Do you remember the old movie The Time Machine? In it, a scientist sits in the machine, and pushes the lever forward. Time begins to accelerate. The sun and moon pass rapidly before his window. Furniture scoots around the room. He pushes the lever forward faster. The room itself disappears. He is now in a vacant lot. He sees the mannequin in a store window--skirt hemlines go up and down with the changes of fashion. Then the store itself disappears. The town disappears, too, and greenery grows around him. Finally, he is encased in rock and then the rock itself wears away.
The older I get, the more I feel like that time traveler. Everything I know fades away. Old friends age and die. My hair turns from black to white. Just as soon as I get used to one bit of technology it's obsolete.
Think of the things we have known--records, black-and-white television, newspapers, books, full service gas stations, board games, milkmen, door-to-door salesmen, big cars, written letters, balancing your check book, soft drinks in glass bottles—all are either gone or fading. Those things we thought would last forever fall away and we are in an unfamiliar world. We are the strangers in our own homes, even strangers in our own bodies.
Desperately we try to slow things down. We pull on the lever. But the world will not go any slower because we want it to. Everything disappears--including ourselves.
Every generation has experienced obsolescence, decline and death. No one grows old gracefully. Everyone hates to see the old go.
Our reaction to aging depends on one thing--what we think comes afterward. If I were that man in the time machine, I would enjoy the ride only if I knew I was going back to my own time. If I thought it aging was permanent, then I would fight furiously to slow the world down. .
"To be, or not to be," Hamlet said. "That is the question." When he thought of ending his life, he thought of eternal judgment and changed his mind.
Either we believe that we are headed for oblivion, or we believe we are headed for heaven. Which is more appealing? Which give some reason for living?
The Bible gives abundant evidence of the existence of heaven. Consider these verses.
1 Thess 4:13-18. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Rev. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, he new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
John 14:1-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
What is heaven like? We cannot really know. The pearly gates, streets of gold, wedding feast, and thrones are all just metaphors meant to express to our earthly something indescribable.
Forget everything you have heard about heaven. Forget everything you imagine it to be. There is nothing this side of heaven that can even begin to express its true nature. What kind of existence we will have we could not begin to grasp. The images we get of heaven are either our attempts to grasp the ungraspable or God's method of expressing the inexpressible. It is the fulfillment of all things on earth, and the surpassing of all human joys. It is a real place where all the pleasures and joys of this world are multiplied many times over.
What do we know of heaven? We can at least say four things about it.
First, in Heaven there is no time. When God chose a name to give Moses, He called Himself “I am.” "I exist always in the present." When Jesus wanted to tell who he really was, he said "Before Abraham was, I Am." He lives in a present, which was before Abraham.
Eternity is beyond time and beyond space, when we live in all moments at once, as God does. I do not understand this, I only know it is.
I don't know about you, but this is a great comfort to me. In heaven I will literally have all the time in the world to enjoy what I want forever.
Second, in heaven there will be no sin. Once upon a time, God created a perfect world. We messed it up, by not obeying Him. This led to all the problems of the world, disease, war, famine, destruction, and death. Jesus redeemed out of this world those who would believe. One day when the world ends and our lives end, we will live happily ever after.
We would live happily ever after now, if it were not for one thing--sin.
We all suffer because of something someone has done, either ourselves or someone else. Drug use leads to addiction which leads to poverty. Promiscuity leads to unplanned pregnancy which leads to poverty. Drunken driving leads to accidents which leads to poverty. But many, many more suffer because they are victims of someone else. In a world without sin, there would be no poverty, either. And if there is no poverty without sin, then it must also be true that in a place where there is no poverty, there was no sin.
We battle sin our whole lives. But once we get to heaven, that battle is over. The drunkard is clean, the lustful are faithful, the lazy are industrious, the proud are humble, the greedy are satisfied, and the violent are calm at last. God wipes away every tear from our eyes and every temptation of our heart.
Third in heaven, there is love.
Yes, we will see our mothers and fathers and all those who have gone before (assuming they have trusted in Christ and arrived safely) But this is just a tiny part of heaven's joys. Without the restrictions of this world, and the sin of this world, our love broadens, as so does everyone else. There will not be separate families in heaven. Instead, we will all be part of one great family. Instead of one mother, we will have millions. We will have millions of fathers, too. Everyone we meet will be our brothers and sisters. In heaven, all children will be our children, and we will be children of all.
Love is the substance of heaven, as it the substance of God. We will live in it. Every relationship in heaven is rooted and grounded in the love of God.
Remember what Jesus said "Those who do the will or My father are my mothers and brothers." Remember when He said no one will give up father and mother without having a hundred more in the kingdom of Heaven. Remember when He said that in heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage. We will all love each one. Divisions on earth are so ridiculous—if we are going to spend all eternity together, who why quarrel about what doesn't matter?
Fourth, in heaven will be the living presence of God. Here's the best part.
In Revelation 21: 22-26 John likens heaven to a city, shaped like an enormous city. The streets and the avenues of the city on every level are transparent gold, like glass
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
The glory of God lights the city, from top to bottom. It fills every nook and cranny of the dwelling place of the dead with glorious light.
On earth, we only catch glimpses of that light Imagine what it would be like to experience that moment of glory every moment of every day, for the rest of eternity, to be frozen in wonder forever.
In James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon, a man visits a place called Shangri La, a place so beautiful that he spends the rest of his life trying to get back to it. Heaven is such a place. It is worth everything to go there.
So how do we get to heaven? It is simple. We put our trust in Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross washes away not only the guilt, but the power of sin in our lives. Whatever our sinful minds have done, whatever sinful lusts have driven us, he breaks the power of them, so that we can walk free of them.
Don't let the littleness of this life get you down.. God is in charge. He has a better place waiting for us, if we will only believe.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
What is God for? Hope
Today, I want to talk about a third aspect of what God is for—a hope for the hopeless. Before we discuss this, let’s talk about what hope actually is. Hope includes two aspects-- reality and feelings. In order for hope to help us, is must be both.
Let me illustrate. Suppose someone else did in my name and bought me a lottery ticket. I neither believe in nor approve of the lottery. Nevertheless, if you own a lottery ticket, there is an element of real hope associated with it. Any lottery ticket has the possibility, however infinitesimal, of financial gain. I certainly would not go out and run up my credit cards in anticipation, however.
Now, suppose that I had this ticket, but I did not believe it had any possibility of any real gain from it, and I tore it up. Whatever real hope there might be in that ticket would be lost. It would be worth nothing. It would be foolish on one hand to feel the ticket had value when it didn’t, and go borrow money on that basis. It also be foolish to tear it up, without at least waiting to see whether it actually had some value.
Or lets suppose you have a rare and serious illness. The doctors tell you there is no hope, so you give up treatment. Then one doctor says there is a possibility of a new treatment that might work. If you don’t believe it will work, you will not take the treatment, and it will do you no good. But if you think it has a possibility of working, you’ll move heaven and earth to have it.
Real hope is based on a possibility of gain. But without believing in that possibility—perceived or felt hope, then the real value does us no good.
If we perceive hope where there is none, we are just being delusional. If we have no hope where there is real hope, we are being fatalistic. Without some degree of hope, we give up the struggle. We must have hope to continue to live.
It is difficult to overestimate the value of hope. If we have hope, we will do anything, try anything,endure anything. But if we have no hope, even the most routine of activities becomes pointless.
