed Your Mind Lately?

I am not very fickle and I rarely change my mind when I have decided something but the other day I was ready to get rid of our cat.  She doesn’t really care about anyone but our daughter, she drags her claws on the sofa, she sheds all over the house and lately she has taken up going to the bathroom in our shower.  Our cat is grumpy, eats too much and doesn’t care if you come or go.  She only demands, never gives.  I can’t say she even really wants any of us to touch her.  So when a family friend said she was interested in taking our cat if we didn’t want her, I was very happy about the prospect.  Unfortunately it only lasted a week.  Our friend was hoping for a cat that purred, rested quietly on her lap, wanted to stay inside and liked her.  Our cat has absolutely no people skills and is not interested in making anyone happy and soon she was back in our apartment shedding once more everywhere.  But, I must say that I changed my mind about our cat.  I still would not get too upset if she got into drugs and was busted by the police or found a boyfriend and decided to move with him to Michigan but I was glad she was back with us because I saw how much my daughter loved her.  What seemed so dreadful, that our cat would be returned to us, I actually felt good about.  I changed my mind.

Perhaps you have changed your mind about how you thought of someone.  An enemy actually became a friend, a job you disliked you now enjoy doing.  Perhaps you now like where you live or have changed your mind about someone who asked you out for a date.  It could be that your thoughts about God have changed over time or even your views of heaven and eternity are different.  Sometimes it is quite a major change in thinking that we experience; even our family members are shocked, co-workers and classmates are surprised.  Would you shock even yourself if you changed political parties or made a flip-flop on your view of climate change, eating meat or which sports teams were your favorites?  How easy is it for you to change your mind and when it comes to how you think, is it true that “change is good”?  Do you need a change in how you think, in the way your life is going?  Do you think it really is possible for you to change in regard to the most important parts of your life?

The New Testament uses a particular word that carries with it negative connotations for many people.  You may have heard preachers use it and it bothered you the way it was expressed in sermons.  Unfortunately this word is often misunderstood and viewed as strictly a “religious word”.  John the Baptist is quoted in one of his sermons using it.  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (Matthew 3:8 NIV)  Jesus used the word to explain His work.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:32 NIV)  The Apostle Paul stated that it was also his mission to present the same message.  I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. (Acts 20:21 NIV)  Repentance is a great word that despite what some people think of it, presents the perfect picture of what every helping profession from psychologists to doctors and dentists hope to accomplish.  The goal of all these professionals is to bring about repentance.  Let me explain!

The English word “to repent” has Latin and French roots and speaks mostly of feeling badly about what one has done.  Guilt is a key component in the Latin and French terms.  That is often what we associate with repentance.  Repentance, at least as the early French and Catholics indicated, was all about the emotional side of realizing what you had done was wrong; it was about feeling guilty for bad behavior.  To some degree, that is how repentance may work for many of us but that is not the Biblical sense of repentance.  Repentance is a rather narrow English translation of the Greek word found in the New Testament and this Greek word means more than just feeling badly about your actions.  The Biblical expression is actually a combination of two Greek words which when put together mean, “to change the mind”.  It describes a morphing from one way of thinking to another, a “conversion” of thinking.

We see this illustrated by Martha, the sister of Lazarus who was raised by Jesus from the dead.  In Luke 10, Martha is agitated that she has to work hard in the kitchen while her sister is free to sit at Jesus’ feet and relax.  As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"  "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42 NIV)  There is not a more believable and unremarkable account in the entire Bible than this.  Most of us have been incensed that all the work has fallen upon us while others get to play.  We have felt just like Martha and have even expressed our frustration about it.  But something happened that brought about a change in thinking with our friend.  It was the resurrection of her brother Lazarus.

