Journeyville

A definition of love

2008-12-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that the conventional view of love is pretty fouled up. We (as a society) tend to get love confused with other things.

We get love confused with infatuation, for example. Infatuation is an intense, reactive sort of emotion. Love is an intentional commitment meant for the long-haul.

We get love confused with rewards, as in I'll love you if you . . . fill in the blank. Love isn't a variable in equation; it's supposed to be a constant. I'll love you no matter what.

We think love is a heart thing (something that just happens, outside my control) when real love is a heart-mind-hands and feet thing (something I decide that I will do, an endless series of actions I take).

I learned something else about love from my daughter. A while ago she took a summertime job in another state working with a small group of teenagers with all sorts of backgrounds. Before she moved there, before she ever saw any of them, she committed herself to loving them. She decided that she would love them -- regardless of what she found out about them, regardless of how they might behave, regardless of whether they accepted her or not.

I think this is an excellent model of Biblical love. After all, that's what our Lord did; he loved us before we decided to accept or reject his gift of sacrifice: "While we were yet sinners..."

I've been experimenting with deciding in advance to love people -- before I see what they are like or how they act. I decide to love the people on the drive to work, in the store, at the office -- before I ever encounter them.

Somehow, thinking about love this way opens up a new understanding for me.

Other churches -- part two

2008-11-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

I seem to be unusually aware when I visit other churches, alive to what I might learn.

When I visited another church recently, I was surprised to notice that the people around me had kept their coats on. At first, I thought it was because the building had very high ceilings and was drafty. Then I thought it was because they didn’t intend to stay very long.

Then I thought about the words in Exodus associated with the institution of the Passover: the people were to obey His commands “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.” God was teaching the people to be ready for, to be expectant about His deliverance, His work in their lives. God’s people were supposed to be ready to go when He called them.

Back home in my church, we come into the church building, move into the pews, take off our coats and spread out our belongings. Suddenly, it seemed to me that back home we “set up camp” in our church.

In this far-away place of worship, I could imagine that the people were aware that they were treading on holy ground; their posture seemed to indicate that they were unworthy of God’s house.

I wondered about the difference in coming into God’s presence with an attitude of being ready to go vs. coming into God’s presence with an attitude of claiming territory. In the New Testament we are told to ‘Go and make disciples.’ We are told to ‘put on the armor of God’ which seems clearly to indicate something other than sitting comfortably.

I wonder if in my church tradition we tend to get too casual with God, assuming we can relax. I wonder if in our arrogance we are acting like guests in God’s presence instead of servants.

Other churches

2008-11-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

When I travel, I like to visit other people’s churches.

Sometimes I like to visit churches in my own tradition or denomination. Sometimes I like to visit churches that are very different from my home church.

When I visit churches in my own tradition, I am comforted by the familiarity. I love the notion of having brothers and sisters in all parts of the world. I love the acceptance and welcome I find among these people who are strangers – and yet so familiar.

I am endlessly curious to see the many nuances of worship and community in these other churches that sport the same name on the sign out front. I read their bulletins and listen to their announcements with great interest. I often get new ideas for my own church’s ministries and activities.

In addition to the blessings associated with the corporate worship, I appreciate the opportunity to see what our churches look like through the eyes of a visitor. By noticing what makes me feel welcome or uncomfortable, I gain insight on how to help visitors to my church back home feel more at ease.

But as I said, I also like to visit churches that are very different from my normal Sunday morning experience. I know about various segments of Christianity, but I have not had many chances to experience those other churches first hand. I suppose that my lack of exposure to those other traditions is largely due to the fact that I am so very involved with my own church. In any case, I find it fascinating to have the chance to attend services in these other houses of worship, to see the variations on the theme.

Earlier this month, I was in a city in another country on Sunday morning. I did a little research on churches within walking distance of the hotel and decided on a cathedral about eight blocks away. My usual approach is to try to fit in with the crowd while not getting in the way of the members who usually attend there. Furthermore, I want to worship; I don’t want to be a tourist at church.

On this occasion, I attended a very formal “high church” sitting toward the back, where I admired the stunning architecture, the glorious stained-glass windows, and the angelic voices of the boys’ choir. I smelled the incense. I found my place in the book and joined in the responses of those around me.

As always when I visit a church that is strange to me, the experience was enlightening and thought-provoking. I worshiped God in their tradition and felt uplifted, benefitting from the changed perspective and unfamiliar cadence.

More old (but good!) words

2008-10-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

God is the fountain whence
Ten thousand blessings flow
To Him my life, my health, and friends
And every good I owe.

The comforts he affords
Are neither few nor small
He is the source of fresh delight
My portion and my all.

He fills my heart with joy
My lips attunes for praise
And to his glory I'll devote
The remnant of my days.

Old words

2008-09-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

I grew up with the old hymns.

As a child I often wondered at the archaic language in those hymns which at best was indecipherable, at worst misleading and confusing.

Despite the gap between my English and the sometimes inaccessible vocabulary, I still enjoyed singing in the church back home. Over the years, I learned what most of the words meant and understood the sentiment of the lyrics.

Later on, like many of my generation, I welcomed the new praise music that spoke in more familiar terms and allowed me to sing from my heart without barriers.

Lately, however, I've noticed the depth of understanding in some of those old songs. Here's one that caught my attention recently, and although the language isn't native to me, I value highly the words of the writer:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above.
Never let me wander from thee,
Never leave the God I love.

Outside looking in

2008-08-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been challenged to take a peek at what the church looks like from the outside. If you haven't tried it lately, it's not for the faint of heart. If you can't bear criticism, don't read further. If you think we should be reaching people with good news, read on cautiously.

One note: I am not talking about any particular church. I'm talking in the large sense: church.

In order to pursue this outside perspective, I imagined myself outside any church -- having no church affiliation. Almost immediately I was struck by how exclusive the church looks from that perspective. For a person unaccustomed to the rhythms and customs of a church, everyone inside seems to be dancing to a song that only they can hear. When to sit, when to stand, what to expect next are mysteries. (Even as a church-goer, I've experienced this feeling briefly when I have visited churches in other cities or churches in other traditions than my own.)

Although most churches are genuinely welcoming, we sometimes talk in inaccessible language that probably sounds like code. And sometimes the words we use are unintentionally hurtful or offensive . . . exclusionary. Words like the ones we use for those people who are not in our churches, words like "non-Christians" or "unchurched" or "outsiders" or "the world" -- or gasp! "pagans." Even the terms "visitor" and "newcomer" can sound critical, carrying with it the idea of latecomer or those slow to arrive at the truth that the rest of us found oh so long ago. Even the well-intentioned visitor nametag can feel to some like a label -- or worse yet, a target. For some, it seems to brand them as a person who doesn't belong.

One man recently verbalized how exclusive Christians seem, noting that we have our own bookstores, or own radio stations, and in some places our own yellow pages so that we can avoid all contact with "outsiders" or people who don't belong to the same club. Yikes. Now that I see what that looks like from the perspective of a person approaching (or not!) us, I'm stunned. I hadn't thought of it that way. But now I see how it may appear.

When I received a flyer from a Christian bookstore recently, I read it with different (outside) eyes, and my heart hurt. If I were longing for inclusion, I would have found multiple instances reinforcing my lonely status -- not part of the group.

Let me challenge you to take a look at us with these "other eyes" and join me in thinking of ways to minimize these barriers.

Within understanding distance

2008-07-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

In 1839 Alexander Campbell wrote The Christian System, and in the second chapter he outlines seven rules for biblical interpretation. His 'rules' are excellent advice, in my opinion, standing the test of time.

I was particularly struck by his seventh rule, however: "The interpreter must come within understanding distance" of God in order to hear the biblical text clearly. Isn't that a rich thought: come within understanding distance of God.

Campbell explains:

Humility of mind, or what is in effect the same, contempt for all earth-born pre-eminence, prepares the mind for the reception of this light; or, what is virtually the same, opens the ears to hear the voice of God. Amidst the din of all the arguments from the flesh, the world, and Satan, a person is so deaf that he cannot hear the still small voice of God's philanthropy. But receding from pride, covetousness, and false ambition; from the love of the world; and in coming within that circle, the circumference of which is unfeigned humility, and the centre of which is God himself--the voice of God is distinctly heard and clearly understood. All within this circle are taught by God; all without it are under the influence of the wicked one. 'God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble.'

In order to hear the still small voice of God, we must seek Him. We must travel as long and as far as necessary to come within understanding distance. We must approach with genuine humility.
I want to move to a place in my life where I am "within understanding distance of God."

Be church

2008-07-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

Some random thoughts . . .

A few months ago I read The Irresistable Revolution. It fueled my thoughts about church. You see, I've been convinced for some time that there is something out of kilter with the church of 2008. Not just your church or my church, but church (I'm spreading my arms to indicate all churches).

Recently I attended a series of lectures. The man from my church was describing what we believe. He was making distinctions between the "non-negotiables" and the matters of opinion. I was agreeing with his description of the fundamentals of faith. A man from another church stood up and said, "We don't spend a lot of time thinking about theology. We just tell people about Jesus." Zing. He wasn't being mean or arrogant; he was genuinely puzzled by our focus.

I've heard a lot of people talk about "the worship wars" that have caused such pain over the past decade or two. I've seen good, kind people become outraged and demand that their way is the right way to "do church."

Perhaps there is a reason the New Testament doesn't give us a specific set of rules for the right way to DO CHURCH. We all know that the text does not specify a capella singing or instrumental worship. It doesn't tell us how large or how small a church body should be. It doesn't outline the rules for Bible classes or sermons or when the prayers should appear in the order or worship. In fact, it doesn't mention an "order of worship." :-)

I believe that when God inspired scripture, he gave us all the important stuff, so I have to conclude that how we do church wasn't high on his list.

Perhaps it's because we aren't supposed to do church at all....... we are supposed to be church. Now, the next step is to unpack all that THAT means.

He provides

2008-06-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday at our church there is a segment called "Kids Giving to Kids." It is a special time when the children of the congregation are encouraged to give money to help children who are not as fortunate as they are.

Each Sunday in the middle of our scripted, carefully planned worship service, there is a brief period of utter chaos. After depositing his coins, a four-year old forgets the way and wanders up the wrong aisle, looking for familiar faces. A three-year-old girl squeals with joy as she runs to offer her dollar bill. There is noise and irratic movement and disorder. And we love it.

This morning as I looked around the room, I saw a Dad providing coins to his children so that they could participate. The children were so excited to be able to give. Obviously, they don't have money of their own; they trusted their dad to provide what they needed in order to make their offering.

I have always loved the name for God Abraham used: Jehovah Jirah, the Lord provides.

In Exodus, God told Moses how to construct the Tabernacle. After Moses told the people what was needed, they came forward, giving their gifts: precious metals, colored threads, and all sorts of things that could be used in the construction. In Exodus 35, all of the men and the women -- each who was willing -- made a freewill offering to God. They gave what they had.

In each case, God had provided the things the Israelites had. And because the people had the things, they could feel the joy of participation in the work God had called them to do. Because the Father was generous to them, they were, in turn, able to contribute.

In much the same way, we are given good gifts from God so that we can share what we have. Just as the dad provided coins to his children this morning, our God provides what we need to be able to participate in what he has called us to do.

What a wonderful glimpse of a loving Father.

Alive

2008-06-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I like to post things I read that catch my interest. Here's an excerpt from Hearing God by Dallas Willard:

"What is life? In all its various levels and types, life is power to act and respond in specific kinds of relations. For example, a cabbage has certain powers of action and response and a corresponding level of life. There is a difference between a cabbage that is alive and one that is dead, thought the dead one still exists. This can also be said of a snail or a kitten.