The word "hope" in English is not strong enough to convey what the Bible says about hope. Our word means the possibility of improving situations. The word "hope" in both Hebrew and Greek means a great deal more than that. I means our improvement Is certain, if we stay on the right course.
In Hebrew, the word used is tiquvah. Translated literally int English, it means a rope or a cord. If we are going through a treacherous place, then a rope may be what we hold onto. It is a sure and certain guide before us.
In Greek he word is elpis. It is a word which mean, not only he possibility of improvement, but the certainty of it. Hope is acting on what is promised tomorrow today.
Recently, Joy and I got some new furniture for our living room. It took two weeks to deliver from the store. Druing that time, we were stuck with having to get rid of the old furniture. It took three trips and several house, but we finally got our furniture own to Hope, incorporated to distribute to a burned-out family. When we wer done we sat in a nearly empty living room for a day. If the furniture had not arrived on time, we would have been in a mess. But the furniture did arrive right on time, and our hope was validated.
Every day we make decisions based on hope. We cast our furniture in anticpation of another. We unpack one house and move into another. We reach out because we know we will be of use. Without hope, we would sit in our hoes and do nothing. Hope is something we must have to do anything. It is a necessary commodity to anything we do.
When we lose faith, we lose hope. If we really don't trust politicians, why vote? If we think we have no chance of making friends, then why be a friend? Everything we are and ever will be depends upon hope.
Christians know where hope comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ. Christ is the bringer of hope, more than anything else. The story of Christ's birth is a hopeful story. It shows us that God can come to earth in the most unlikely of places. The story of Christ's baptism brings hope, since it shows that the Messiah can come from anywhere. The story of Christ's miracles bring hope, since it shows that God can overcome anything, even death itself. The story of Christ's death and resurrection brings hope, since it shows that nothing not even death, can separate us from the forgiveness of sins that Jesus gave through his atoning work.
Our faith in Jesus is not vain. It is a real hope. Jesus really did die on the cross for our sins, and he really promises us forgiveness and true life forever. This is not an illusion.
But this hope does us no good unless we feel it. Hope is a thing we must have for ourselvs. It cannot ge given to us b others.
Paul says in Romans 5:1-4
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Hope is an upward spiral to the Christian. As we practice hope that God will accept us by faith in Him, and we anticipate that by praising Him, we learn perseverance, which develops our character, including that characteristic of hope.
Christ gives brought us four kinds of hope to us.
1. He gave us hope for an experience of God.
I believe that everyone instinctually has a desire to see and experience God in their lives. We see this in the way all cultures have developed a sense of divinity, whether it be true or false. We all want fellowship with Him.
In our modern age, many have turned away from all divinity, and declared themselves atheists or agnostics. Even so, they we have kept in our stories, a longing for wonder, a hope for something truly amazing to break into our lives. The reason people seek our ghosts, UFO's and psychic phenomena is because they want to believe there is something greater than ourselves who will come and rescue us. In Communist countries like China and North Korea, their leaders are woshiped as gods. Having done away with the true God, they put worldly rulers in His place
But the only hope we have of speaking to God is through Jesus Christ. Sin has separated ourselves form the truth. We cannot restore is, s we must rely upon God's mercy through Jesus to ope n the door that would otherwise be shut to us. "For there is just one name in heaven and earth by which ou must be saved." .
2. He gave us hope to change our lives and attitudes.
When do you think personality is formed--College? High school? Preschool? When does it become too late for a person to change?
Some people believe that there is no possibility to change. Behaviorists, racists, and gay rights activists all have one thing in common--they believe there are aspects of who we are that came from birth, and cannot be changed later.
We do not have to be any one of those to believe we are predetermined from birth.
As we get older, more and more we accept the lie that we cannot change. In time, we quit trying. But Jesus can still change us, whether we are two years old or a hundred. We can always start again. When we trust Jesus, we are born again. A new life begins, and a new hope comes with us.
3. He gave us hope for eternal life.
When we are young, we think we will live forever. In our country, death is far from most of us for a long time. So we never sit and contemplate the reality of death. One day we will exist on this world, and the next day we will not.
The Bible says that there is another life waiting for us--heaven. Heaven does not have the limitations of this life, nor does it have the temptations. Heaen is forever, and the joy of heaven is forever.
The way we understand heaven makes all the difference in the way we understand this life. If there is no heaven, it doesn't matter what we do. Eefyting will be ther same. But if there is a heaven, then we should live and obey in a way that helps us get there. If there is no heaven, then we should do everything we can to stay alive, no matter what it does to others. A live coward is better than a dead hero. But if ther eis a heaven, then death is not the worst thing. Missing out on eternity is the worse thing, and death which leads to heaven is the best thing we can ever have.
4. He gave us hope for a new world.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth" John said. "For the old heaven and the old earth have passed away." To which the believer will no doubt say "Well, It's about time!" Sin had left this world with some terrible flaws. It is a tough, selfish world to live sin, and it is getting worse. Mark Twain once said that man was a little lower than the angels, and has been getting a little lower ever since. But the hope that we have for ourselves also extends to the whole world. God will make it right. We do not have to despair.
Let us have hope, then. Let us live in that hope and die in that hope. God's hope will not disappoint.
Let me illustrate. Suppose someone else did in my name and bought me a lottery ticket. I neither believe in nor approve of the lottery. Nevertheless, if you own a lottery ticket, there is an element of real hope associated with it. Any lottery ticket has the possibility, however infinitesimal, of financial gain. I certainly would not go out and run up my credit cards in anticipation, however.
Now, suppose that I had this ticket, but I did not believe it had any possibility of any real gain from it, and I tore it up. Whatever real hope there might be in that ticket would be lost. It would be worth nothing. It would be foolish on one hand to feel the ticket had value when it didn’t, and go borrow money on that basis. It also be foolish to tear it up, without at least waiting to see whether it actually had some value.
Or lets suppose you have a rare and serious illness. The doctors tell you there is no hope, so you give up treatment. Then one doctor says there is a possibility of a new treatment that might work. If you don’t believe it will work, you will not take the treatment, and it will do you no good. But if you think it has a possibility of working, you’ll move heaven and earth to have it.
Real hope is based on a possibility of gain. But without believing in that possibility—perceived or felt hope, then the real value does us no good.
If we perceive hope where there is none, we are just being delusional. If we have no hope where there is real hope, we are being fatalistic. Without some degree of hope, we give up the struggle. We must have hope to continue to live.
It is difficult to overestimate the value of hope. If we have hope, we will do anything, try anything,endure anything. But if we have no hope, even the most routine of activities becomes pointless.
The word "hope" in English is not strong enough to convey what the Bible says about hope. Our word means the possibility of improving situations. The word "hope" in both Hebrew and Greek means a great deal more than that. I means our improvement Is certain, if we stay on the right course.
In Hebrew, the word used is tiquvah. Translated literally int English, it means a rope or a cord. If we are going through a treacherous place, then a rope may be what we hold onto. It is a sure and certain guide before us.
In Greek he word is elpis. It is a word which mean, not only he possibility of improvement, but the certainty of it. Hope is acting on what is promised tomorrow today.
Recently, Joy and I got some new furniture for our living room. It took two weeks to deliver from the store. Druing that time, we were stuck with having to get rid of the old furniture. It took three trips and several house, but we finally got our furniture own to Hope, incorporated to distribute to a burned-out family. When we wer done we sat in a nearly empty living room for a day. If the furniture had not arrived on time, we would have been in a mess. But the furniture did arrive right on time, and our hope was validated.