In John 11 is the famous account of Jesus raising Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary from the dead.  At first, Martha was perturbed with Jesus for not coming when she and her sister sent for him when Lazarus was just sick.  When Jesus, in her mind, wasted his time on trivial matters and got to their house too late because Lazarus in the meantime had died, she chastised him for his cavalier attitude toward her brother’s dire circumstance.   But when Jesus raised him from the dead and Martha realized that not even death should dictate how she thought about things, and even more so how she thought about being left alone to serve everyone, she “changed her mind”.  Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.  Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:1-3 NIV)

Much is made of Mary pouring all that expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and drying them with her hair but someone should notice Martha here too.  No longer is she complaining about Mary lounging when there was work to be done.  There was no more animosity about all the work she had to do on her own.  Her mind had changed: there was a conversion of her thinking!  The same could be said of the Apostle John who along with his brother James was furious over the lack of respect Jesus received in one of the Samaritan villages.  As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"   But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56 NIV)  It was never a small matter for Jesus to rebuke anyone and it would leave a lasting impression.  It clearly resulted in John “changing his mind” about the Samaritans because after Jesus crucified and risen left the disciples and they became apostles, sent out into the world, one of the very first things John did was join with Peter and begin an evangelistic tour throughout Samaria, preaching there the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. (Acts 8:25b NIV)

It is one thing to feel badly about what you have done; another altogether to change your mind about your actions and alter your course.  One of the great questions facing the field of psychology is how to get people to change their minds about things…to change their minds sufficiently that it results in a different lifestyle.  All sorts of methods are used: punishment, rewards, talking, reviewing past personal history, mentoring, administering of drugs.  What everyone knows is that no matter how expensive and elaborate the intervention may be, unless a person’s mind is changed, behavior change is never long lasting.  For centuries however, Christian people have been changing their minds and dramatically altering their behavior as a result.  Not every person who names himself Christian has a changed mind; that is why so many so-called Christians look just like non-Christians…their morals are just as loose, their honesty is just as undependable and their addictions are just as resolute and harmful as those of non-Christian people.

What is needed is a real change of mind brought about by God’s kindness.  The Apostle Paul puts it this way.  …do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? (Romans 2:4 NIV)  What happened with Paul has been occurring for centuries.  As soon as Paul realized what a great kindness God had done for Him by dying on the Cross for his sins, the hateful and angry Paul embraced the very people he wanted dead.  Why?  Because Jesus Christ became a part of Paul and the Savior began to work His way into Paul’s thinking.  Literally, this verse states that God’s kindness leads you into a changed mind!  How does this happen?  Paul let the cat out of the bag in his closing remarks to the leaders of the church of Ephesus.  The NIV translates it this way.  I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.  (Acts 20:21 NIV)  The original Greek wording puts it this way, “having declared to Jews and Greeks the changed mind into God and faith into our Lord Jesus.”  What this means is that the changed mind which is immersed in God’s mind is always in conjunction with faith into the Lord Jesus.  Without developing and expanding faith into Jesus Christ, the mind never develops God’s mind; it just stays the same with only its own strength and understanding.  Faith in Christ though brings God into our thinking and with Him there, habits can be broken, memories that have haunted us can lose their power over us and we will have the kind of thinking we need to overcome bad behaviors and bad attitudes.

Faith in Christ is the most dramatic and powerful way to change both what we do and how we think.  Yet it is so simple to place your faith in Christ and gain God’s power in thinking.  You ask Christ to guide you and help you with everything you can think of as you go through your day.  When you read something in the Bible that insists you change what you are doing, then you believe Christ is right and you make the change.  When there is a choice between something you think is good and fair and what the Holy Spirit clearly says is not for you, then you accept God’s guidance and trust Christ in it.  Faith in Christ is not a once for all decision; it is a hundred little decisions each day which when added together give you God’s power to become the sort of person you want to be and God intends for you to be.

Obedience—The Great Uncovering Step 3

Romans 3:20 NIV

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Do You Recognize The Source Of Your Longings?

When you get married, most just assume that someday they will have children.  You may want to give yourselves some time to enjoy being newlyweds but most plan on eventually having kids.  We were like most couples in that way.  In fact before we got married, we had already picked out our first daughter’s name.  So when after eight years of being married and six years trying our best to become parents, we were flabbergasted.  In fact we became a bit desperate in our praying when it seemed we might not be able to have children.  I used to watch other people my age holding hands with their kids, pushing their babies along in baby strollers, playing catch at the park, buying their children toys at Christmas and envying them.  Sometimes I could hardly stand to watch young families because I so badly wanted what they had.  It was painful getting family Christmas cards from others with the happy smiles and blissful joy they seemed to have.  Now of course I know how rough it is to get families to all smile together and how difficult parenting is.  But back then, all I could see was the upside of having children and it didn’t seem fair that all these people could have kids and my wife and I couldn’t.  I was like the Grinch…I hated birth announcements and did not want to hear about the accomplishments and milestones of my friends’ kids.  I lusted after their lives…their happy, fun and exciting parent lives.