"But a live cabbage can make no response to, say, a ball of string. That is precisely because of the kind of life that is in it. Though alive as a cabbage, it is dead to the realm of play. Similarly, a kitten playing with the string can make no response to numbers or poetry, and in that sense the kitten is dead to the realms of arithmetic and literature. A live cabbage, though dead to one realm (that of play) is yet alive to another -- that of the soil, the sun and the rain. The situation is similar with the kitten.

"Human beings were once alive to God. They were created to be responsive to and interactive with him. Adam and Eve lived in a conversational relationship with their Creator, daily renewed. When they mistrusted God and disobeyed him, that cut them off from the realm of the Spirit. Thus they became dead in relation to it -- much as a kitten is dead to arithmetic. God had said of the forbidden tree, "in the day you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17). And they did.

"Biologically they continued to live, of course. But they ceased to be responsive and interactive in relation to God's cosmic rule in his kingdom. It would be necessary for God to confer an additional level of life on them and their children, through "being born from above," (Jn 3:3) in order for them once again to be alive in God, to be able to respond toward him and to act within the realm of the Spirit."

Goes on ahead

2008-05-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since I had looked deeply at the John 10 good shepherd passage, so when the speaker mentioned it, I turned to the gospel with interest. Within that chapter, Jesus teaches:

"The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."

The part that caught my ear this time was the "goes on ahead of them" part. I began to think about the pillar of cloud/fire that preceded the children of Israel in the desert.

Then I thought: How comforting to think about my shepherd going on head of me! What an interesting thought that any place I go, he has already gone there.

Like the scouts that went on ahead of the wagon train, finding river crossings and passes through the mountains and sources of water....... which sounds a lot like Psalm 23, doesn't it? ........ my shepherd goes on ahead of me, seeking green pastures, right paths, and the way through the valley of the shadow.

He goes on ahead into what is unknown to me, and it's not just physical locations. He goes on ahead into my tomorrows to prepare things for me. I don't know what awaits me there, but he does -- he's already been there. I am bound by time. He is not.

When I am awake in the middle of the night, worrying what if . . . and speculating on how things might go wrong, my anxiety is unnecessary because my shepherd has already gone on ahead of me and scouted out the territory. He has visited my tomorrow and my next week and can guide me today with absolute certainty.

There is no guesswork involved in his leading because he has gone on ahead and identified the pitfalls...... maybe cleared some of the path for me so that I won't lose my way, maybe set up some barriers to keep me away from the cliff's edge.

Perhaps when I find myself complaining about how difficult my journey seems, I should remember that he has gone on ahead of me and take note of the cairns he has set up for me.

I realize with some guilt that I've had a mental picture of myself as an intrepid trailblazer moving forward with only my own wits to protect me. I guess I have known that my shepherd was with me -- but maybe I have pictured him as just being along for the ride. Now I see how mistaken that is!

Perhaps I'll see my journey with different eyes now.

But wait. What was the rest of that scripture? and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Ah.......my part of the equation. And a part that isn't so easy for me sometimes.

But I think knowing that he is going on ahead somehow makes it easier to be a good follower. I'll let you know . . .

Not grasped

2008-05-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

I was searching through some old books this morning, looking for something for an upcoming class. I picked up my copy of My Utmost for His Highest, a classic daily devotional by Oswald Chambers, first published in 1935. I have always loved this book, and I return to it every few years. I turned to the words for May 17.

In the meditation for today, Chambers writes that prior to the transfiguration, Jesus lived a normal, but perfect life for a man. From the transfiguration through the ascension, Chambers says, Jesus's life was altogether substitutionary, unfamiliar to us. Transfiguration, Gethsemene, the cross, the resurrection, ascension. It was a wholly different and absolutely holy time.

"The transfiguration was completed on the Mount of Ascension," writes Chambers. "If Jesus had gone to heaven directly from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone. He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the mountain to identify Himself with fallen humanity."

Turned his back on the glory . . . that set me thinking of Philippians 2.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death --
even death on a cross!

I've always read that Philippians passage in light of Jesus' birth. That is, he did not consider his position in heaven with God something to be held on to, but became a man, was born into this world. He came to earth and looked like us.

Now I wonder if that passage might also be considered in light of Jesus' transfiguration. He did not consider being glorified on the mountaintop something to cling to. He did in fact turn from the transfiguration, from the radiance, from the immediate presence of God and decend from the mountaintop, back down into our world with its pain and brokenness. He came down and looked again like a normal man.

That makes me think that humbling himself/emptying himself (as some translations say) was not a one-time decision/action. It makes me think that Jesus might have had many opportunities to "grasp his equality with God" and each time might have humbled himself, turning his back on his own glory.

Maybe he had to reject his equality with God every time he was tempted to use his powers -- with the devil in the dessert, when the Jewish leaders mocked him, when he hung on the cross and could have called ten thousand angels.

We know that Jesus often went alone to the mountain to pray. I've wondered if he was transfigured each time, but it was not reported because no one was there to see it. If so, then he would have turned from glory over and over when he returned to his work with the disciples.

What an interesting glimpse of Christ's generous self-sacrifice.

Do this (part two)

2008-05-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I wrote about the fact that when God instructs me to do certain things, it isn't really because he needs my help. Like my grandmother and mother, he likely has in mind to teach me, grow me through my doing of the task. I mentioned two tasks (intercessory prayer and the great commission) as examples.

Last Sunday I heard an excellent lesson on the Good Samaritan. About halfway through, I recognized a parallel principal -- God doesn't need us to take care of our neighbors; He can certainly bless them without our help -- but our God invites us to be neighborly so that we will learn to be more like Him.

He calls us to "love our neighbors as ourselves" so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ. He teaches me to care about others -- not just for their benefit, but for my benefit. My reshaping. My change of heart.

God isn't just being a taskmaster when he calls me to do things; he is coaching me, training me for my good.

I have long wondered at God's amazing ability to create what I call 360-degree blessing, working things together for good for everyone involved in something. Now I'm awed by his ability to create 360-degree benefits -- benefits to those I serve and benefits in me as I serve. Totally cool.

Understanding this helps me know the nature of God a bit better and changes my perspective on the things he has asked me to do.

I remember when I was in school how frustrated I felt when I could see no earthly reason to be learning a formula or fact. Once I understood how the learning could be used, my attitude about learning changed.

Similarly, God's commands have sometimes seemed abstract and unrelated to my life. When I see, however, that his commands have purpose -- how arrogant of me to think they didn't! -- my attitude about his instruction is changed. Obedience and trust grows when I remember that he is working for my good, my remolding (like that potter in Jeremiah).

Imitations

2008-04-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

We are surrounded by varied models for institutions. We all know how to "do" a library, a gas station, a school, and so on. There are certain expected behaviors, certain patterns of interaction associated with each institution.

Church, on the other hand, is so fundamentally different from all other experiences. I wonder if it takes effort on our part to keep church different. I wonder if we sometimes slip into other more familiar earthly models -- accidentally, subliminally.

Church as a Bank -- the place where we keep our faith safe, stored away in a safety deposit box, where we can occasionally visit it, take it out, admire it, and then leave it inside the church walls where it will be uncorrupted by the world.

Church as a Convenience Store -- the place where we can zip in from time to time to replenish our supply of encouragement, fill up our tank of God's love so that we can function in the world for a few more days.

Church as a Theater -- a place to go for a good show, where we can see people who have their act together, who know God, leading a worship service, where spectators can draw near to a relationship that someone else has with God.

Church as a Country Club -- a place to meet good people, a safe place to enjoy social gatherings where they will accept and include anyone.

I'm not condemning anyone; I'm looking inward. I see these tendencies in myself, and I recognize that I need to discipline my thinking to keep my perspectives about church in line not with my daily earthly experiences and interactions, but in line with biblical descriptions.

Church is not just another institution vying for time on my calendar. I want to strip away my unconsciously formed definitions and thinking patterns to understand more clearly the wonder of the Body of Christ.

Do this

2008-04-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my grandmother occasionally made taffy. When she did, she always made me help do the pulling. My grandmother was small, and I assumed that making taffy was just too hard for her to do alone.

When I was a little older, my mother agreed to make me a new dress. I was allowed to pick the fabric, and I got to search through the giant Simplicity book and choose a dress pattern. Back at the house, she made me cut out the many pieces of the tissue-paper pattern. I assumed that she didn't have time to do it.

At the time, I thought they were just making me help with their work. In hindsight, however, I now realize that they didn't really need my help at all. In fact, they could have finished much sooner without my "help."

Now I realize that there were two reasons for my assignments: (1) they were shaping my character, teaching me attitudes about work -- teaching me that any payoff usually requires a little elbow grease, that I was not entitled to something for nothing, and that participation in the work makes the finished product sweeter, and at the same time, (2) they were enjoying my company, enjoying the time spent together.

Recently the subject of prayer has bobbed up in classes, Bible studies, and newly published books. As I have reconsidered prayer, and particularly intercessory prayer, I've reflected that God really doesn't need me to tell him where the needs are. He certainly already knows the circumstances, and since He knows and loves the people I am praying for, He is not going to refuse to help them if I fail to word a prayer on their behalf. Why then am I called to intercessory prayer?

Consider a different matter: Jesus gave us what is sometimes called the "great commission," instructing us to go and make disciples. We know that God can reach people without our help. (See Romans) God can speak through a burning bush or a donkey. Conversion can happen on the Road to Damascus. Certainly, I am not an integral part of the operation.

Why am I called to these assignments? My God is capable of accomplishing his will without my help. (I wonder if, like my grandmother and mother, He could do it faster without me!) What is the purpose of instructing me to pray for others and go to others?

Perhaps God's purposes are also much like those of my grandmother and mother. Perhaps God plans good work in advance for me -- not because He can't do it without me -- but because he is teaching me, reshaping me, molding me to be different, to be more like his Son. In intercessory prayer, he is teaching me concern for those around me. He is taking my prayer spotlight off myself and putting on someone else. In taking my faith to others, I am taught selfless love for the souls of others. He is teaching me to imitate Jesus.

Yes, he can use my frail little efforts on behalf of others, but he can also use my frail little efforts to make me different. He gave me the task, and I assumed that the beneficiaries of my work were those others.

Lately, I've been more and more aware that changes are also happening in me. Flying back from Kazakhstan, I was struck by the fact that I was blessed by acting on the great commission. After praying intently for others, I was amazed to realize that my relationship with God had grown in the process. When I set out with the motive of blessing others and being obedient to God, I grew.
Oh, and then there is that second reason I mentioned when I spoke of my grandmother and mother. Can it be that God invites me to partner with Him because he enjoys relationship with me, enjoys time spent together, enjoys the shared task? If that is true, then carrying out the tasks he has given me changes radically -- from dutiful obedience -- to an act of joy and companionship.

I was slow catching onto what my grandmother and mother were doing. Looks like I am still slow catching on . . .

Hungry?

2008-04-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Because of the way our bodies are constructed, we need food every day. I've joked often that at our house, we are always planning the next meal, eating, or talking about what we just ate!

In scripture, however, food is a favorite metaphor for our relationship with God.

Moses explained to the Israelites, "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

Isaiah heard God say, "Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Jeremiah said, "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight." (15:16)

Jesus taught, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

In the gospel of John, we learn that after Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand, the people intended to "come and make him king by force." They searched for him and eventually followed him to Capernaaum, where they quizzed him about what miracles he would do next and mentioning the manna that came from heaven.

Jesus was not impressed by their obvious interest in more free food. He told them, "It is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." (32-33)

And then even more clearly: "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (48-51)

This conversation finally led many to turn back and no longer follow him. They weren't looking for God, they were seeking a free lunch. I'm afraid I am often like that: so focused on daily human things that I fail to see God's better offer.

Over and over, God tries to tell us that physical sustenance is far surpassed by the spiritual sustenance we have by being in relationship with Him. Our bodies crave food, but in an even more important way, our spirits crave God and his Word.