Every day we make decisions based on hope. We cast our furniture in anticpation of another. We unpack one house and move into another. We reach out because we know we will be of use. Without hope, we would sit in our hoes and do nothing. Hope is something we must have to do anything. It is a necessary commodity to anything we do.
When we lose faith, we lose hope. If we really don't trust politicians, why vote? If we think we have no chance of making friends, then why be a friend? Everything we are and ever will be depends upon hope.
Christians know where hope comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ. Christ is the bringer of hope, more than anything else. The story of Christ's birth is a hopeful story. It shows us that God can come to earth in the most unlikely of places. The story of Christ's baptism brings hope, since it shows that the Messiah can come from anywhere. The story of Christ's miracles bring hope, since it shows that God can overcome anything, even death itself. The story of Christ's death and resurrection brings hope, since it shows that nothing not even death, can separate us from the forgiveness of sins that Jesus gave through his atoning work.
Our faith in Jesus is not vain. It is a real hope. Jesus really did die on the cross for our sins, and he really promises us forgiveness and true life forever. This is not an illusion.
But this hope does us no good unless we feel it. Hope is a thing we must have for ourselvs. It cannot ge given to us b others.
Paul says in Romans 5:1-4
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Hope is an upward spiral to the Christian. As we practice hope that God will accept us by faith in Him, and we anticipate that by praising Him, we learn perseverance, which develops our character, including that characteristic of hope.
Christ gives brought us four kinds of hope to us.
1. He gave us hope for an experience of God.
I believe that everyone instinctually has a desire to see and experience God in their lives. We see this in the way all cultures have developed a sense of divinity, whether it be true or false. We all want fellowship with Him.
In our modern age, many have turned away from all divinity, and declared themselves atheists or agnostics. Even so, they we have kept in our stories, a longing for wonder, a hope for something truly amazing to break into our lives. The reason people seek our ghosts, UFO's and psychic phenomena is because they want to believe there is something greater than ourselves who will come and rescue us. In Communist countries like China and North Korea, their leaders are woshiped as gods. Having done away with the true God, they put worldly rulers in His place
But the only hope we have of speaking to God is through Jesus Christ. Sin has separated ourselves form the truth. We cannot restore is, s we must rely upon God's mercy through Jesus to ope n the door that would otherwise be shut to us. "For there is just one name in heaven and earth by which ou must be saved." .
2. He gave us hope to change our lives and attitudes.
When do you think personality is formed--College? High school? Preschool? When does it become too late for a person to change?
Some people believe that there is no possibility to change. Behaviorists, racists, and gay rights activists all have one thing in common--they believe there are aspects of who we are that came from birth, and cannot be changed later.
We do not have to be any one of those to believe we are predetermined from birth.
As we get older, more and more we accept the lie that we cannot change. In time, we quit trying. But Jesus can still change us, whether we are two years old or a hundred. We can always start again. When we trust Jesus, we are born again. A new life begins, and a new hope comes with us.
3. He gave us hope for eternal life.
When we are young, we think we will live forever. In our country, death is far from most of us for a long time. So we never sit and contemplate the reality of death. One day we will exist on this world, and the next day we will not.
The Bible says that there is another life waiting for us--heaven. Heaven does not have the limitations of this life, nor does it have the temptations. Heaen is forever, and the joy of heaven is forever.
The way we understand heaven makes all the difference in the way we understand this life. If there is no heaven, it doesn't matter what we do. Eefyting will be ther same. But if there is a heaven, then we should live and obey in a way that helps us get there. If there is no heaven, then we should do everything we can to stay alive, no matter what it does to others. A live coward is better than a dead hero. But if ther eis a heaven, then death is not the worst thing. Missing out on eternity is the worse thing, and death which leads to heaven is the best thing we can ever have.
4. He gave us hope for a new world.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth" John said. "For the old heaven and the old earth have passed away." To which the believer will no doubt say "Well, It's about time!" Sin had left this world with some terrible flaws. It is a tough, selfish world to live sin, and it is getting worse. Mark Twain once said that man was a little lower than the angels, and has been getting a little lower ever since. But the hope that we have for ourselves also extends to the whole world. God will make it right. We do not have to despair.
Let us have hope, then. Let us live in that hope and die in that hope. God's hope will not disappoint.
What is God For? A Pattern For Living
There are two kinds of people in the world—“thinkers” and “doers.” (This doesn’t men thinkers don’t do or that doers don’t think—it’s what they like to do first that puts them in these categories.
Statistically, the doers outnumber the thinkers four to one. Yet in the church, the majority of preachers are thinkers and the majority of their congregations are doers.
Preachers are rarely practical. They are fond of concepts and ideas, so they figure everyone else should be, too. But most people are much more interested in what to do than why. No wonder so many people are lost in church.
Let’s assume that the majority of you are doers rather than thinkers. What can God do for you doers, who are not interested in theological nuggets of truth? Well, neither is God. God is more interested in us doing and obeying than in us understanding and thinking.
The original name for the Christian movement was the Way, It was a way of life, not some kind of vague theology. Early Christians were more interested in following Jesus than they were in arguing about theology. Jesus really expects us to pick up our crosses and follow Him, not just talk about Him. He demands our obedience and not just our thoughts.
Which brings us to Moses.
When Moses led God’s people to the gates of the Promised Land, I think he knew that chaos was coming. Each tribe, village, and family would be governed by their own set of rules. There would be no central authority. It would be a mess for centuries.
God foresaw this, too. That is why He had Moses preach five final sermons before they entered. These sermons were called Deuteronomy—the second law. He laid before them God’s way one more time.
Over and over, Moses tells them to obey God, and follow His commandments. Let them be your pattern for living.Deuteronomy 5:32-6:25 is very typical. In it, God tells us of all the benefits that will come to us if we follow God’s pattern of life.
1. When we follow God’s pattern, we live long and prosper.
32 So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
God has a way of punishing the wicked. He does not usually swoop down from the sky like some superhero. More often, God punishes sin by His absence, not His presence. He stays out of our affairs and the natural results of sin does the rest.
Every evil we can name--financial ruin, famine, war, climate change, drugs, violence, AIDS—comes as a result of sin. The ultimate product of sin is the wrath of God.
God’s rules are safety instructions for the long road of life. If we run up our credit cards, don’t be surprised if we run out of money. If we don’t take care of our bodies, don’t be surprised if we have health problems. If we get into our cars, and do not fasten our seatbelts, don’t be surprised when we fly around in a crash. If we disobey God, don’t be surprised if we suffer.
There are positive rewards, too, if we obey Him, If we do, we live longer, more pleasant, and more fruitful lives. His rewards are piled up on us—more than we deserve.
2. When we follow God’s pattern, He keeps the blessings flowing.
6:1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
If we have learned anything from the financial mess this country is in, it is this--you can give a man a loan for a house, but that doesn’t mean he can afford to pay it back. If there is no discipline involved in getting a gift, there will be no responsibility to care for what is given.
The Israelites were in a similar position. For hundreds of years, God promised them a land, a paradise, flowing with milk and honey. But when they got there they discovered that is was not a paradise yet. You can’t have milk unless you tend the cows. You can’t have honey unless you harvest the hive. It wasn’t ever intended just to flow out of the ground. Happiness involves work. Work is the means God uses to bring us His blessings.