Nothing rots human personality like envy.  It is perhaps the most destructive force we face.  Envy has led to world wars, murders, suicides and ruined homes.  Nearly every conflict has its root in some form of envy.  Many times longstanding friendships, family relationships and marriages come apart due to some form of envy.  Envy has led to insurmountable debts, broken marriages, fractured families, ruined careers and self-loathing.  It led to the first murder and it will be the cause of the last battle on earth.  Envy led to Satan’s downfall and many billions of downfalls thereafter.  Is it any wonder that the Lord finished His Ten Commandments with a prohibition against practical envy?  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17 NIV)

If there was anyone who seemingly had no reason being envious, it would seem to have been Jacob, the founder of the nation Israel. There is not a much greater honor than having an entire nation named after you.  That is what happened with Israel, better known as Jacob.  How many of us have ever had a city or a street named for us?  Israel, better known as Jacob had the great privilege of being spoken of by God before he was born.  When his mother feared that something terrible was happening in her womb, the Lord reassured her that all was well; she simply had twins, fighting twins albeit.  The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23 NIV)  The younger was Jacob and his mother was told by God what would come of his life.  As the brothers grew to adulthood, each parent chose one of them as the favorite son.  Jacob’s mother Rebekah loved him the most; his father Isaac loved the older twin Esau best.  The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.  Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:27-28 NIV)  What this parental favoritism did to the personality of each of the twins we cannot say with certainty but we do know that Jacob envied his brother Esau’s place in the family; coveted in fact what belonged to him, specifically his birthright.

One day Jacob’s older brother Esau came back to camp famished after an unsuccessful hunting trip.  Jacob famously had a pot of stew on the fire and Esau craved some.  Jacob, who clearly had been thinking often of his desire to change places with Esau struck a deal with his brother.  He (Esau) said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)  Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."  "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"  But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. (Genesis 25:30-33 NIV)  This was indeed a strange transaction yet both sides were apparently quite happy with the trade.  Much is made of Esau’s disregard for his birthright as oldest son but rarely is the biting desire of Jacob to have his brother’s birthright explored.  As we learned earlier of David’s father issues, we see a similar situation here.  Jacob was the lesser son to his father also.  Jacob in his deep seated feelings of rejection and disconnect from his dad, perhaps hoped he could by getting his brother’s birthright erase some of the longstanding pain he felt about his place in the family.

One of the more misunderstood commands of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is the famous directive on sexual purity.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-29 NIV)  This mandate turns on the word “adultery”.  It specifically is a command on marriage vows.  Adultery is the sexual relationship of a married person with someone with whom he or she is not married.  The reverse is also adultery; a single person having a sexual relationship with a married person is also committing adultery.  Adultery is not “sexual immorality” which is any sexual relationship outside of marriage; adultery is a subset of sexual immorality, it is the sin of sexually breaking marriage vows.

What we have here in the Sermon on the Mount is a stern command to not desire sexually someone who by God’s law cannot be yours.  If you are married, or someone else you notice is married, sexual looking is equivalent to adultery.  Jesus has marvelously woven together the seventh command to not commit adultery with the tenth command to not covet what belongs to another person into one very practical order.  Now this is strange perhaps to suggest and may seem even blasphemous but this part of the Sermon on the Mount is not a prohibition against single people sexually looking at other single people.  You may argue that any form of sexual looking is wrong and cite other parts of the Bible to make your point that it is wrong but sexual looking among single people is not the concern of Jesus here.  He is crushing in this stunning connection of lust and adultery the universal practice of wanting something someone else has.