We have learned to listen to our physical bodies on matters of health; we need to learn to listen to our spirits on matters of the soul. Deep calls to deep, as the psalmist says.

God will sustain us, feed us, breathe life into us if we will receive it. I need to develop my taste for spiritual food. I need to never miss an opportunity for a meal. I need to fill my soul with what will make me grow strong.

Lord, make me hungry for you!

Covenant God

2008-03-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

My God is a covenant-making God.

He initiates this action because He cares for me.

He is not forced into a bargaining position. He is not negotiating with me to gain something -- because there is nothing I can offer. The covenant doesn't better his position or give him leverage.

When I think about God's covenants, none of my human understandings of deal-making apply. None of the game-playing or strategizing or maneuvering are involved when God establishes a covenant with me.

God extends an offer to me. He suggests that He will take a defined set of actions; he suggests that I should take certain actions. That sounds straight-forward, doesn't it?

But this is where it gets astounding...... God keeps his part of the covenant whether I hold up my end of the bargain or not! His good actions are not contingent on me doing what I'm supposed to do.

God is faithful to his promises regardless of my reliability.

My God is not only a covenant-making God, but also a covenant-keeping God.
Amazing.

Maintenance

2008-03-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

When you exit the parkway and turn into my neighborhood, there is a pretty entrance that features a boulevard-type center area between the opposing lanes of traffic.

For many years, the spring's first wildflowers bloomed there. Each year the crop increased, and the flowers grew more numerous. One year the blooms were extraordinarily bountiful, and I enjoyed them so much that I remarked on them to several friends.

As development in our area continued and all the vacant places in the neighborhood were replaced by residences, the homeowners along that stretch of road banded together to take better care of the common areas along the road.

No longer were there unsightly weeds in the right-of-way. Trees were planted at prescribed intervals along the way. The neighborhood's entry way took on a manicured look. Very upscale.

I appreciated the orderliness of the new maintenance activities during the summer and fall, but when spring rolled around, I realized with a start that there were no wildflowers!

The well-intentioned regularly-scheduled maintenance had eliminated the spontaneous beauty of the spring flowers. What a trade-off! I mourned the loss of those unplanned, unregimented blossoms, and I was further saddened to think that most of my neighbors were unaware of what they were missing.

Then I wondered how often we do this sort of thing. How often to we humans bustle around, taking control, taking care of everything around us, busily making things "better" -- only to "maintain" ourselves out of a blessing God has in store.

I think about my daily approach to life. I have appointments, errands, responsibilities so tightly scheduled, that there is no room for spontaneity of any sort. I imagine that if a burning bush showed up in front of me, I would probably breeze right by it on my way to my next calendar item. I wonder if the Spirit's whispering is lost in the noise of cell phone conversations.

Surely there is a way to be responsible, be productive, be efficient -- but still leave room for God to be God . . . ?

Leaving room . . . I guess that's the idea of meditation, of quiet time, of prayerful listening.

Prayer and Time

2008-03-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Foundation thoughts: God created this world, with its oxygen and all kinds of food to sustain His creatures. He also created gravity for us. And He created time for us. He provided the safety of boundaries for me, and I understand the rules, the limitations of life on earth.

God exists outside of those things he made for my living environment. He's bigger than that. I am from the earliest moments a limited creature. For instance, I can't be in two places at the same time. God is outside those structures. He exists outside of time, for example, so he is not bound by the linear days/months/years that I know. God can see my entire lifespan in a single glance. I, of course, can only see it a day at a time.

Imagine this scenario: I pray for something on January 1. God answers immediately, granting my prayer and determining that the thing I've prayed for will take place November 25. I asked; He answered. It's a done deal. However, because of my limitations, I won't see His answer to my prayer for almost a year.

So here's the question: what does my mindset look like from January 1 until November 25 ?

#1 -- Do I get frustrated with God because I don't see an immediate response to my prayer? I confess that my 2008 American mindset is skewed toward immediate gratification in all areas of my life.

#2 -- Do I pray faithfully (like the widow petitioning the judge) for two weeks or six weeks or twelve weeks before I declare that the bible's teachings are a crock? After all, the Bible says that we have not because we ask not. The Bible says ask and we shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened. The Bible says pray and believe that God will answer. I often assume that the scripture implies a quick turnaround.

#3 -- Do I believe that God responds immediately, but the answer may not be visible to me until later? Practically speaking, how do we live faithfully for the eleven months until we see the hard evidence of God's faithfulness to us? This is a fundamental challenge to those of us who strive to live by faith, but are plagued by that little voice that whispers, 'you are an idiot to believe!'

On several very obvious occasions in my life I have prayed fervently to God, asking him to work his power in a situation. In one case the answer came five years later. In another case the problem was resolved seven months down the road.

In those instances, do I believe that God took no action, and things finally just worked themselves out? Do I believe that God just didn't get around to responding to my prayers until later? Or do I believe that God took action immediately on my behalf and that due to my own limitations in time, I didn't see God's work until it happened later in my life?

Perhaps this thinking sheds some light on the scripture, "Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11.24)

If I believe that God always answers my prayers immediately (whether I see the answers today or years later), that changes the way I approach him, that changes the way I deal with my circumstances during the gap from January 1 until November 25.

I can KNOW that God has heard and answered my prayer. I can know that I will see God's answers bye and bye; I can "wait on the Lord." It is a lifestyle that is characterized by faith that God is powerful, keeps His promises, and works all things together for my good.

An evolving congregation

2008-03-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

A congregation is an ever-growing, ever-changing living thing.
God is constantly at work, adapting us to do His Will,
Calling us to respond to what is needed at the time.

Like the clay that the potter gently and skillfully remolds (Jer 18),
God is continually at work in us, among us, and through our church
Re-forming us to be the useful tool He needs for His current work.

Our task is not to mourn the loss of members who had a certain skill,
Our task is to discover what skills God has introduced by way of new members
Or is developing as new blessings within our present church family.

A cherished ministry runs into a dead end and can’t continue.
Do we focus on reviving it, or do we look for the open doors and
The beaconing hand showing us tomorrow’s opportunity?

Celebrating what God has done in us is always a right thing to do.
Honoring our Father for the ways He has blessed us brings glory to Him.
Remembering his tender hand and constant presence is refreshing.

But as we look back, let’s not be fixated on the shape of our history.
Let us not yearn for the past. Let us instead look to the future with joy
And invigorated faith, knowing that our God is mighty and He is able.

Our God is not the Has Been – He is and will always be the I AM.

Three-in-One

2008-03-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been asking people if they have read The Shack by William P. Young.

If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it. It's a fairly quick read -- unless you stop often like I did to stare off into space.

For me, it was necessary to allow "staring time" for the cognitive processing of the big concepts being explored. There was a lot of examine: do I agree with this? do I disagree, and if I do -- do I really disagree or is it simply unfamiliar?

Perhaps my favorite part is the depiction of the three aspects of the one, holy God. I was surprised, as Mack was, when he spoke to one and the other two knew what had been said. Not a complicated concept -- but one worth contemplating a bit.

I think my discussions of the trinity have always centered on function or roles & responsibilities. I'm not sure I've thought much about the day-to-day interaction of the three.

I also loved the description of the relationship shared by God, Son, and Spirit. The easy banter, the warm approval and support, the absolute agreement was refreshing. They had no need of hierarchy, no one in charge -- because they shared the same goals, same love -- same mind.

It is an arresting picture of relationship and the triune God.
If you read the book, let's talk.

Imagination, part two

2008-02-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

There it is again: the word imagination in something I'm reading.

This time, however, the imagination is cast in a cautionary light. This time the writer is warning about the role of imagination in drawing us away from God.

Here's the concept: when you think about the future, when you imagine what tomorrow may hold, it is easy to let human fears intrude. How often has that happened to me! It's the "what-if" syndrome. It's that scary-in-the-middle-of-the-night anxiety.

I've noticed that when I am in that mode, I never dream up rosy outcomes. No! Somehow the worst-case-scenario always seems most likely when I'm awake at 3 a.m.

So, the caution is this: if imagination is paired with fear, it rarely leads to a closer faith-walk with God. In fact, when our fears loom large, they seem to obscure God completely!

What I take from this post and the one prior is that our imagination is neutral -- neither all good, nor all bad. It's the combinations that are important. (Imagination plus fear: bad. Imagination plus deep knowledge of scripture: good.)

Like most things in this life, there is a choice involved. Let's strive for that "disciplined imagination" and the benefits it offers.

Imagination

2008-02-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

Lately I've noticed that many of my favorite writers have used the word "imagination" in the course of writing about prayer, worship, and relationship with God.

At first, finding that word in that context startled me, even disconcerted me.

I've always thought of my imagination as unreliable, given to 'flights of fancy' and characterized by my own 'wild imaginings.' I've always categorized my imagination as the opposite of the facts -- and therefore unreliable.

These writers -- all excellent Bible students themselves -- have forced me to struggle with what they are saying, invited me to reconsider these ideas. They seem to be acknowleging that our imaginations were created by God, that our imaginations can add value to our prayers, our meditation, our time spent with God.

Because imagination can be subjective, fictional, skewed, I don't think it can be the only ingredient in our search for spiritual growth, but I wonder if our imaginations might make the difference in our understanding God more fully. Our imaginations might be where the spark happens that reveals God not as a two-dimensional being, but as having three- or more dimensions.

Perhaps my imagination is where the Holy Spirit whispers His deeper understandings of scripture. Perhaps my imagination is where God makes his presence in my daily life more noticable. . . where the words on the page of my Bible become alive for me.

Is there such a thing as a "disciplined imagination" (or is that an oxymoron?) -- that is, an imagination that works within the framework of Biblical text ? An imagination that doesn't just take off on its own strange journey about God, but draws on the Bible for guidance and then grows from there ?

I think my experience says yes.

"Misuse of Prayer"

2008-01-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

From Ole Hallesby's book titled Prayer, copyright 1931 --

"From the very beginning we approach prayer with a grave misconception. Our selfishness knows no bounds. In more or less naive self-love we look upon everything in our environment with which we come in contact as our agencies, as things which exist for our sakes, as something for us to make use of and utilize to our own advantage. We think and act as though everything, inanimate things, plants, animals, human beings, even our own souls, were created for the purpose of bringing gratification to our selfish desires.

"And we make no exception of God.

"As soon as we encounter Him, we immediately look upon Him as another means of gaining our own ends."

----

Hallesby notes that our prayers tend to become a long list of 'what I want God to do for me.'

He goes on to cite Matt 20:20-23 and the request made by the mother of James and John as "a typical example of misunderstood, misused, and unanswered prayer."

But, Hallesby points out, although the other apostles were indignant in the face of this wrong kind of request, Jesus was not offended. Jesus gently said no and offered teaching and improved understanding.

I suspect that I very often pray for wrong things, with wrong attitudes. I know that I don't have the mind of Christ, and I suffer from a limited, self-centered view of the world.

For those reasons, I am comforted by Hallesby's contention that when I fail to pray appropriately, Jesus is not angry or offended.

I welcome His continued instruction and patient reshaping of my prayer life.

In the Presence of the King

2008-01-27T13:00:00.000-08:00

I've written before about how I struggle to understand the Biblical references to kings and kingdoms. Since those things (kings and kingdoms) are outside my experience, I sometimes find it hard to use them to understand God.

This morning we taught the story of Esther to a middle school class. At the climax of the drama, Esther must enter the presence of the king -- without an invitation. It took a great deal of courage on Esther's part to do this seemingly simple act.

In fact, she sent this note to her uncle, "Go, gather all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

Q. What's all the fuss about?
A. It was against the law for ANYONE (including the queen) to show up uninvited to see the king. The penalty for such impudence was death.