3. When we follow God’s pattern, we love Him.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Do you love the Lord? Moses is not talking about a feeling. It is having the resolve to serve him with every portion of our being. You don’t always feel it, but it’s something you do, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Loving God means we take on a new purpose in life—obeying Him. When you die, it will not matter how much you leave behind. You children may squander it anyway. It will not matter what you’ve accomplished in life. All that will matter is who you have accomplished it for.
4. When we follow His pattern, we get more than we deserve.
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied,
When we love God, He loves us back. He gives to us, not based on what we earn, but based on His unbounded love.
Life isn’t fair. We deserve we don’t get and we get what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve heaven. We don’t deserve God’s presence in our lives. We don’t deserve to be called God’s children. Yet he gives all this and a thousand times more to us anyway.
Moses says that when they go into the promised lands, they will move into the abandoned houses and fields of the previous tenants. They will have gardens they did not plant and fields they did not clear. It isn’t fair. But it’s love. God will move others out of the way so that His people can have what they need. Like any parent, he is partial to His children, and he will not withhold any good thing from us—even if it belongs to someone else.
5. When we follow God’s pattern, we survive.
20 In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?"
21 tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.. . . 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."
A tour guide in Israel once told me about visiting a Bedouin sheikh in his enormous tent in the wilderness. He was rich and educated, yet he still lived in a tent. She asked him why.
He replied that his people had been there since before the days of Abraham. Other people became greedy or insecure and wanted to settle down. But their people were content to live in tents, following the ways of their ancestors. When people tried to hold on to this land, they eventually were run off. But they were there to pick up the pieces.
We are not just individuals. We are part of something larger—a family of God. We follow a pattern of life that is at least as old as the Bedouins. That pattern gives us security and comfort, knowing that it will be there for our children, and our children’s children. God’s pattern will never be rescinded. It will be there forever. And so will we.
Statistically, the doers outnumber the thinkers four to one. Yet in the church, the majority of preachers are thinkers and the majority of their congregations are doers.
Preachers are rarely practical. They are fond of concepts and ideas, so they figure everyone else should be, too. But most people are much more interested in what to do than why. No wonder so many people are lost in church.
Let’s assume that the majority of you are doers rather than thinkers. What can God do for you doers, who are not interested in theological nuggets of truth? Well, neither is God. God is more interested in us doing and obeying than in us understanding and thinking.
The original name for the Christian movement was the Way, It was a way of life, not some kind of vague theology. Early Christians were more interested in following Jesus than they were in arguing about theology. Jesus really expects us to pick up our crosses and follow Him, not just talk about Him. He demands our obedience and not just our thoughts.
Which brings us to Moses.
When Moses led God’s people to the gates of the Promised Land, I think he knew that chaos was coming. Each tribe, village, and family would be governed by their own set of rules. There would be no central authority. It would be a mess for centuries.
God foresaw this, too. That is why He had Moses preach five final sermons before they entered. These sermons were called Deuteronomy—the second law. He laid before them God’s way one more time.
Over and over, Moses tells them to obey God, and follow His commandments. Let them be your pattern for living.Deuteronomy 5:32-6:25 is very typical. In it, God tells us of all the benefits that will come to us if we follow God’s pattern of life.
1. When we follow God’s pattern, we live long and prosper.
32 So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
God has a way of punishing the wicked. He does not usually swoop down from the sky like some superhero. More often, God punishes sin by His absence, not His presence. He stays out of our affairs and the natural results of sin does the rest.
Every evil we can name--financial ruin, famine, war, climate change, drugs, violence, AIDS—comes as a result of sin. The ultimate product of sin is the wrath of God.
God’s rules are safety instructions for the long road of life. If we run up our credit cards, don’t be surprised if we run out of money. If we don’t take care of our bodies, don’t be surprised if we have health problems. If we get into our cars, and do not fasten our seatbelts, don’t be surprised when we fly around in a crash. If we disobey God, don’t be surprised if we suffer.
There are positive rewards, too, if we obey Him, If we do, we live longer, more pleasant, and more fruitful lives. His rewards are piled up on us—more than we deserve.
2. When we follow God’s pattern, He keeps the blessings flowing.
6:1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
If we have learned anything from the financial mess this country is in, it is this--you can give a man a loan for a house, but that doesn’t mean he can afford to pay it back. If there is no discipline involved in getting a gift, there will be no responsibility to care for what is given.
The Israelites were in a similar position. For hundreds of years, God promised them a land, a paradise, flowing with milk and honey. But when they got there they discovered that is was not a paradise yet. You can’t have milk unless you tend the cows. You can’t have honey unless you harvest the hive. It wasn’t ever intended just to flow out of the ground. Happiness involves work. Work is the means God uses to bring us His blessings.
3. When we follow God’s pattern, we love Him.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Do you love the Lord? Moses is not talking about a feeling. It is having the resolve to serve him with every portion of our being. You don’t always feel it, but it’s something you do, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Loving God means we take on a new purpose in life—obeying Him. When you die, it will not matter how much you leave behind. You children may squander it anyway. It will not matter what you’ve accomplished in life. All that will matter is who you have accomplished it for.
4. When we follow His pattern, we get more than we deserve.
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied,
When we love God, He loves us back. He gives to us, not based on what we earn, but based on His unbounded love.
Life isn’t fair. We deserve we don’t get and we get what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve heaven. We don’t deserve God’s presence in our lives. We don’t deserve to be called God’s children. Yet he gives all this and a thousand times more to us anyway.
Moses says that when they go into the promised lands, they will move into the abandoned houses and fields of the previous tenants. They will have gardens they did not plant and fields they did not clear. It isn’t fair. But it’s love. God will move others out of the way so that His people can have what they need. Like any parent, he is partial to His children, and he will not withhold any good thing from us—even if it belongs to someone else.
5. When we follow God’s pattern, we survive.
20 In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?"
21 tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.. . . 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."
A tour guide in Israel once told me about visiting a Bedouin sheikh in his enormous tent in the wilderness. He was rich and educated, yet he still lived in a tent. She asked him why.
He replied that his people had been there since before the days of Abraham. Other people became greedy or insecure and wanted to settle down. But their people were content to live in tents, following the ways of their ancestors. When people tried to hold on to this land, they eventually were run off. But they were there to pick up the pieces.
We are not just individuals. We are part of something larger—a family of God. We follow a pattern of life that is at least as old as the Bedouins. That pattern gives us security and comfort, knowing that it will be there for our children, and our children’s children. God’s pattern will never be rescinded. It will be there forever. And so will we.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Surfing the Wave of the Spirit
Joy and I were having a conversation the other day about churches and how they grow. This is a bad time for growing a church. For at least the past ten years, church attendance has been falling at a rate of about one percent per year. It is a time of great opposition and disinterest in religion, especially in Christianity. That, coupled with the recession has hurt all churches, especially ours.
What makes a church grow spiritually? I know those things which keep it healthy--love, the preaching of the Word, sound teaching, etc. These make a church more likely to grow. But there are plenty of loving churches where the Gospel is preached and growth is slow or nonexistent.
There are nonspiritual reasons for growth, too. Churches on main roads generally grow faster than churches on back roads. When a church reflects the needs and desires of a particular portion of the contemporary culture, it will grow, too. (There is really no one monolithic "culture" in our world, just wide collections of many cultures, leaving room for almost every kind of church to find a niche.) But this can happen whether or not God is in it, I'm afraid. Growth or lack of it is no sign of godliness.