It is typical of children to crave another child’s toy, even to the point of ripping it from her hand. We all have done it; most of us have watched it happen.  Our dog wants our cat’s food and the cat takes the dog’s food.  When adults and teens let their minds feast on another man’s food, it becomes a banquet from hell.  Jacob made his trade with Esau and got his brother’s right as first-born but he still had to have more.  That is the problem with craving.  It can only be stopped by the strong hand of God.  Jacob did not get what he hoped to have in his trade.  His father didn’t like him any more than before; he was still the lesser son.  When Isaac died and Jacob finally got his father’s inheritance, it no longer mattered to him because he was already rich.  The worst part of the trade though was that it fed an insatiable desire to completely usurp his brother’s place in the family and it was Jacob’s mother who found a way to try and gain that lust desire.  When his father Isaac wanted to pass along a special blessing to Esau, Jacob’s mother worked out a plan where Jacob was able to trick his father into giving it to him.  Both his father and his brother Esau were devastated by the deception.  His father shook with rage when he discovered what Jacob had done; Esau’s fury at his brother’s actions turned to thoughts of murder. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." (Genesis 27:41 NIV) Jacob fled his home to escape his brother’s wrath and perhaps even his father’s disgust with him and wound up more than a hundred miles away at the home of his mother’s brother, never to see his beloved mother ever again.

Here is the consequence of Jacob’s coveting.   Jacob wound up essentially being a slave to his uncle for twenty years.  If he had let God work everything out instead of taking matters into his own hands, he could have gone to his uncle with his father’s blessing and with the help of his father’s riches, gained his wife Rachel instantly.  Instead, since Jacob was a fugitive and thus powerless, Laban his uncle took advantage of Jacob and forced him not only to work seven years to gain Laban’s daughter Rachel as a bride but forced him to marry also his other daughter Leah whom he did not want.  This cost him another seven years of forced labor.  He spent fourteen years paying for his covetous desires!  What is worse is that his wives, because of their jealousy of each other pushed Jacob to take on each of their servants as wives too.  Rather than build his family upon the foundation of love and loyalty, it began as a civil war and never stopped being a civil war.  His wives fought the rest of their lives for supremacy in the home not just for themselves but also for their children.  Coveting is passed along to the next generation.  It is a ravenous beast that cannot be satiated without divine intervention.  Covet once what isn’t yours and you will find yourself consumed by poisonous desires unless you let God work His way through you and free your mind of satanic longings.

Remember the first and most destructive temptation is the one to grab for what belongs to someone else.  We can follow our lust like Adam and Eve and just take it like they did the forbidden fruit or because we are afraid of acting upon our impulses, crave it until we are poisoned by the unmet desire.  Jacob lusted for his brother’s blessing because he didn’t think he could ever have his father’s love.  Could it be the same for us?  Is there something we want too much because we still bear a wound that has never healed?  Have we let Satan get in our head and think God is too small to make things right for us?  Are we afraid God is unable to fix what is wrong in us so we look for something else other than God to fix our brokenness?

There is a seldom discussed way God heals the broken parts of our unconscious world.  He does it by thanksgiving.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15-16 NIV) These are not two disconnected thoughts.  The word translated “And” puts them together and makes them one linked whole.  You gain the peace of Christ when you are thankful.  Be thankful and the deep places of pain and hurt and broken dreams and lost hopes are healed by Christ peace.  Where no one can touch the wounds…not a psychologist nor a master teacher…Christ can touch it and he can heal it.  His peace passes into us when we are thankful for what He gives us.  When we look about and think “thank you Lord” for each part of our day, for every experience we encounter, the peace of Christ has more freedom to move about in our unconscious self and take out the poison that kills our happiness.  A thankful mind does not have room to lust after others or crave the things others have.  A thankful mind is a joyful mind.  Satan cannot jump the wall of a mind that is thankful to Christ for what He has done. 