I don't know all the reasons for this rule. I assume that the king didn't want whatever he was doing interrupted by mere subjects. And possibly there were security issues related to this rule. (Guards could be given a straightforward order: kill anyone who goes past HERE.)

I also assume that part of what set the king apart from commoners was his Presence. He was king and his presence was exalted -- and therefore, not to be taken lightly.

So, Queen Esther had to muster up considerable bravery to approach the king. She was literally taking her life in her hands and relying totally on the king's mercy. (And this king had already gotten rid of one queen!)

What does this teach me about my God?

For one thing, it teaches me not to take His invitation to approach him lightly! It's a big deal to be given carte blanche to enter His throne room anytime.

After all, my God is much more important, much more worthy of being treated with respect than any earthly king. He is a million times more honorable.

And yet, he encourages me to approach him.

What an amazing blessing I have received to be able to call His name, get His attention, and count on His willingness to accept me into His presence.

An Extrapolating Faith

2008-01-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

Extrapolate (ek-strap'eh-late) v. 1. Mathematics. To estimate for values of the argument not used in the process of estimation; broadly, to infer (a value or values) from known values 2. To infer or estimate (unknown information) by extending or projecting known information.

It occured to me this morning that God calls us to have what I have labeled an "extrapolating faith."

Look back at the Israelites. They were slaves in Egypt. Moses appeared on the scene asking Pharoah to let the people go, and God brought ten different plagues to convince Pharoah that he was up against the supremely powerful God Almighty. In the last plague, God provided a way to ensure that the death angel would pass over Israelite houses, protecting their firstborns.

The Israelites were granted permission to leave (taking all sorts of riches with them) and arrived at the Red Sea where they realized that the Egyptian army was closing in on them. The Red Sea was on one side and the charging war-ready chariots on the other.

We find it easy to criticize the Israelites' lack of faith when they complain to Moses about their plight. We say that they have just seen God's power demonstrated in the plagues. Why weren't they able to faithfully rely on Him now? I think we are being pretty hard on them.

Think about it. The miracles they had seen did not include protection from a vicious group of warriors. They were in a position that required what I am calling "extrapolating faith." They had to remember what God had done in one set of circumstances and infer that He could act in this new circumstance.

The same is true in the new testament. The disciples saw Jesus heal the sick. They knew that He could make bodies well. Then one day when it was time for a meal, they couldn't figure out how to feed thousands of people. We chuckle knowingly at their dimness.

But what about Jesus healing people would cause the disciples to automatically jump to the idea that He would provide food on such a grand scale? I sympathize with them. He was calling them to see His power in healing circumstances and trust that his power would apply in other circumstances.

And isn't that what we are called to do? Each of us knows the Bible accounts of God's action. Each of us can recall the miracles in Biblical history. We are told to remember. To help us remember, God instituted memorials such as Passover, the ebenezer, the Lord's Table.

But we are called to more than remembrance. We are called to a higher faith than just trusting that He will do what He has done before. We are invited to extrapolate. We are encouraged to remember what God has done in those circumstances and infer that He will act in power in our own different circumstances.

It's not an easy leap. It isn't based on logic; it's a matter of faith -- Faith not just that He will do what He's done before, but faith that He will continue to astound us, finding paths where we see none and working solutions we discount as impossible.

We are called to see examples of His specific power and extrapolate an understanding of His unlimited power, examples of His specific acts of grace and extrapolate an understanding of His eternal, unbounded love, examples of His relationship with people in the Bible and extrapolate an expectation of the rich relationship He offers me.

An extrapolating faith.

Eyes of the Heart

2008-01-19T12:22:00.000-08:00

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells his friends that he prays that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened or opened. (1:18)

Isn't that an interesting concept: the eyes of our hearts.

Not the physical eyes of our bodies that see physical things around us -- lamps, chairs, trees, birds. . . but the "eyes of our hearts" that can discern deeper things, spiritual matters, eternal truths.

Jesus talked about people who have eyes but don't see. It's entirely possible to have 20/20 vision but not be able to see the truths of the Bible. It was possible for people to go out of their villages to see Jesus but not see who he was/is. It's possible for people today to see Jesus as an historical figure but not see him as Lord of life.

Think about the two on the road to Emmaus, who didn't recognize Jesus as they walked along with him. They saw a man, a traveling companion, but they didn't see him as Jesus -- until their eyes were opened.

In the beatitudes, we are told that the pure in heart will see God. I believe that this promise refers not to physical sight, but to that sight that discerns more than physical things, the ability to see God at work in our everyday experiences.

I love the old testament story about Elisha's servant who is afraid of the huge enemy army that has surrounded them. From my viewpoint, the servant has reason to panic -- he sees a large number of bad guys, armed to the teeth and intent on doing harm to him and the prophet. All human logic was on the side of the servant and his apparently justified fears.

But Elisha comforts him and prays that God will open his eyes so that he can see. God grants this prayer, and the servant sees the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire. Then he understands what Elisha meant when he had said, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 2 Kings 6

The same is true for us. When we look at circumstances with our physical eyes and our human logic, we are fearful. When we focus on the difficulties that surround us, it is easy to lose heart. That's why the Hebrews writer tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus. (12:2)

These are the eyes of our heart. These are the eyes of faith. These are the eyes that God can open to recognize his son and to assure our confidence, our hope.

This gives wonderful meaning to the words of the song we often sing . . . "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart! I want to see you. I want to see you . . . "

Approved

2008-01-14T16:15:00.001-08:00

Some months ago I was buying books in my favorite book store. I handed the books to the clerk who scanned them into the cash register and then nodded to me to swipe my credit card through the device on my side of the counter.

After I swiped my card, I stood idly gazing at the device, waiting patiently for the series of steps that would comprise the transaction. Then the word APPROVED appeared on the diminuative screen.

I suppose that on most days I wouldn't have paid much attention to the fact that some authority somewhere had granted me permission to spend too much money on the armload of books I had gathered.

On that particular day, however, the word APPROVED spoke deep into my heart. I was stunned by the eternal, all-encompassing acceptance that filled me, "pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing."

Somehow, God's inescapable love for me echoed through my consciousness. It was rich and thick and almost tangible, and I glanced at the clerk and the other shoppers, thinking that surely they too were aware of God's message. It was hard to believe that they were oblivious.

Only when the people around me smiled back at me, did I realize that I was beaming. Only then, did I take note of the light-hearted, joyous feeling welling up from inside me. I am accepted. I am okay.

Suddenly, nothing else mattered.

God has chosen me. When I respond to His outstretched hand, I am approved. I'm imperfect, but I am accepted on the basis of the Christ's perfection.

And not only am I approved, accepted, acknowledged . . . I am invited into the family. I am adopted and made an heir. Not only am I accepted today, but I have a brilliant future ahead.

What an amazing blessing.

Stand there

2007-12-15T09:29:00.000-08:00

While reading the Exodus story recently, I rediscovered a verse I had marked long ago. It is Exodus 14.14. God is giving Moses instructions on how to prepare for the Egyptian army's onslaught. "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

The footnote in my study bible comments on that verse: A necessary reminder that although Israel was "armed for battle" (13.18) and "marching out boldly" (v.8), the victory would be won by God alone.

This truth threads its way through the Bible, providing one of the consistent, clear messages we have about the character, the person of God.

Jonathan knows this. When he is bravely attacking the enemy, he states "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few." I Sam14.6 He knows that his own efforts are within the larger context of God's action.

David knows this. When he stands up to Goliath, he says "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands." I Sam 17.47 The battle belongs to the Lord.

When threatened by terrifying attacking armies, God's prophet tells Jehoshaphat, "the battle is not yours, but God's" and Jehoshaphat is so convinced that he marches out to meet the enemy with his singers out front -- singers shouting the praises of God! 2 Chron 20

In Ephesians, we are told to put on the armor of God, to dress for battle. It is a wonderful "call to arms" but once suited up for war, what are we told to do? Stand. Stand firm. And pray. Just as He told Moses to be still, we are told to stand.

We are called to line up on his side. We are chosen to be on the winning team. We are invited to rest in the power of his strong arm. Our fortress and our strength. It's up to us to respond to that call. It's up to us to wear the jersey, the uniform proudly, being identified as one of God's. But the hard work, the saving work belongs to God. We can't save ourselves. We can only stand by and watch Him work his saving miracle on our behalf.

I think this is hard for people raised in a culture that takes such pride in self-sufficiency, in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, in the can-do spirit. We want to wrestle control out of God's hands so that we can take charge and do it ourselves.

This is where we have to separate ourselves from our culture. We have to learn to be still and accept the fact that this is something we can't do for ourselves. The battle belongs to the Lord.

And when we align ourselves with Him, we are more than conquerors. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us? How amazing is that!? And nothing can separate us from his commitment to us. Romans 8:28-39

When I was a child I was often told 'Don't just stand there, do something.' Not long ago I heard that God might say to us, 'Don't DO something, just stand there.'

This does not mean that we are to shut down completely; we are called to good works. What it does mean is that our salvation is assured by the glorious work of God and He deserves my praise and adoration.

Be still and know that I am God. Ps 46:10

An excerpt

2007-12-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

from Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson: (no comment from me needed!)

"What we must never be encouraged to do, although all of us are guilty of it over and over, is to force Scripture to fit our experience. Our experience is too small; it's like trying to put the ocean in a thimble. What we want is to fit into the world revealed by Scripture, to swim in this vast ocean.

"What we are after is first noticing and then participating in the way the large world of the Bible absorbs the much smaller world of our science and economics and politics that provides the so-called world-view in which we are used to working out our daily concerns.

"This means we have to abandon all condescending approaches to the Bible. Most of us have been trained in what is sometimes termed a "hermeneutics of suspicion." People lie a lot. And people who write lie more than most. We are taught to bring a healthy suspicion to everything we read, especially when it claims authority over us. What's going on here? What's the hidden agenda? What's behind all of this? The three modern masters of the hermeneutic of suspicion are Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud. They taught us well to take nothing at face value.

"Much of this is useful. We don't want to be taken in, manipulated by clever wordsmiths or enticed by skilled publicists and advertisers to buy things we don't want and will never use, involved in some soul-destroying program by a smooth-talking propagandist. In matters that have to do with God, we are doubly on our guard, suspicious of everything and everyone, including the Bible. We've learned to our sorrow that religious people lie more than most others -- and lies in the name of God are the worst lies of all.

"But as we narrow our eyes in suspicion, the world is correspondingly narrowed down. And when we take these reading habits to our reading of Holy Scripture, we end up with a small sawdust heap of facts.

"Paul Ricoeur has wonderful counsel for people like us. Go ahead, he says, maintain and practice your hermeneutics of suspicion. It is important to do this. Not only important, it is necessary. There are a lot of lies out there; learn to discern the truth and throw out the junk. But then reenter the book, the world, with what he calls "a second naivete." Look at the world with childlike wonder, ready to be startled into surprised delight by the profuse abundance of truth and beauty and goodness that is spilling out of the skies at every moment. Cultivate a hermeneutics of adoration -- see how large, how splendid, how magnificent life is.

"And then practice this hermeneutic of adoration in the reading of Holy Scripture. Plan on spending the rest of your lives exploring and enjoying the world both vast and intricate that is revealed by this text."

The Good Towels

2007-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Recently my mother-in-law came to visit for a few days.

I had just completed some refurbishing around the house that included some work in the guest room and guest bath. I was pleased that she would get the benefits of the time/dollars I had spent in that area.

On the day she was to leave, she told me that she had been careful not to disturb my new towels. She said that she had found some old towels to use and would take them to the laundry room before she started home.

I was stunned. She hadn't taken advantage of the offering I had made. In fact, she had gone to extra effort to avoid what I had provided. She had dug into the back of the cabinet to find some nearly threadbare, unraveling towels that I didn't know were there.