There are other factors which are also cited for the growth of churches--relevance, purity, concern for the lost, faithfulness, and many others. All of these may have an impact on the growth of the church but none of them in themselves means that the church will grow.
Look at the Christian landscape today. How many churches are growing--I mean really growing? How many are reaching the lost in any large numbers? What we see are many congregations, offering many different techniques and styles, mostly without significant success.
Now think about the churches that are still growing today. They can be high or low church, contemporary or traditional--they can be very, very different both in practice and theology. But there is one thing they all have in common--a sense that the Holy Spirit is there.
The degree to which a church is likely to grow depends upon the expectation of the people that the Holy Spirit will move in their midst. There have to be signs and wonders, not necessarily in the Charismatic sense, but certainly in the spiritual sense. People have to see that something supernatural is going on.
People are drawn to Christ by the moving of the Holy Spirit, not by preaching or praying alone. We must ask of God, and we must see an answer. In growing churches, there is a full expectation that God will make Himself known. They come to church expectantly, not knowing what He will do next, but convinced that He will do something.
People often use sports illustrations to explain the church. Let me suggest a new one --surfing. Churches grow when they catch the wave of the Holy Spirit.
The church is not built on our own effort. It is not a race, where the strong and the fit succeed. It is not a game requiring strength and ingenuity. Church growth is an enterprise powered by the overwhelming power of God. Its force is irresistable, unstoppable, and inevitable. Our task, if we are serious about growing churches, is to look for that power and ride it. It involves less planning and less study of the world, and more planning and more study of God's intentions and actions today. We need to catch the waves. We cannot create them.
The first wave started at Pentecost. On that one day, three thousand people were added to the church. The disciples rode that wave for some time Another wave came when the church was under persecution, through the underground movement of evangelism. All through the history of the church - the Prostestant revolution, the missionary movements, the great awakenings, the holiness, pentecostal, and Charismatic movement, the Wesleyan revivals, the Moody revivals, the crusades of Billy Sunday and Billy Graham, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and so forth, we see the Spirit moving in waves and eddies. None of these movements last forever, any more than waves on the sea last forever. Every movement of the Spirit in the church inevitably is brought down by pride, jealousy, and heresy. The waves may crash; the tide remains. God continues to move in the church, using different people and different names. Even so, the church goes on.
As far as we are concerned today we have two choices, we can catch the wave, or miss it. We can ride the Spirit, or be knocked down by it.
If we are to grow in this generation, we must not look to restore the waves that have gone on. Nor should we try to create a wave, molded to what we think it should be. We should look, neither to the present, past, or future, but to God. We should seek Him out, to try and discern where He is working His signs and wonders today. I don't mean finding the next trend or fad, but we should genuinely seek what the move of God is. We are like surfers in the water, looking for the next big swell. When we find it, then we ride it, allowing the power of the wave to carry us forward.
What will the next wave be and when will it come? I have no idea. It is not for us to know really. But we can seek God with all our hearts, and stand eagerly before Him. If we seek to be moved by God, God will move us, and the next wave of the Spirit will come here as well.
What makes a church grow spiritually? I know those things which keep it healthy--love, the preaching of the Word, sound teaching, etc. These make a church more likely to grow. But there are plenty of loving churches where the Gospel is preached and growth is slow or nonexistent.
There are nonspiritual reasons for growth, too. Churches on main roads generally grow faster than churches on back roads. When a church reflects the needs and desires of a particular portion of the contemporary culture, it will grow, too. (There is really no one monolithic "culture" in our world, just wide collections of many cultures, leaving room for almost every kind of church to find a niche.) But this can happen whether or not God is in it, I'm afraid. Growth or lack of it is no sign of godliness.
There are other factors which are also cited for the growth of churches--relevance, purity, concern for the lost, faithfulness, and many others. All of these may have an impact on the growth of the church but none of them in themselves means that the church will grow.
Look at the Christian landscape today. How many churches are growing--I mean really growing? How many are reaching the lost in any large numbers? What we see are many congregations, offering many different techniques and styles, mostly without significant success.
Now think about the churches that are still growing today. They can be high or low church, contemporary or traditional--they can be very, very different both in practice and theology. But there is one thing they all have in common--a sense that the Holy Spirit is there.
The degree to which a church is likely to grow depends upon the expectation of the people that the Holy Spirit will move in their midst. There have to be signs and wonders, not necessarily in the Charismatic sense, but certainly in the spiritual sense. People have to see that something supernatural is going on.
People are drawn to Christ by the moving of the Holy Spirit, not by preaching or praying alone. We must ask of God, and we must see an answer. In growing churches, there is a full expectation that God will make Himself known. They come to church expectantly, not knowing what He will do next, but convinced that He will do something.
People often use sports illustrations to explain the church. Let me suggest a new one --surfing. Churches grow when they catch the wave of the Holy Spirit.
The church is not built on our own effort. It is not a race, where the strong and the fit succeed. It is not a game requiring strength and ingenuity. Church growth is an enterprise powered by the overwhelming power of God. Its force is irresistable, unstoppable, and inevitable. Our task, if we are serious about growing churches, is to look for that power and ride it. It involves less planning and less study of the world, and more planning and more study of God's intentions and actions today. We need to catch the waves. We cannot create them.
The first wave started at Pentecost. On that one day, three thousand people were added to the church. The disciples rode that wave for some time Another wave came when the church was under persecution, through the underground movement of evangelism. All through the history of the church - the Prostestant revolution, the missionary movements, the great awakenings, the holiness, pentecostal, and Charismatic movement, the Wesleyan revivals, the Moody revivals, the crusades of Billy Sunday and Billy Graham, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and so forth, we see the Spirit moving in waves and eddies. None of these movements last forever, any more than waves on the sea last forever. Every movement of the Spirit in the church inevitably is brought down by pride, jealousy, and heresy. The waves may crash; the tide remains. God continues to move in the church, using different people and different names. Even so, the church goes on.
As far as we are concerned today we have two choices, we can catch the wave, or miss it. We can ride the Spirit, or be knocked down by it.
If we are to grow in this generation, we must not look to restore the waves that have gone on. Nor should we try to create a wave, molded to what we think it should be. We should look, neither to the present, past, or future, but to God. We should seek Him out, to try and discern where He is working His signs and wonders today. I don't mean finding the next trend or fad, but we should genuinely seek what the move of God is. We are like surfers in the water, looking for the next big swell. When we find it, then we ride it, allowing the power of the wave to carry us forward.
What will the next wave be and when will it come? I have no idea. It is not for us to know really. But we can seek God with all our hearts, and stand eagerly before Him. If we seek to be moved by God, God will move us, and the next wave of the Spirit will come here as well.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Recipe for Whale Soup
Ingredients:
One whale . Blue, sperm or wright whale is preferred . Use fresh whale, not canned.*
Three railroad cars of milk.
Sixty bushels of corn
Eighty pounds of tomatoes
Twelve pounds of salt
A pinch of tarragon
Instructions
Take whale. Chop finely
Place in large swimming pool under low heat
Add in milk, salt, corn, tomatoes, and salt
Add tarragon to taste.
Let simmer for a month and a half. Stirring occasionally with a wooden oar.
As the mixture simmers, skim the blubber from the top.
Serve in cup-sized portions, with soda crackers.
Serves
Three Norwegian fishing villages
Additional microwave instructions.