Missionary Alliance

If God said, "Go”, would you know He had?  Would you believe He had?  Would your head scramble with fears and mistrust or would you begin packing your bags?  The missionary is at a loss when the calling turns inside out and nothing is as it seemed when first she began to go.  Does He still mean "go" now when the salary is not very good, when the people I work with are unpleasant and when my family is not happy with the "going"?  Israel faced her own "go" and on many counts she stopped short.  Each Israelite had his or her own reasons for standing like a statue when the Lord said, "go".  Some were like Lot's wife and looked back rather than ahead.  Others were like David's brothers who didn’t want to have anything to do with great challenges in front of them.  Many, like John Mark, were fed up with all the troubles they faced on the way.  What must God do to make us stay the course, to get us to push forward when the challenge of going is great?  Does He need to caudle us with a hundred little "answers to prayer" to keep us in line?  Must He "give us a word" so we will be convinced again?  "Ah, but I am not a missionary", we may argue.  What does a "calling" have to do with me?  Was Ruth "called" to go with Naomi to Bethlehem?  Was David "called" to do battle with Goliath?  Was Esau "called" to give up the grudge he had with his brother?  Was Mary Magdalene called to go to the tomb of Christ Easter morning?  God works through the organic brains of normal human beings and in just the "regular stuff" of life He makes a creature of divine purpose and supernatural achievement.  A missionary is simply one who has been given a "go" by God in some operating system which our Lord uses to get the "go" across to us and in the going we find our place in the tapestry of our Lord's life with humanity.  God has purpose in your life and that purpose is heroic in how you react to the "go" He gives you.  The very first "go" we receive is the one to, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".  (Acts 2:38 NIV)  Once you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, you will know when to go and when to stay and your life will be a light that shines in golden brilliance the majesty and grace of Christ living through you wherever you have been taken.

 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"  And God said, "I will be with you…"     Exodus 3:11-12 NIV

Feast or Famine

In the parable of the Great Banquet, the Lord explains how it really is with God's Kingdom.  Someone said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."  Christ's response was chilling.  He told a story about a certain man who hosted a great feast.   However most of his invited guests did not bother coming.  Because there was still so much food and space, he ordered that his servant go out and invite anyone he saw to the banquet but just a few came.  Not wanting all his good food to go to waste, he told his servant to go far and wide and get all he could to come and feast with him.  Now here is the surprising point Jesus was making.   None of those who were invited but didn't bother coming will get a taste of His banquet.  As the story progresses, the recurring theme is that the vast majority of those invited to the great feast never bother coming and have ridiculous excuses for not making it.  Do we realize the implication?  Not many people will be taken into the Lord's great banquet because they don't want to come!  Is it possible that our view of success is much different than our Lord's view?   Do we expect that all sorts of people, multitudes and multitudes will fall in love with Jesus and make their home with Him and thus we will be successful in our Christian duty?  God's view is that the servant will give out the invitation to life with Christ and the servant will do it again and again, giving out countless invitations but all the while just a few will join in God's Kingdom and be a part of His family.   Our expectation is misplaced.  God never promises that the masses will be Christian, that there is to be an avalanche of enthusiasm for God's Kingdom.  He insists the opposite and makes it clear this is what He means.  Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter into its tumult.  But narrow is the way leading to life and very few take that route.  The Christian should be "scared to death" that those close to her will "burn their bridge" to God and be cast outside the Gates of God's New Jerusalem.   It ought to terrorize us that "good people" will weep great tears of horror when they find out what their rejection of Jesus Christ has done!  We mustn't be so foolish as five of the virgins in Jesus' parable who did not think it mattered what they did about the invitation to join Christ in His hall of mercy and grace.  The door, when slammed shut, will make a most dreadful sound for those outside.

"'Sir', the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'  Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"    Luke 14: 22-23 NIV

Battlefields and Storms

Have you gone far enough with God to actually trust Him?  When Peter stepped out of the boat and into the storm, it was a most unhappy outcome for him in some ways.  He was soaked and nearly drowned by the lake and then rebuked for his lack of faith.  But he alone was willing to go out enough after God to risk disaster in his "faithing" and gain through it the "grip of God".  You don't have to look far in the Christian community to find boat sitters who prefer the safety of imagined faith over deadly storm faith.  It has been made popular lately to scoff at David's courage in stepping out against Goliath as if he had some secret weapon or deadly insight into Goliath's fatal weakness.  No one else stepped forward and advanced away from the safety of the battle lines.  Was David the only one who knew how to use a sling?  Was Goliath feeble and clumsy and half blind? Would the Philistines really have been so drunk with contempt for the Israelites to send such a creature out as their champion?   If so, wouldn't someone else among the Hebrew soldiers have seen it too that Goliath posed no real risk?  What David possessed was storm faith.  He would not let his fear stand in the way of going out into the chaos of walking with God.    And that really is the discovery of 1 Samuel 17.  Rare is there such hope in God, a sort of violent hope, that keeps the few strong while the rest hide behind the safety of the battle line and never experience that hope gained as the hot breath of Satan blows upon them.  Are you among the elite who will risk all you have to gain God on the battlefield, in the storm, at your office, school, mission field or home?  Is there a heroic urge to go with God into the fiery blast of the furnace and stand firm there beside Him?  Has God already pointed the way out of complacency and lukewarm faith and do you stand at the edge of the boat, trying to decide if you will be the one to step out into the storm?  Will it be said of you in the pavilions of eternity that when everyone else hesitated, you walked with God even as Satan cast his horrific gale into your face?  You stood and kept your post when all others abandoned theirs and in the moment of despair you found Christ strong and faithful and His courage sufficient for your hour!  Few discover supernatural courage and strength because they never go where it is needed.  What grace there is for those who abandon themselves to the Christ who calls them to come forth from the boat and join Him in the events where legends are made and tales of faith are told forever!