I felt sad and frustrated. I know that she was trying to be nice; I know her actions were not meant to sadden me, but I would have enjoyed doing something special for her.

I wondered if we do similar things to God. Thinking about the blessing of prayer, I know that God has told us in many different words that we should pray, pray continually, pray persistently. He tells us how to connect with Him. He invites us.

Then we decide that this isn't big enough to pray about, or this isn't something I should bother God about, or this is something I should be able to handle on my own. And we don't accept his offer to us.

Instead, we try to bear the load alone. We struggle. We hurt. When all the while, He would dearly love to be able respond to our prayers.

It seems that we aren't very good at accepting gifts. We aren't very good at enjoying the moment. Or, perhaps we get confused and try to apply the principles of sacrifice in the wrong circumstances.

Sometimes it's okay to use the good towels, be grateful for them, and enjoy them.

Way

2007-11-21T01:44:00.000-08:00

Finding the way is an interesting process.

Sometimes I have specific directions to follow. Go 3/10 of a mile to the purple house and turn left. I love people who can give clear, concise directions.

Sometimes I know generally where I am going, and I use the trial and error method to find my way. I know it's got to be somewhere along here. No, this is a dead-end. It must be the next street. This works if I have some basic knowledge to start with, such as I know the park is near the top of the hill or I know her house is in this neighborhood.

Jesus doesn't give us detailed directions; he has a different approach. He tells us that he is the way. An odd statement, when you think of it. We are given a person, instead of a set of steps.

So, we examine his words to learn how to live. We examine his life to see what it looks like. We complain that there are too many expectations. We complain that the rules aren't clear enough. Either way, we make excuses for why we can't be just like Jesus.

Henry Blackaby writes, "Suppose you had to cross a field full of land mines. A person who knew exactly where everyone of them was buried offered to take you through it. Would you say to him, 'I don't want you to tell me what to do. I don't want you to impose your ways on me?' I don't know about you, but I would stay as close to that person as I could. I certainly would not go wandering off. His directions to me would preserve my life. He would say, 'Don't go that way, because that way will kill you. Go this way and you will live.'

Too many of us read that paragraph and think we would certainly follow the way if we thought there were land mines around, if we thought it was a matter of life or death . . . only later do we think: oh yeah, it IS a matter of life and death.

Nearness

2007-11-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been noticing how often I run across the word "near" in the New Testament.

John the Baptist and then Jesus himself tell us that the kingdom is near (Matt 3:2, Matt 4.17) . Jesus instructs his disciples to preach the same message (Matt 10.7).

The power, the authority of the God of the Universe is close to us, is immediate, is imminent. The message seems to be, "Pay attention! Something BIG is going on right under your nose!"

Later on, Paul preaches in Athens and explains to his audience that God is not far from us. He too is telling his listeners, "You have the wrong idea about the Almighty God; he isn't up on Mount Olympus, sequestered in his palace. He is close at hand."

To impress this idea on us, Jesus emptied himself and came to this earth as a human. Emmanuel -- God with us!

Along with our other ideas about God -- omnipotent, omnicient, omnipresent -- we need to add the idea of nearness. Attentiveness. Involvedness. Immediacy.

When a family or friends have a strong relationship, we call them "close" and we mean that there is an intimacy between them. Our God offers us this kind of relationship with Him, and he has taken the first step, coming near to us.

He doesn't stop there. He works to move us closer to him. Eph. 2:13 mentions that we "who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."

This closeness changes our lives. We are to rejoice, be gentle, and not be anxious -- because the Lord is near and that gives us peace! (Phil 4:4-7) The writer of Hebrews advises us that by drawing near to God we can have assurance and hope (Heb 10:22-24) and can encourage each other.

And not only is God near us, but Christ's return is near too. And that nearness can help us be patient and stand firm, according to James (5:8).

John opens his Revelation (1:3) by saying that the time for Jesus' return is near. I hear this to mean more than hours/minutes of human time -- I hear this as comfort that our God has not abandoned us; He is near. Imminent.

His power is only lightly veiled from our consciousness. His love is juxtaposed against our daily decisions. Since God is omnipresent, being near can't speak just to physical proximity. Since God (and Jesus' return) is outside of the structure of time, being near can't just speak to days/months.

Perhaps nearness speaks more to accessibility. God is near.

Restraint

2007-10-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

I've been rereading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. I recommend it to you. There are so many interesting thoughts in it.

One of those thoughts has to do with what the author describes as God's restraint.

During the temptations in the desert, Jesus could have taken whatever action he wanted. He could have done any of the things Satan proposed. He could have done twice what was asked of him. He could have done something far more spectacular than Satan asked.

But he chose to leave Satan empty-handed.

In the garden. On the cross. In the manger. In so many contexts, Jesus could have taken action, but he chose to restrain his power. He chose to approach us gently.

He chose to leave us space to decide for ourselves. He protected us from his overwhelming might, giving us the option to love him or not.

And later when scoffers charged that the second coming was slow, God waited patiently not wanting any of us to perish. Restraint.

Absolute power in absolute control.

Mind control

2007-10-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

The words "mind control" evoke such negative connotations. My brain conjures up helpless victims who suffer at the hands of evil governments or sinister scientists.

In a similar way, "brain washing" also makes the back of my neck crawl. The idea of someone taking over my thoughts is abhorrent.

It's not that my brain thinks such great thoughts that it shouldn't be disturbed. It isn't that my mind is always completely focused on right ideas. In fact, my mind, my thoughts are often part of my problem as I try to live the Christian life.

Much of the time we can keep from doing rotten things, but it is much more difficult to keep our thoughts in line. We can avoid stealing and murder, but how do we keep our minds from going where they shouldn't go? (Didn't Jesus tell us that it isn't just about what we do, but also what we think?)

And it's not just a matter of purity. What about other kinds of self-destructive thinking? What about the negative self-talk that can cripple our outreach or stunt our spiritual growth. And what about the debilitating anxiety that can shut down our faith or steal our joy?

The area inside our heads is a battlefield where Satan wins far too often. The father of lies knows just when to inject a little self-doubt, just when to whisper second-thoughts, just when to distract us with a focus on our failings. And often we can hide from others how much of our thinking belongs to Satan.

The Bible speaks to this struggle often and vividly: Take captive every thought (2 Cor 10:5). We should avoid anxiety and futility in our thinking (Eph 4:17) and instead pursue wholesome thinking (2 Peter 3:1) and uplifting thoughts (Phil 4:8). Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (Romans 8:5b)

Clearly, what goes on between our ears is important, and when we are told to learn self-control, it surely means control not just of our arms and legs but also of our thoughts. We are told to love God with all our minds (and everything else) so we can't relinquish our heads to Satan; we must repell his advances, reserving our minds for God.

In this way, "mind control" becomes a spiritual discipline, and "brain washing" is the kind of cleaning that I should seek out for myself.

Empty out the bad, the destructive, the negative . . . and be filled with the Spirit, with praise, with thanksgiving and encouragement. We must actively avoid anxiety and similar mental dead-ends. We are advised to set our minds on better things, more fruitful things. It's a constant battle to keep Satan off the property that rightfully belongs to God.

Goals

2007-10-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

For a good many years I have had a personal tradition: every January, I take a day off from work on a day when I know I can be undisturbed at home.

I spend the day in Bible study, meditation, prayer, and goal setting for the year ahead.
I have a deep conviction that the goal setting cannot be done apart from the other three.

Although there is no set agenda for the day, I generally spend the morning in Bible study, meditation, and prayer. I rarely begin my goal setting until afternoon -- after I have spent several hours honoring God, devoting myself to Him and His will for me.

Most years I set a variety of goals for myself -- goals in my spiritual walk, in my interpersonal relationships (family/friends/etc), in my professional life, in my personal health/well being, and sometimes in general areas (learn a foreign language) or creative areas (write short stories). I write down whatever goals seem appropriate.

When I approach goal setting, I don't shy away from any area of my life because I believe all of my life to be wholly God's. I am certain that if I offer it to Him, God can use growth in any area of my life.

When I'm ready to start my goal setting, I generally begin with a statement of who I am at this point in my life. I describe myself. I begin with "I am a child of God." Then I describe the external facts about my self , such as my age, etc. (I usually write notes as I move through this day because it helps me remain focused.)

Next, I think back over my life experiences. I medidate on how God has been faithful to me in the past. I note His blessings.

Next, I think about the promises God has made concerning my future. I recall what I know about God's character and his relationship with His children.

Finally, I prayerfully list the goals that come to mind for the year ahead. I offer them up to God for His consideration. I end by praying my submission to His tender care.

This tradition has been a rich practice for me over the years. Often during the year, I see doors open and unanticipated opportunities blossom, allowing me to move forward in achieving some of the goals on my list. Occasionally I see doors close. Some years it seems that God adds His own (different) things to my list.

Perhaps God looks forward to these goal setting days of togetherness as much as I do.
" . . . those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness." Prov 14:22

One another

2007-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

I have a 4" x 4" framed print that shows two jersey cows. Above their heads, are the words "Let us love" and below it says "One Anudder." I love this silly little knickknack because of who gave it to me.

When I first began teaching adult Bible classes, I taught a lesson on the "one another" verses in the New Testament. You know the ones I mean:

Love one another (John 13:34)
Honor one another above yourselves (Romans12:10)
Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
Stop passing judgment on one another (Romans 14:13)
Accept one another just as Christ accepted you (Romans 15:7)
Serve one another in love (Gal 5:13)
Be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2)
Be kind and compassionate to one another (Eph 4 32)
Submit to one another (Eph 5:21)
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another(Col 3:13)
Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom (Col 3:16)
Encourage one another and build each other up (I Thess 5:11)
Encourage one another daily (Heb 3:13)
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Heb 10:24)
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling (I Peter 4:9)

And, there are more . . .

The relationships among us MUST be important if they are mentioned so often!

As I said, I had just started teaching adult Bible classes, and I wasn't sure I was capable. I worried that I wouldn't have anything worthwhile to offer.

A few days after my 'one another' lesson, a wonderful woman from our church brought me the framed cows with a note thanking me for the Bible study. Her simple gesture of encouragement came at a time when I thought I might not continue teaching. Her kindness led me to try again.

I've often looked at that knickknack and thought that she embodied the lesson of those 'one another' verses. I spoke the words of the lesson, but she -- through her actions -- she taught me the lesson.

She was a master at the art and power of "one-anothering."

Making Jesus Angry

2007-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Mark tells a story about Jesus being angry.

If you are like me, your mind raced ahead to the cleansing of the temple. I have a vivid mental picture of Jesus (that may have originated in one of those colorful illustrations found in my childhood Bible), whip in hand, driving animals out as moneychangers fled.

But that was not the occasion of Jesus' anger as recorded in the second gospel. In fact, when I turned to read the several accounts of Jesus clearing the temple, I discovered that the text does not say that Jesus was angry.

In Mark 3:5, however, "Jesus looked around at them in anger." He had asked the people in the synagogue which was lawful on the sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill. This should have been an easy one for them, but they remained silent. That's when Jesus became angry.

He was "deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts."

In Nehemiah (9:29) we are told that the Israelites had stubbornly turned their backs on God, became stiff-necked and refused to listen to God.

The writer of Psalm 78 described his forefathers as a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. (v.8)

Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Zechariah describe the Israelites as stubborn. And we are told that God was angered by their behavior (Deut 31:16-18, Judges 20:20; Ps 78:21; Ps 95:10).

I decided to explore the meaning of the word so I grabbed a handy American Heritage Dictionary, where I learned that the first definition of stubborn is "unduly determined to exert one's will."

What made Jesus angry? What has made God mad throughout all history?

People who choose their own will over God's will for us.

Fearful

2007-10-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

I doubt that any among us would claim to have a fearful approach to life. We recognize that we are called to a better, more powerful lifestyle than that.