Microwave on a rotating carousel for about a week and a half.**
*if whale is not in season, substitute approximately sixty million sardines
**This may be impractical for those who do not have access to a nuclear power plant.
One whale . Blue, sperm or wright whale is preferred . Use fresh whale, not canned.*
Three railroad cars of milk.
Sixty bushels of corn
Eighty pounds of tomatoes
Twelve pounds of salt
A pinch of tarragon
Instructions
Take whale. Chop finely
Place in large swimming pool under low heat
Add in milk, salt, corn, tomatoes, and salt
Add tarragon to taste.
Let simmer for a month and a half. Stirring occasionally with a wooden oar.
As the mixture simmers, skim the blubber from the top.
Serve in cup-sized portions, with soda crackers.
Serves
Three Norwegian fishing villages
Additional microwave instructions.
Microwave on a rotating carousel for about a week and a half.**
*if whale is not in season, substitute approximately sixty million sardines
**This may be impractical for those who do not have access to a nuclear power plant.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Good Jesus and the Scoundrel Church
I confess that I have not read any of the many books by the neo-atheists. I have about as much chance of reading them as Obama has of reading the collected works of Rush Limbaugh-and for the same reason.
Nevertheless, I was intrigued when I passed by a display of new- works at the local Borders Book store, and saw the newest book by Philip Pullman--The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman. Pullman's wrote a series of children's books, His Dark Materials, as a slam on Christianity and the church. I have not read them , but those who have tell me that they get more anti-religious with every volume.
But I can't get that title of his new book out of my head --The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
It astounded me that Pullman would even call Jesus a good man. He repudiates everything Jesus taught and attacks the church are vitriolic slander. Yet he still calls Jesus a good man.
• Carl Sandburg, an agnostic and a socialist, attacked evangelist Billy Sunday in his poem To a Contemporary Bunkshooter. The same poem, though, carries this line
"Don't tell me about Jesus. He looked clean and he smelled clean, and people wanted to be around Him."
Hardly a ringing endorsement. Yet like Pullman, Sandburg could not get around "the good man Jesus." Of course Jesus more than a good man to us, but the fact that even the worst critics of the faith seem to still respect Jesus makes me pause with wonder.
Why do they hate Christianity so, yet admire Jesus? The secular world distinguishes between the two. Yet the only thing they know of Jesus comes from the church. They ought to see Jesus and the church the same, but they don't. The callousness and corruption in the modern church has driven people away in droves.
Pullman's main gripe with Christianity not really with Christ, but with the authoritarianism of the Catholic and Anglican churches. He does not seem to be able to imagine a Christianity that is not incased in robes and cathedrals and where it leaders wash feet instead of ruling from thrones. He sees it as all pomp and power-driven. And to a large degree he's right.
Much of the modern disgust with the church comes from the publicity surrounding some child abuse cases. They blame the Pope personally for every rogue priest that ever disgraced his calling. Sandburg's disgust was over the excesses of sensational evangelism. He blamed all preachers for the abuses of he few.
This is what the world sees of Christianity--Catholic hypocrisy and Evangelical chicanery. There is a huge majority of Christian churches that have not disgraced themselves with their anger or their antics. But even we must confess that we our fellowship is a poor reflection of Jesus. The church should have the same odor as its master--a clean, refreshing smell of honesty, humility, and charity. But we often stink with the odor of treacly insincerity, institutional corruption, and pompous judgementalism.
The church one all important mission on earth--several of them. Glorifying God in worship, evangelism, missions, societal transformation, just to name a few. Whatever our views on the mission of the church is not the most important thing. Whatever our mission, we should all behave the same, because we have the example of Christ. We are one body and one church, with one Lord, one Spirit, and, one faith. We don't have to agree on everything. We just have to get along.
Nevertheless, I was intrigued when I passed by a display of new- works at the local Borders Book store, and saw the newest book by Philip Pullman--The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman. Pullman's wrote a series of children's books, His Dark Materials, as a slam on Christianity and the church. I have not read them , but those who have tell me that they get more anti-religious with every volume.
But I can't get that title of his new book out of my head --The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
It astounded me that Pullman would even call Jesus a good man. He repudiates everything Jesus taught and attacks the church are vitriolic slander. Yet he still calls Jesus a good man.
• Carl Sandburg, an agnostic and a socialist, attacked evangelist Billy Sunday in his poem To a Contemporary Bunkshooter. The same poem, though, carries this line
"Don't tell me about Jesus. He looked clean and he smelled clean, and people wanted to be around Him."
Hardly a ringing endorsement. Yet like Pullman, Sandburg could not get around "the good man Jesus." Of course Jesus more than a good man to us, but the fact that even the worst critics of the faith seem to still respect Jesus makes me pause with wonder.
Why do they hate Christianity so, yet admire Jesus? The secular world distinguishes between the two. Yet the only thing they know of Jesus comes from the church. They ought to see Jesus and the church the same, but they don't. The callousness and corruption in the modern church has driven people away in droves.
Pullman's main gripe with Christianity not really with Christ, but with the authoritarianism of the Catholic and Anglican churches. He does not seem to be able to imagine a Christianity that is not incased in robes and cathedrals and where it leaders wash feet instead of ruling from thrones. He sees it as all pomp and power-driven. And to a large degree he's right.
Much of the modern disgust with the church comes from the publicity surrounding some child abuse cases. They blame the Pope personally for every rogue priest that ever disgraced his calling. Sandburg's disgust was over the excesses of sensational evangelism. He blamed all preachers for the abuses of he few.
This is what the world sees of Christianity--Catholic hypocrisy and Evangelical chicanery. There is a huge majority of Christian churches that have not disgraced themselves with their anger or their antics. But even we must confess that we our fellowship is a poor reflection of Jesus. The church should have the same odor as its master--a clean, refreshing smell of honesty, humility, and charity. But we often stink with the odor of treacly insincerity, institutional corruption, and pompous judgementalism.
The church one all important mission on earth--several of them. Glorifying God in worship, evangelism, missions, societal transformation, just to name a few. Whatever our views on the mission of the church is not the most important thing. Whatever our mission, we should all behave the same, because we have the example of Christ. We are one body and one church, with one Lord, one Spirit, and, one faith. We don't have to agree on everything. We just have to get along.
cleaning house
This afternoon I threw out twenty-six years of ministry related magazines. It took nine garbage bags and must have weighed a quarter of a ton. As I did, I remembered the loneliest day of my life--the day I packed up and left my last church.
Ordinarily there was a full-time staff of five people. That particular week, though no one was around, not even the secretary. Two weeks before, there was a big party for the Christian Education director, who was moving on with her husband. For me, though, there was nothing, not even anyone to help as I loaded twenty-five boxes with books, including all those magazines that I just threw out. These boxes were all that was left of my library after I had given half of it away. I almost gave away the whole library, convinced that I might never need it again. I was out of the church, and for all I knew out of the ministry, too.
Later, the church did throw together a reception for us, after were were already gone. they gave us a nice going-away present, too, some money to help and a picture of the church. But the loneliness of that time lingers still when I think of it. For the first time in my life, I did not know what tomorrow would bring.
I was not forced to resign, though there were a few who were no doubt happy that I did. I really believed my ministry there was at an end. I was not sure at that moment when of if I would ever find another church to pastor, and pastoring was all I knew. It was a terrible, lonely feeling to box up that office after all those years.
My life didn't end, of course, nor did my ministry. Three weeks after I was out of that pulpit the little church I now serve asked me to preach for them. Eight years later, I'm still there.