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.     1 Samuel 17:23-24 NIV

Are You Still Your Own?

Have you accepted the fact that you are not your own?  Affirmations of theology are much easier than the actual doing of theology.  When the Father prods you to fast, are you still your own?  When the Holy Spirit pushes you to turn down a lucrative career move, are you still your own?  When Christ bids you to forgive your father for all the harm he has done you and to extend your love to him in a practical way, are you still your own?  At what point is there a demarcation...I am now my own, I am not my own?  Nothing takes our breath away quite like the sudden realization that God has made a demand of us that is beyond our threshold of submission.  It is then at the pinnacle of our faith that we face our Christianity squarely.  Will we accept the life of Christ in this matter too?  Will we let Him live through us here?  Peter took off running with his self-assurance that he would do anything for the Lord but that is the place where Satan "hands us our lunch".  Rather than living up to his boast to never let Christ down, he wound up ruined by failure weeping on the curb.  It was only after the Holy Spirit was breathed into him and he began to live in the power of God rather than his own ambitions of commitment that he took the mantle of martyrdom with careless self-denial.    You are not your own is the life-long work of God in you and it will not be train-wrecked by Satan.  You may come off the rails for a while as you try to make some sacrifice or service replace the life of Christ in you but you will eventually be brought "back on track".  Never mistake your ministry for self-denial.  It is not, unless the crucified Christ is killing off your self-will in it and making it all God's will working through you.  We can easily confuse our ambition for God's work and calling; if we are not careful, we will be as useless to God as Ananias and Sapphira. 

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.     1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV

Godventure

Have you considered the possibility that, like Abram, God is about to take you to a "new country", one that will establish your legacy with Him?  Are you willing to go off on a Godventure that could be the end of the old you?  When God told Abram to go, he gave him no information about the Godventure except what he would be in the end!  It was "go" and then "here is your legacy".  All the between parts were blank pages.  Where he would stop on day twenty-nine, what he would do in year ten, how his wife would react to month forty-three were all dark as night to him and they will be for you too.  The Lord will not give you a word in advance about the troubles you will face on your Godventure nor your triumphs along the way.  He will though tell you, "I will be with you!"  There were perhaps plenty of other believers in Ur when Abram was sent away...maybe even hundreds of them but none of them gained the legacy with God Abram acquired when at seventy-five that one particular old man believer left on his Godventure.  Perhaps it seems too late in life for God to make something new of you.  Maybe you feel inadequate for the task, not prepared for your Godventure.  The Lord did not give Abram wiggle room to assess His skill sets or resources.  He simply presented the Godventure and told him what he would be when it was all done.  Faith is not a tool in your spiritual bag of tricks; it is your reaction to God sending you.    God will not push you down the hill to get you going.   He will wait for you to take that step forward but when you do take that first step, He will begin to give you a supernatural burst of power you had not felt before you went with Him on this new way of His.  There was no hesitation in Abram when the call came to him to leave and there mustn't be any in you either.  The longer you muddle through your apprehensions, the harder it will be to finally pick up and go when you finally do go and the journey will have unnecessary trials and troubles that you would not have had to face if God didn’t need to rebuild in you the faith you had before you doubted.

Then the Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.  I will make you a great nation and will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  Genesis 12: 1-2 NIV