Now I will admit to being 'cautious' in some circumstances and 'measured' in other situations. I am 'thoughtful' and am not given to just jumping into the deep end.

But whatever words you put on this approach to life, the end result is much the same: inaction. Sometimes I'm so cautious or measured, that I do nothing, and I think the root of my caution is fear -- maybe not quaking-in-my-boots fear, but fear nonetheless.

In the book of Acts, the disciples are characterized by boldness. Paul writes to various churches, encouraging them to make the most of their opportunities. (Gal. 6:10, Eph 5:16, Col 4:5) We are encouraged to set aside what hinders and RUN the race (Heb 12:1)

No, I don't think we are supposed to be reckless or thoughtless, but I do think there is supposed to be an element of venturousness in our approach to life. Some opportunities don't come around more than once; we have to be willing to move forward.

You can't step into the same river twice, according to Heraclitus. Shakespeare may have overstated this a bit, but he said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."

Paul tells us that we are not just conquerors, but more than conquerors. (Rom 8:37) He urges us to believe that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. He describes a lifestyle of faith and confidence.

When did we stray from that advice? When did we succomb to the "what ifs"? When did we grow so fearful of failure that we stopped moving forward? (And just what do we view as "failure" anyway; have we misdefined it?)

Although we are supposed to be humble, we aren't told to be timid.

Getting the most out of church

2007-09-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

We hear these things all the time:
"I'm just not getting much out of church."
"That church isn't meeting my needs."
"I thought the worship service was flat this morning."

And I have to admit that it is easy to slip into the "entertain me" mode of church-going. I've found myself in that posture more than once.

At other times, I have found myself in a very different mindset. I notice that when I have been spending a lot of time in deep Bible study, when I have been consistently in praise-prayer, when my mind is fixed on seeking God above all else, my trip to the church building on Sunday morning is much different. When I approach a Sunday morning worship service from a week of devotion, the church experience is much richer.

Here are some thoughts on how I get the most out of church:

(do these things during the week before going to church on Sunday morning)
Pray by name for the people I will be worshipping with.
Pray by name for the people who are shut-in/sick and will be unable to participate in the worship.
Lift for God's blessing the Bible teachers and their lessons for all Bible classes.
Pray for the minister's lesson preparation and delivery.
Spend regular times in meditation on scripture, letting God speak to my heart.
Invite someone to go to church.

(the night before)
Go to bed at a decent hour so that I will be rested and ready to worship.

(Sunday morning)
Get up early and pray for the church and its outreach to the lost.
Pray that those who are looking for excuses to skip church don't find them.
Pray that God will work through everyone in the church to welcome seekers.
Make sure I have plenty of time to get ready for church so that I can avoid being harried.

(at the building)
Take time to greet everyone I see, pausing with those who need to talk.
Watch for people who need extra assistance of any kind.

(during worship)
Glance around and thank God for my fellow worshippers.
As I look at each one, thank God (specifically if possible) for the talents of that person.
Recognize that God has gathered this group together for His purposes.
No making grocery lists or other unrelated notes!
Pray that the church's eyes will be opened to see the good works planned in advance.
Worship God for his daily care and saving grace.

When I prepare myself for worship, my heart experiences church in a new way.
I know this is a simplistic list, but it's a starting place for me.

Interruptions

2007-09-23T12:07:00.001-07:00

I'm not so good with things that interrupt what I am doing or what I have planned to do. I tend to be task-focused.

Because of that orientation, I am a great list-maker. At any given time, I have lists of things to do at the office, another list of things to do at the house, possibly a grocery list, and maybe some other lists as well.

I calculate in my mind just how many things I can check off before noon, what I can get done today or this week, and on and on. I have it all planned out.

And as a result, I don't do well with interruptions.

I know my life is in sharp contrast to the pattern Jesus demonstrates.

He tells his disciples that he has come to teach the people, and more than once as he prepares to teach, he is interrupted by people bringing their sick to him for healing -- even taking off the roof to lower a man close to Jesus! Each time he has compassion for them, and his plans to teach are delayed while he takes time to heal.

In Luke 13 when he is teaching in a synagogue, he sees a woman crippled for 18 years who can't even stand up straight -- so he interrupts his own lesson to heal her.

He has plans for getting away for some down time (Mark 6:31) but the people follow him. He has compassion for them, allows his rest to be interrupted, and teaches them. He even feeds them dinner --- not what he had planned.

Over and over, Jesus demonstrates that loving God and loving your neighbor means that you respond to people when they need you -- regardless of what you had planned instead.

People are more important than To Do lists.

The interruptions of my plans might just be the most important things I do.

Knowing, part 2

2007-09-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

I think we also get confused about what it means to know scripture.

Our approach to scripture reflects our check-off approach to our Christian lives. The thinking goes like this: I've read this scripture. I've studied this passage. I know what it says, and I know what the commentaries say about it. I've delved into the historical and social context. I know this scripture.

Later on, maybe years later, I read the same scripture and I learn new things from it. Maybe because I am older, have different experiences in my background, or approach the text from a different mindset -- or maybe because the Spirit reveals something new/different to me -- I know the scripture, but in a different way.

I think we get confused because we have the attitude that knowing scripture is a static kind of thing. It's that check-off mentality.

We don't leave room for scripture to be the living word of God. We don't allow for the working of the Spirit.

"Knowing scripture" is a noble goal, and we should aspire to greater and greater familiarity with the text. We should meditate on it, pray over it, and discuss it with others.

I wonder, however, if "knowing scripture" can become a straight-jacket that blocks our ability to continue learning about the nature of God through his word. If our thinking is: I know this scripture. I don't have to struggle with it. Been there, done that -- then further Bible study has no impact on our thinking.

Wasn't that part of the problem with the religious leaders Jesus knew? They knew scripture, but they were unwilling to accept anything different from their agreed-upon interpretations. They stopped hearing God. They stopped growing.

May we never stop growing! May we continually approach God's word with ears to hear, regardless of what we think we know.

Knowing

2007-09-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

I think we get confused about what it means to know God.

We are familiar with all the verses that encourage us to know God and be known by Him. We want to know Christ and the power of his rising. We shudder at the idea that He would say to us, 'depart, I never knew you.'

We talk about knowing God relationally, rather than just knowing about God. And I think that's good.

But I think we are making some mistakes in the area of knowing God . . . maybe the same mistake the folks in Nazareth made when they talked about how well they knew Jesus. There was no doubt in their minds that they knew him -- they knew he was a carpenter, and they knew his brothers and mother by name. They knew his sisters. (Mark 6)

The problem is that they were blinded by what they knew -- or thought they knew.

I wonder if we make that mistake with God too. We study, we debate, we worship -- and we become certain in our knowledge of God. We think we know who He is and what He does and what he said in scripture. We've got it nailed, so to speak.

And I think that's what blinds us.

We have it so outlined and codified and parsed, that there is no elbow room left for God to be God. We have saved the file. We have tied a bow on the package. We are done.

But our God is infinite, limitless, unbounded. Our tiny brains can't know all there is to know about Him, and so by definition, we should expect Him to surprise us. We should expect the unexpected. We should be delighted by His capacity to astound.

In Nazareth, the people were sure they knew him -- and that led to a lack of faith, and that led to fewer miracles. Our self-certain knowledge of God probably has the same result. Because we are sure we know all about God, we are blinded and can't see anything that differs from our (incomplete) understanding.

Let's vow to recognize the fact that God is beyond our human understanding. Let's watch for God to take unprecedented steps. Let's enjoy His power at work in our world; let's pray that he will indeed do more than we can imagine -- or anticipate.

Let's be careful of being so confident in what we "know."
Let's be wary of letting our self-certainty diminish our faith.

Kingdom thoughts

2007-09-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven)

I've been meditating on that phrase recently. It's another of those combination of words in the scripture that I think I blaze past without really absorbing the full meaning. So I've been taking time to try to delve into what is intended.

In the first place, having grown up in the U.S. -- I don't have an experiential understanding of kings and kingdoms. My thoughts and attitudes are permeated with freedom and individual liberties and inalienable rights of determination. Perhaps there is a little bit of that "master of my fate, captain of my soul" thrown in there -- although that's English, not American. Historically, we as a people resist being "subjects" to the king.

Because of my distinctly independent mindset, I don't readily understand sovereignty or absolute authority, as vested in a person. I was taught as a child that no one person -- not presidents, not popes, no man -- was infallible. I was taught instead to respect law (civil and scriptural.)

As a result, understanding God as king and understanding the kingdom of God is uphill.

Not long ago I meditated through Matthew and now I am meditating through Mark. Kingdom is such an important concept in those writings. Jesus tells his followers that the kingdom of God is near.

Growing up, I was taught that he meant that the church would soon be established -- Okay, maybe so, but is there more to it than that?

One big-picture teaching is that the 'kingdom of God' is where God is the supreme authority, where He rules, where He is acknowleged as King. It is a spiritual kingdom that is unrelated to any geographic location or any spot in time. It includes the church but is not limited to the church.

And so when God enters our world as Jesus, He brings his authority, his power, his kingdom near to us.

In fact, throughout the gospels, various people comment with amazement about the authority they see in the teaching of Jesus, in his miracles, in his power over demons. Authority is an inescapable aspect of Emmanuel, God with us.

And God's position as King, His absolute authority and power -- is unchanged by humans' failure to acknowledge the King and the Kingdom. All of creation recognizes Him, even if we don't. If we didn't shout hosanna, the rocks would have.

We are invited to become citizens of the king. We are invited to voluntarily ally ourselves with the one who will be victorious over all other kingdoms. He will welcome us if we subject ourselves to his rule.

Subject ourselves. Ah, there's the part that is unnatural for me. My rights, my exalted value as a person is so ingrained in my American thinking. Kings and kingdoms are so unfamiliar to me.

10 Sayings

2007-09-07T15:49:00.001-07:00

We have been studying the Ten Commandments, and I was interested to hear that the better translation would be Ten Sayings or Ten Statements.

I was also interested to hear the discussion about the purpose of those ten sayings.

During our growing up years, most of us were taught that the ten were indeed commands, directions on how to live. God is telling Man what the rules are for living properly in this world . . . rules for relating to God and rules for relating to fellow man. God is "laying down the law." Or maybe a softer approach: God knows best how things should be done so he is sharing with us the do's and don'ts that will make life better for us because he loves us.

This perspective usually leads to teachings about rule-keeping and obedience. . .

A different perspective suggests that the ten sayings are for the purpose of revealing the nature of God. With each of the ten sayings, we learn what God approves and disapproves. As we know more about Him, His nature, we move into closer relationship with Him. (If you know that I like classical music or who-dun-it novels, you know me better; if you know that God disapproves of stealing, you know Him better.)

This perspective leads to teachings about knowing God. . .

My natural inclination is to agree with both.
Yes, the ten sayings were given with both purposes in mind.

In fact, I find this same duality of purpose in all of scripture.
Is the Bible given to us to provide guidance on how we should live? Yes.
Is the Bible given to us to help us learn the nature of God? Yes.

I know many who shy away from the idea of the Bible as a rulebook. That sounds so harsh. And Americans in general tend shy away from the idea of obedience. We are fiercely independent and don't want anyone telling us what to do!

On the other side, however, I think there are many among us who would reduce the Bible to JUST a rulebook, missing the rich inferences about the God who inspired the book. In some cases, I think we take this rulebook approach because we are too lazy, too shallow, too whatever to wrestle with the text and too fearful to let the Spirit work on us during the wrestling.

And to muddy the waters a little: I think there are more than just two purposes in God's words to us.

Church

2007-09-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

Because the church exists in this world, we tend to approach the church as though it were a part of this world. We expect the church to have the characteristics of other groups of people we experience daily.