But now, they've built me a new office. It's smaller than the one I had before, with its leaky walls and no view, so I have no more room for all those magazines. Time to clean house.
It's a very different feeling to leave an office to go to another versus leaving and having no other. It's very different, too to leave sadly and to just leave. But the effect is much the same, even so. as we go through life, most of us become hoarders--hoarders of magazines, furniture, knick knacks, books, and memories. Every so often we need to flush them all out and start anew. It doesn't matter whether we are just moving from one house to another or whether we've been forced out by circumstances, there is life after moving. We go on. We get a new house, a new job and a new life.
Three weeks ago, my granddaughter Chloe moved to Davidson with her mom, and new stepfather. She spent the night before at our house. As she left, she said. "Goodbye, Grandma, goodbye, Grandpa, Goodbye dog!" Then she added "Goodbye, God." Then she changed her mind. "No," she said, "God's going with me." I can testify from personal experience that He does.
Ordinarily there was a full-time staff of five people. That particular week, though no one was around, not even the secretary. Two weeks before, there was a big party for the Christian Education director, who was moving on with her husband. For me, though, there was nothing, not even anyone to help as I loaded twenty-five boxes with books, including all those magazines that I just threw out. These boxes were all that was left of my library after I had given half of it away. I almost gave away the whole library, convinced that I might never need it again. I was out of the church, and for all I knew out of the ministry, too.
Later, the church did throw together a reception for us, after were were already gone. they gave us a nice going-away present, too, some money to help and a picture of the church. But the loneliness of that time lingers still when I think of it. For the first time in my life, I did not know what tomorrow would bring.
I was not forced to resign, though there were a few who were no doubt happy that I did. I really believed my ministry there was at an end. I was not sure at that moment when of if I would ever find another church to pastor, and pastoring was all I knew. It was a terrible, lonely feeling to box up that office after all those years.
My life didn't end, of course, nor did my ministry. Three weeks after I was out of that pulpit the little church I now serve asked me to preach for them. Eight years later, I'm still there.
But now, they've built me a new office. It's smaller than the one I had before, with its leaky walls and no view, so I have no more room for all those magazines. Time to clean house.
It's a very different feeling to leave an office to go to another versus leaving and having no other. It's very different, too to leave sadly and to just leave. But the effect is much the same, even so. as we go through life, most of us become hoarders--hoarders of magazines, furniture, knick knacks, books, and memories. Every so often we need to flush them all out and start anew. It doesn't matter whether we are just moving from one house to another or whether we've been forced out by circumstances, there is life after moving. We go on. We get a new house, a new job and a new life.
Three weeks ago, my granddaughter Chloe moved to Davidson with her mom, and new stepfather. She spent the night before at our house. As she left, she said. "Goodbye, Grandma, goodbye, Grandpa, Goodbye dog!" Then she added "Goodbye, God." Then she changed her mind. "No," she said, "God's going with me." I can testify from personal experience that He does.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
On being judgmental, part 4
Judgmentalism, mosquitoes, and termites, all have one thing in common. Despite all the problems they cause, God gave them to us to serve a useful purpose.
I recall a story I once read about a man who had suffered a catastrophic train accident. A piece of steel passed through his head, severing the portion of the brain where emotions originate from, the portion that houses the intellect. He fully recovered physically, but he became like the fictional Mr. Spock of Star Trek, a person with no emotions.
He could not respond when people showed love to him. He did not respond to the anger of others. He could not hold down a job. He could not make the simplest decisions, such as whether to wear a red or blue shirt. His ability to make decisions was entirely absent.
Judging and feeling are irrevocably linked. You can't have one without the other. If we feel, then we value. And if we have values, we also judge.
Jesus said "Judge not, in order that you not be judged. For with the judgment you judge others, you yourself will be judged." Jesus did not mean we should never judge, but that when we judge we should do it the way we would like it to be done to us. If we want others to judge us generously, we should judge them generously, too. If we would like others to butt out of our business, then we should stay out of theirs, too. The Golden Rule applies to judging, too.
Nevertheless, there are some times when we must judge. Sometimes our role in life puts us in the position of judging--such as when we are jurors, parents, administrators, or employers. Sometimes, we are called on to render our portion of a collective judgment---when we vote or serve on jury duty. Every soldier on a battlefield is called upon to judge whether the life of the enemy is more important than his own.
We try to judge fairly, but we are not always fair, nor should we be. There are times when we will be prejudiced. We are rightfully prejudiced in favor our spouses and children. No matter what we say, we can never be impartial towards those we love.
We judge constantly in the ordinary aspects of life. We choose one color of shirt over another. We choose roses instead of daisies, Fords over Chevies, a vacation by the beach instead of a vacation in the mountains. If we had no feelings in these matters, these choices would be impossible. If we have feelings in these matters, then we will judge according to those feelings.
The idea that we should never judge is simply wrong. It isn't that we judge, it's how we judge that matters.
So how do we judge?
1. We judge when it is our business to judge. We all have feelings about certain people and certain behaviors. We may not approve of homosexuality or adultery. I certainly do not. But when I encounter homosexuals or adulterers, no matter what my feelings may be regarding their behavior do not matter. They are not mine to judge. God is the one who will judge them, not I. I must put my feelings towards their behavior aside and treat them simply as human beings.
2. We judge when we have all the facts. The kinds of judgments that cause the most mischief are those that are made quickly and in ignorance of the whole truth. Suppose, for example, we know a woman who has moved out on her husband. The husband appeals to our sympathy, saying the marriage bond is forever, and she was in sin. What we may not know is that he has been physically and emotionally abusing her for years. Until we actually know both sides, we should not judge.
3. When we must judge, we should to is with leniency and generosity. With the judgment we give others, we will be judged.
Imagine there is a future society where all cases in court were tried, not before a judge or jury, but by a supercomputer. The computer would digest all the evidence of a crime, calculate probabilities, and draw a conclusion of guilt or innocence. We would still need judges to decide upon appropriate sentence. That is because judges exist to grant leniency, not punishment. Every criminal could receive the maximum sentence, but it is up to the judge to decide whether that sentence should be lightened due to other circumstances.
Our judgment, too ought to be about mercy, not punishment. We could ostracize a friend for doing us harm, but we do not have to. We can choose to forgive. We can believe that a casual comment was sarcastic or cutting, or we could take it as face value, and give the person the benefit of a doubt. Any fool can take offense--it takes a wise man to forgive. If we have the intellect to accurately judge the offenses to others, then we ought to have the good sense to overlook them unless it is absolutely imperative that we do so.
We cannot help but judge. It is part of our emotional nature to do so. But do we have the good sense to leave off judging the servants of another, and mind our own business? Let's attend to our own personal courtrooms, and leave the rest to God.
I recall a story I once read about a man who had suffered a catastrophic train accident. A piece of steel passed through his head, severing the portion of the brain where emotions originate from, the portion that houses the intellect. He fully recovered physically, but he became like the fictional Mr. Spock of Star Trek, a person with no emotions.
He could not respond when people showed love to him. He did not respond to the anger of others. He could not hold down a job. He could not make the simplest decisions, such as whether to wear a red or blue shirt. His ability to make decisions was entirely absent.
Judging and feeling are irrevocably linked. You can't have one without the other. If we feel, then we value. And if we have values, we also judge.