We tend to think of the church as being like the company where we work, the professional association we join, a user group we participate in, a social group we belong to, and so on. We construct our expectations of church, based on our knowledge of other groups.

In fact, the church is something other-worldly. As originally designed by the Maker, the church is a place (not literally) where things work differently. Different rules apply.

Unless we take it over and make it in our own image . . .

Sitting in the pew yesterday, I was thinking about these things, and it occured to me to write an echo of the beatitudes -- those verses where Jesus talked about God's view of things, which differs greatly from our human view.

Anyway, as I thought about the church, I thought how glad I am that there is room for every one of us in God's body. The rules of other human groups -- who is valuable and who isn't, who is important and who isn't -- don't apply.

Here goes:

Blessed are those who sing off key, for their songs are music to God's heart;
Blessed are the socially clumsy, for they will be woven into the fabric of the church anyway;
Blessed are those with the inability to verbalize their faith, for they will have the chance to preach through service;
Blessed are the physically unlovely, for they will be viewed through the lens of brotherly love;
Blessed are the professionally unsuccessful, for that is not how God measures people;
Blessed are the self-centered, for God can use them in spite of themselves;
Blessed are the least of the church members, for they will be exalted.

Aren't you glad you are called to be a part of God's church?

Interpreters

2007-08-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last month I had my first experience teaching with an interpreter at my side, conveying my English words into the listeners' language.

It was a fascinating learning opportunity for me.

A few months earlier, a preacher from South America came to our church and spoke on Sunday morning with an interpreter from our church, translating his words for us. I noticed that the preacher spoke in short, powerful sentences most of the time.

I recognized that the short sentences allowed me (as listener) to get the translation more immediately. And I suspected that it was easier for the translater. Indeed, when the speaker used a longer, more complex sentence, the interpreter struggled.

So as I prepared my lessons for the far away land, I determined to tell my lessons in short, straight-forward sentences. I didn't want the duplication involved in translation to dilute or diminish the lesson.

I also guessed that the underlying structure of the lesson should be direct, with a small number of main points. I suspected that introducing a translater creates a layer of complication for the listener and so further complication should be minimized.

I taught two lessons with interpreters -- one a male interpreter and one a female interpreter. In each case, the interpreter picked up the cadence of my lesson so that the interpretation seemed almost an echo of my words. I was surprised to discover that I felt supported by my interpreter. The interpreter seemed to come alongside me and give my words the wings they needed to bridge the gap to my non-English listeners. . . . which made me think about how the Spirit assists me when I am in prayer. (Romans 8:26-27)

I also noted that with the use of simple, declarative statements, the teaching was much more potent. The unadorned story of the Bible was powerful. When complicated sentences and intricate reasonings fell away, the foundation biblical teaching was awesome.

In a way, I felt that I was an observer of my own lessons, watching the Spirit reach the students, and it was an inspiring experience. The Word is indeed sharper than a two-edged sword and capable of the most delicate surgery (Heb 4:12-13) as it reaches into the core of our beings. It was a joy to watch Him at work.

Order of learning

2007-08-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

Isn't it interesting that the order in which we learn things has something to do with how we understand them?

For instance, as a child I learned about church before I learned about God.

From a young age, I was admonished that it was important to go to church. In my childhood, a good person was often referred to "a faithful member of (whatever) church." Within the church, I heard approving comments of "he/she is here every time the doors are open."

It's interesting, isn't it, that there is no mention of God in any of those statements.

So I learned about God through the lens of the church, instead of the other way around. I accepted the concept and reality of church, and then as I learned about God I tried to fit Him into that frame.

My starting place was the church in my town, with all its failings and imperfections and misunderstandings; no wonder some of my perceptions of God were askew.

In more recent years I've been trying to think through church and its role through the lens of what I now know about God. When you begin with a loving, powerful God, and then consider the role of the church, the view is startlingly different.

What a difference that order makes!

Restoration

2007-08-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

The town where I live has a number of delightful historic buildings.

In downtown, shiny glass office buildings stretch toward the sky immediately adjacent to two- and three-story structures built more than 100 years ago. The combination results in a special kind of charm or personality that feels much more approachable and friendly than some downtown business districts.

As historic preservation has grown in importance over the years, we have seen dumpy, abandoned old buildings experience amazing transformations. Eyesores have been turned into centerpieces. Buildings to be avoided have become sought-after addresses.

Sometimes the restoration seems nothing short of a miracle. A dirty, broken-down building becomes a gleaming show-place. A trashy, ugly house is changed into a delight to the neighborhood.

I've often admired the skill of the craftsmen who can replace the broken, damaged pieces and parts with something new and lovely -- while always staying true to the original design. I stand in awe of the carpenters and masons who have the talent to breathe new life into a structure.

Recently someone called my attention to four of the early words in the 23rd Psalm -- "He restores my soul."

In some ways, I am like those buildings that need repair.

When I have lived my life in such a way that my inner self is damaged or broken, God can bring newness and revive me. When I am battered and dirty from the daily challenge of living life in a fallen world, the Good Shepherd can refresh me and prepare me to try again to live a life worthy of Him.

When no one else -- even me! -- sees value in me, God sees me for what I can become. He sees the cleaned-up potential when I am still ramshackled and abandoned.

I am the result of God's workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), and He is an expert craftsman. May I never doubt His power to make new.

Acting

2007-08-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

Although I have been on stage from time to time, it would not be accurate to say that I've ever been an actor. My experiences are limited to silly skits and acting out stories for kids.

I am interested in acting, however. I remember hearing Marlon Brando and others talk about the "Method Acting" they found successful. Under this technique, if an actor's character was supposed to cry, the actor thought of something sad in his own life to bring tears.

In more recent years, actors have been taught to go more deeply into the character; to imagine the character in all sorts of circumstances to explore how the character might react. In this way, they would get to know their character from the inside out, and thereby be able to play the character more successfully.

We've all read stories about actors who actually spent time in circumstances similar to the role they were going to play in a movie. By spending time in the surroundings, the actor is seeking to get "inside the head" of the character so that he can portray the character more believably.

It occurs to me that to some degree we should be working, preparing, studying to act the role of Jesus. We should be exploring how Jesus would react in circumstances. (WWJD) We should be trying to get inside his head. (Phil 2)

We are called to be imitators of Christ; we are called to ACT like Jesus. Each morning we should "put on" Jesus. Throughout the day we should impersonate him. Think like him. Love like him.

And our internal efforts should produce external results. Characteristics of Jesus should shine through our personalities. Those around us should see Jesus in us.

So, if we are accused of "putting on an act" -- maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Change

2007-08-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

It's possible that in the last 20 years more has been written in the business world about "change" than any other topic. Business experts discuss how to ensure an organization is "nimble." For a while, all you could hear was how readily a company could abandon its paradigm. The focus has been on change.

In schools too, the issue of change has been a frequent topic. Because of the information explosion and the rapid pace of change, educators were encouraged not to teach facts, but to teach research skills -- not to teach information, but to teach adaptability and problem solving. This would prepare our young people for change.

It's as though we -- in this generation -- had discovered the idea of change. Some were frightened by it and resistent; some were energized by it and eager.

From the time of creation, however, our God has been a God of change. Creation itself attests to that. God spoke, and change occurred. The ideas of growth, development, and metamorphesis are fundamental to all of creation.

On a more personal level, we are told that we need to "become" more like Christ. We are told to "put on" the new man. We are urged to grow, mature, be transformed in our minds.

Long before our current society latched onto the idea of change, God was beaconing us to be something different/better today than we were yesterday. God is looking for change in our actions, in our thinking, in our character.

Which leads me to ponder: how am I different today? have I grown any since yesterday? am I altered by my recent encounters with God? Or do I look in the mirror and then walk away without any change?

And a corollary idea: shouldn't I expect the people around me to change? don't I do them a disservice by pigeonholing them as a certain sort of person and assuming that they will always be like that? shouldn't I be encouraging them to blossom?

Rather than being threatened by change, followers of Christ should be championing change in ourselves and in those around us . . . urging each other on to new thoughts, new understandings, new ways of being like Christ.

Years ago I read that one of the most valid prayers is "Change me!" We often pray for changed circumstances, but we don't often grow brave enough to pray "change ME!" We prefer that the other person, the situation, the outcomes be remolded to fit us -- an amazingly self-centered approach when you think about it.

But dare I say it? Dare I risk the me that is familiar? Dare I trust God enough to request that He go to work on me? The answer has to be yes.

Lord, change me!

Tentacles

2007-07-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

Once I saw a time-lapse video of a vine growing. The plant sent out frail little tendrils, extending them into the air. The tiny tendrils swirled in a circular motion, reaching for something to grasp.

When the tendril at last made contact with something, it curled around it in a spiral, growing longer and embracing the object more and more securely. Eventually, the vine would thicken and strengthen and tighten its grip on whatever it had encountered.

I have seen this process at work in my front yard. We have a wisteria plant that takes over the handrail leading to the front door. We call it our monster plant because if we don't trim it regularly it seems to reach out to our visitors, seeking to trip them up and keep them from our front porch.

I've been out of the country for ten days, away from my job and office for a two full weeks. As I drove to work this morning, I mused at how 'separated' I felt from my job. The challenges of the office seemed sort of removed from my heart.

I reflected that it has been good to strip the tendrils away for a period of time. Only by clearing away the entanglements of my job did I recognize how intertwined with it I had become. Only by stepping away from the demands of my position was I able to see myself separated from the identity of my job title.

It also made me think that this is the way we are overtaken by the world, by worldliness . . . not by a vicious onslaught, but by tiny creeping tendrils that seem harmless. Frail little ties to the cares of this earth. Daily tasks and responsibilities that supplant God gradually but surely.

Perspective

2007-07-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

When I'm trying to see something clearly and understand its shape, I often look at it for a while from one position, then move to another position to look. By looking at the object from more than one perspective, I can get a better sense of it.

This principal is played out in all sorts of everyday experiences. When I look at sculpture. When I look at a historic site. When I look at a building.

I realize that I've just had that same opportunity to see -- only on a larger scale.

I usually see God from the perspective of my life, my culture, my upbringing, and my part of the world. Recently, I had a chance to see God through a very different culture in a different part of the world.

The change in perspective was amazingly helpful. By viewing Him from the position of people very different from myself, I learned a lot about Him. I have a clearer understanding of His "shape" and a better sense of His enormity, His essence.

By seeing Him from another angle, I understood a different dimension of God's nature. What a blessing! What an encouragement.

Community

2007-07-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Riddle: How can you travel 8500 miles and 12 time zones and still be at home?

Answer: Find the church.
Truly, the unity of believers is an amazing thing.

Relinquishing

2007-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

Lately there have been an unusual number of big issues going on in my life. Things I might be inclined to worry about. Things I could obsess about.

But it occurred to me that I could simply choose not to go that route.

I could "hand it all over." I could turn it loose. I could let it go. I could just simply choose to let God handle these situations. I could leave it in His hands.

What a relief.

And how logical.

After all, I can't really make things happen. I am not in control of things, other than my own reactions to circumstances.

God, on the other hand, is powerful and able to make things happen.

So . . . I'm in the business of handing things over these days.

Tour guides

2007-07-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

When I travel, I'm the person who reads the guide book. When I arrive in a new place, I know the lay of the land. I know where the historic sites are. I know what shouldn't be missed.

When they were growing up, my kids learned to just assume that I would know all sorts of things about our vacation spot. Weirder than that, however, strangers in the places we would visit would stop me and ask for directions -- and I could usually help them!

I tell you this story because it will help you understand why -- as I prepare to travel to Kazakhstan -- I was strangely comforted by a segment of Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis, where he says,

"Missions is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there. It is almost as if being a good missionary means having really good eyesight. Or maybe it means teaching people to use their eyes to see things that have always been there; they just didn't realize it. You see God where others don't. And then you point him out.

"Perhaps we ought to replace the word missionary with tour guide, because we cannot show people something we haven't seen.

". . . So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst.

". . . Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connection where others don't. That is why the best teachers are masters of the obvious. They see the same things that we do, but they are aware of so much more. And when they point it out, it changes the way we see everything."

Bell then mentions the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume -- how some thought it was a waste of money, but how Jesus offers such a different perspective. He's a tour guide, pointing out the reality/beauty others missed.

I'm glad to have this lesson before we travel to a land far away.

I'm glad my job isn't to haul Jesus over there. I'm much more comfortable with being a tour guide to point to the God who is already there.

Parables in life

2007-07-12T16:41:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up early in my hotel room. Working out of town, away from familiar surroundings is disorienting.

I noticed that the window of my room -- with its spectacular view of the city -- was foggy and hazy with condensation. The view I had enjoyed the night before was hidden.

Eventually, just before I left the room to begin my day of work, I walked over near the window and sat down to pray.

Much to my surprise, when I sat down, I had a perfect view of the early morning downtown cityscape. I had to chuckle.

God never misses an opportunity to teach me. I love that about Him.

It was a perfect parable: My vision is often clouded, obstructed, short-sighted -- just like the window in my hotel room. The only way for me to gain a clearer view of all that surrounds me is for me to stop and pray.

What a wonderful lesson He provided -- and I enjoyed it throughout the day!

And perhaps even better, although I was in a city away from my family, I didn't feel alone.

Holy Bible

2007-07-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, we handled the Bible with great reverence. It would have been unthinkable to toss a Bible into a back seat of a car, for instance. It was always placed gently and always face up.

When I went away to a Christian college, I learned a much more casual approach to the Bible. I was encouraged to mark in my Bible -- horrors! And many of the male Bible majors -- they were all male back then -- carried small testaments around in their hip pockets. Dear me.

That casual or familiar approach to Holy Scripture was good in one respect: it helped me feel that I could approach the text, debate what I found there, and apply it to daily life. The Bible took on the mantle of a textbook for my Bible classes. My relationship with the Bible became a largely intellectual one. I was challenged by -- and fascinated by -- all I could learn from its pages. I developed a love of Bible study.

As years passed, I was intrigued that there was always something new in scripture to catch my attention. I joked with my friends that 'that verse wasn't there the last time I looked!' and 'I guess that's why they call it the living word!' Ha ha. But laughing aside, I was fascinated that no matter how much I studied the Bible, I found it fresh and startlingly pertinent to my life circumstances.

And then there were those times when a verse -- that I had studied many times before -- would suddenly stand up off the page and turn from black and white to technicolor. (If this has happened to you, you know what I mean.) Suddenly the meaning would transform from two dimensional to 3-D or maybe holographic. (Side note: and when this happens, you can't tell someone else about it because they look at you like you've gone bonkers and say things like, 'yes, of course that's what it says...') This has happened to me often enough now that I recognize the work of the Spirit and take joy in the certainty that God is actively revealing something to me.

As years passed -- and life became difficult from time to time -- I discovered something else in those same pages: the intimate support provided by God's Word. In daily devotional Bible study I found the incredible comfort and amazingly personal voice of God speaking in great specificity to my struggles. I was stunned by the nearness of God, by his almost palpable presence emanating from the pages when I was so in need. No longer was my relationship with the Bible a solely intellectual one.

My experiences with the Biblical text over the years have led me back to a greater reverence for the Bible. It's so much more than just a textbook. Maybe it's like a textbook written specifically for me. Maybe it's like a guidebook that is updated every morning and continually serves up advice for my latest struggles.

It's like a hole in space/time where I can catch a glimpse of God and He can reach through to surround me with His comfort. And His correction.

The Word of God -- in all manifestations -- is an awesome gift from our Father. It really is "living and active" (Heb 4:12) and is worthy of our reverence and lifelong study.

Ordinary

2007-07-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

More than a decade ago, I read Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God. Today as I worked on an upcoming lesson, I sought out a memorable passage:

"When you believe nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself . . .

He goes on to say: "An ordinary person is who God most likes to use. Paul said God deliberately seeks out the weak things and the despised things, because it is from them that He can receive the greatest glory (see I Cor. 1:26-31). Then everyone will know that only God could have done it. If you feel weak, limited, ordinary, you are the best material through which God can work!"

Makes me think of that old refridgerator magnet I saw one time: the only ability you need to have to be used by God is availability.

Rebuilding

2007-07-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Ten of us are traveling to Almaty, Kazakhstan at the end of this month. While there, we will conduct a youth retreat campout in the mountains outside of town. They have asked us to prepare four lessons from Ezra and Nehemiah. The working title for the series is "Rebuilding the Walls of Faith."

Toward the end of the book of Nehemiah, the priest Ezra reads the law to the people, and they weep when they realize how they have failed to keep God's commands.

Have you ever been in that spot? I have.

From time to time, God reveals to me -- often in technicolor -- where I have failed in an area of life where I thought I was doing well. When that happens, it breaks my heart (which is a right response!) It is easy, however, for me to become ashamed and embarassed. At that point, it's easy to start beating up on ourselves, and that's when Satan will whisper, "You just aren't good enough. You might as well quit trying."

But God's whisper to me is very different: "I have a plan for you, a plan prosper you, to give you hope."(Jeremiah 29:12) "There is no condemnation." (Romans 8:1) God's message to us is good news. A message of healing and power. A message of blessing and joy.

That's why Nehemiah tells the people who are weeping, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10)

Like them, I have an invitation to move forward with renewed purpose and dedication. I can offer my life as a living sacrifice because of the joy of salvation and forgiveness and God's generous love.

Meditating on a verse

2007-06-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
A familiar verse. We study it. We quote it. In recent years, we sing it.

But to me, it has always sounded glib. Very slick. A pat answer. I've always thought that the deep meaning of the statement eluded me.

Sitting in my pew during worship, I tried to disect it to improve my understanding, to get inside the meaning of those simple words.

The joy . . . the deep-down delight?
the quiet contentment?
the welling-up-gladness ?
the can't-be-contained ear-to-ear grin?

The joy of the Lord . . . the delight the Lord Himself feels?
the delight He provides for me to feel?
the delight He has in me as His child?
the delight/goodness that is the essence of God?

is my strength . . . gets me through the tough spots?
empowers me to a life of service and dedication?
sustains my daily life?
protects me from the evil around me?

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Humans like us

2007-06-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

A longtime friend -- veteran teacher of many Bible classes for small children -- told me once that we make a mistake when we call the people described in scripture "Bible characters." Her complaint was about creating a larger-than-life aura around the men and women of the Bible stories we teach kids.

After all, it's only reasonable that if they are superheroes, then their lives are super lives and their interaction with God is super too -- not like mine. That reasoning separates me from the promises of the Bible and from God himself in a fundamental way.

I think James is addressing this (5:17) when he says Elijah was a man just like us. Elijah had his ups and downs. Elijah was exemplary one day and down in the pits the next. Just like us.

In his book Hearing God, Dallas Willard writes, "The humanity of Moses, David and Elijah, of Paul, Peter and Jesus Christ himself -- of all that wonderful company of riotously human women and men whose experience is recorded in the bible and in the history of the church -- teaches us a vital lesson: Our humanity will not by itself prevent us from knowing and interacting with God just as they did.

Don't you love that? Not only can their story of faith be our story of faith, their God our God, but their interaction with God can be repeated in our lives.

That's why God told us about them.

Be still

2007-06-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I taught a lesson on Psalm 46:10 -- "Be still and know that I am God."

The lesson explored the fact that our society values action. 'Busy hands are happy hands.' 'The idle mind is the devil's playground.' 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.' Being still runs counter to our 'can do' spirit, our American self-sufficiency.

The lesson then explored how exactly we can be still, how we can wait on the Lord, how we can learn not to default to random activity as a replacement for recognizing God's sovereignty.

As a conclusion for the lesson, I wrote a prayer.

Over the years (the lesson was presented in July of 2003) I have received numerous requests for copies of the prayer. So I am posting it here for any who want it.

Gracious Lord,

I am intentionally stilling my physical and mental activity in order to place myself in your hands.

I am consciously making my body rest in your presence. I am halting all the busyness of my hands and feet. I am waiting in your presence for your decisions, actions, steps.

I am forcing my mind to focus on you and your awesome power and love. I am putting all my worries, all my fears, all my self-justification aside. All the self-talk, all the mental chatter is stopped for me to meditate on your love for me and the safety of your wisdom.

I am being still because I know that my frantic actions and thoughts serve only to distance me from you and your peace.

I am waiting like a child in full confidence that you, Father, know what is best for me. I rest in the security that you always work things together for good for those who love you.

I breathe in your peace, knowing that you can do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine. I rest in you, and in my weakness, your strength is made perfect. I wait for your solutions that come in your time.

I pray all these things through the name of your Son, who showed us your wisdom and love and power.

Amen

ks 7/8/03

The value of shared experience

2007-06-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Last February I attended a national Christian women's conference in San Antonio. A couple dozen of us went together. We shared rides from Austin to SA; we shared hotel rooms; we had meals together; we sat together at the conference and heard the same speakers. When we returned to our home church, we enjoyed telling others about the conference.

Interestingly, when we returned I noticed that when I saw anyone who had been on the trip, I felt a special kinship to them. I felt noticeably closer to those with whom I'd attended the conference. As I reflected on the psychological results of shared experience, I remembered the same result when I participated in Trek a few summers ago.

Sharing time, events, and/or work creates a bond. Hearing a presentation of ideas together creates a shared reference point for future conversations.

In the same way, shared worship experiences create community. Hearing a sermon together shapes our minds. Congregational prayer -- when done right -- binds us together in our approach to God. To an even greater extent, congregational singing builds connections among us as we lift up a shared offering to God. (I think congregational singing has a greater result than congregational prayer because it's easier for every individual to participate actively.)

God of course knows us better than we know ourselves. Long before we realized the value of shared experience, He gave us the Lord's table. In the opportunity to share the bread and wine, He was addressing the phenomenon of building community through shared experience.

When believers work together to feed the hungry (for example), we not only benefit the recipients, we are built up/strengthened as a body. As living stones built into a spiritual house (I Peter 2:5), we are cemented by shared experience.

Emptying

2007-06-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I was reading the crucifixion story and was struck by the fact that even his clothes were taken from him. The soldiers gambled for them, winner take all.

Phil 2 came to mind. I wondered if there is a meaningful parallel.

When Christ left heaven to become a man, he emptied himself of all the trappings of heaven. As he left his human life, he was emptied of all earthly belongings.

Metaphors

2007-06-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day I was thinking about God. I was thinking that by looking at fathers we understand certain aspects of God's nature.

I learn a lot from the metaphors in the Bible. God is like a shepherd in his caring for us. God is like a king in his sovereignty. Jesus is the Way.

But it occurs to me that we have it backwards: we look at fathers and think about how God is like them. In fact, however, it is fathers who have been fashioned in a way to be reflective of God.

It is understandable that we think of the metaphors backwards because of the chronological order of our learning. We experience fathers in our daily walk -- up close and personal -- before we mature in our relationship with God. Fathers have skin on them while God is invisible. Only later in life do we realize the real order of things.

God was first -- and He created fathers and shepherds and kings in his image. The metaphors in the Bible spring from God's stamp on his creation. He isn't like us; our world is like Him. He created the world with glimpses of himself throughout.

His essence is seen in the patterns of life... in shepherd's concern, in king's sovereignty, etc. Much like a writer cannot avoid self-disclosing in his prose and a painter tells something about himself in every piece of art. Our Creator's nature is woven throughout creation.

God isn't like a Father; He is the origin of fatherhood.