Jesus said "Judge not, in order that you not be judged. For with the judgment you judge others, you yourself will be judged." Jesus did not mean we should never judge, but that when we judge we should do it the way we would like it to be done to us. If we want others to judge us generously, we should judge them generously, too. If we would like others to butt out of our business, then we should stay out of theirs, too. The Golden Rule applies to judging, too.
Nevertheless, there are some times when we must judge. Sometimes our role in life puts us in the position of judging--such as when we are jurors, parents, administrators, or employers. Sometimes, we are called on to render our portion of a collective judgment---when we vote or serve on jury duty. Every soldier on a battlefield is called upon to judge whether the life of the enemy is more important than his own.
We try to judge fairly, but we are not always fair, nor should we be. There are times when we will be prejudiced. We are rightfully prejudiced in favor our spouses and children. No matter what we say, we can never be impartial towards those we love.
We judge constantly in the ordinary aspects of life. We choose one color of shirt over another. We choose roses instead of daisies, Fords over Chevies, a vacation by the beach instead of a vacation in the mountains. If we had no feelings in these matters, these choices would be impossible. If we have feelings in these matters, then we will judge according to those feelings.
The idea that we should never judge is simply wrong. It isn't that we judge, it's how we judge that matters.
So how do we judge?
1. We judge when it is our business to judge. We all have feelings about certain people and certain behaviors. We may not approve of homosexuality or adultery. I certainly do not. But when I encounter homosexuals or adulterers, no matter what my feelings may be regarding their behavior do not matter. They are not mine to judge. God is the one who will judge them, not I. I must put my feelings towards their behavior aside and treat them simply as human beings.
2. We judge when we have all the facts. The kinds of judgments that cause the most mischief are those that are made quickly and in ignorance of the whole truth. Suppose, for example, we know a woman who has moved out on her husband. The husband appeals to our sympathy, saying the marriage bond is forever, and she was in sin. What we may not know is that he has been physically and emotionally abusing her for years. Until we actually know both sides, we should not judge.
3. When we must judge, we should to is with leniency and generosity. With the judgment we give others, we will be judged.
Imagine there is a future society where all cases in court were tried, not before a judge or jury, but by a supercomputer. The computer would digest all the evidence of a crime, calculate probabilities, and draw a conclusion of guilt or innocence. We would still need judges to decide upon appropriate sentence. That is because judges exist to grant leniency, not punishment. Every criminal could receive the maximum sentence, but it is up to the judge to decide whether that sentence should be lightened due to other circumstances.
Our judgment, too ought to be about mercy, not punishment. We could ostracize a friend for doing us harm, but we do not have to. We can choose to forgive. We can believe that a casual comment was sarcastic or cutting, or we could take it as face value, and give the person the benefit of a doubt. Any fool can take offense--it takes a wise man to forgive. If we have the intellect to accurately judge the offenses to others, then we ought to have the good sense to overlook them unless it is absolutely imperative that we do so.
We cannot help but judge. It is part of our emotional nature to do so. But do we have the good sense to leave off judging the servants of another, and mind our own business? Let's attend to our own personal courtrooms, and leave the rest to God.
Pray For Parents
I talked to my parents on the phone last night. I must confess I was a bit shaken. My mother had minor surgury three weeks ago, and came home from he hospital. Then she developed a pocket of infection and a high fever, and other physical problems. She's spent another two weeks in the hospital, where dad never left her side. Now she's home, but she's not well, her spirits and her physical strength are very low at the moment.
We are all increasingly realizing that they are not strong enough to live on their own. We are looking for assisted living for them. Both of their health continues to deteriorate.
Some people live close to their parents and have strong ongoing relationships with them. This has not been the case with us. We've lived most of our adult lives away from them. When it comes to family, though, out of sight is definitely not out of mind. I care about them deeply, especially right now,and wish I could do more to help them at the moment. Those people who have stood by my side for all my life, helping and supporting, deserve more than I have been able to give at the moment. If only there were more I could do than pray and support from afar.
Whoever may read this blog will no doubt know how I am feeling. If you don't, you will. Our parents are like the ground underneath our feet. Even when we do not think about them, they are there, and we build our lives upon them. When our parents begin to suffer, we are shaken. The ones we have always depended upon now have to depend upon us.
One good side to all this, though. When a family is under pressure, love comes to the surface. Implied love becomes manifest love. There is sweetness along with the worry, too.
Please keep them both in your prayers. I would appreciate it.
We are all increasingly realizing that they are not strong enough to live on their own. We are looking for assisted living for them. Both of their health continues to deteriorate.
Some people live close to their parents and have strong ongoing relationships with them. This has not been the case with us. We've lived most of our adult lives away from them. When it comes to family, though, out of sight is definitely not out of mind. I care about them deeply, especially right now,and wish I could do more to help them at the moment. Those people who have stood by my side for all my life, helping and supporting, deserve more than I have been able to give at the moment. If only there were more I could do than pray and support from afar.
Whoever may read this blog will no doubt know how I am feeling. If you don't, you will. Our parents are like the ground underneath our feet. Even when we do not think about them, they are there, and we build our lives upon them. When our parents begin to suffer, we are shaken. The ones we have always depended upon now have to depend upon us.
One good side to all this, though. When a family is under pressure, love comes to the surface. Implied love becomes manifest love. There is sweetness along with the worry, too.
Please keep them both in your prayers. I would appreciate it.
Friday, August 6, 2010
What is God for? Comfort
Comfort is one of the great benefits of believing. Of all the benefits of God, the comfort is recognized the most necessary. Even companies, hospitals, and police recognize the need for a chaplain knows that he wants to have a chaplain.
But religion is a more than comfort. In fact, the comforting nature of religion, if pushed too far, can actually get in the way of some of the other beliefs.
What's wrong with comfort? The first problem is that most of the time, we don't need it. If things are going well, the last thing we need is someone telling us that it's all right and that we should just take it easy. But to many people, that is the main purpose of religion. Karl Marx once said that religion is the opiate of the masses. He typifies the unbelievers' view of religion as no good for anything but comfort.
May Christians have bought into this, too. They only go to church when they need comfort. They keep their religion on upper shelf of their medicine cabinet, and only take it out when we are hurting. The rest of the time, they pretty much avoid it.
Young people particularly have a problem with "comfort" religion. They are not so much looking for a comfort as the are challenge. Yet when they go to church, they see a lot of older, hurting people who want to hear about the sweet heaven, while they are looking for some meat to chew on. No wonder they think that God doesn't have anything to say with them. Maybe someday when they get old and feeble, they'll need the comforting of God, but for not now.
Preaching to people's needs is a challenge for any pastor, because their needs are not all the same. Those who need comfort really need to hear the gentle word of God. Those who need challenge really need the challenge of God. So how do you feed both at the same time?
It might help if we understood what "comfort" actually is. It means "to strengthen together." To be comforted is to be fortified for a siege. God comfort us when He comes along and fortifies us to face the challenge of life.
Comfort is not safety from battle. It is strength in battle. Comfort is not ease, it is courage and confidence.
Let me illustrate this by pointing to a passage that we often use to comfort people when they are hurting--Psalm 91. Next to Psalm 23, it's probably used at more funerals and sickbeds than any other chapter. It begins:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust."
The psalm starts off with exactly what we want and need to hear. If we live in the shelter of the Almighty, we can hide under His shadow. WE are under his protection, and we can hide under his shadow. We can sleep in perfect trust , because we know that He is watching over us.
Then the psalm goes off in an odd direction.
Surely he will save you
from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
And under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be
your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling
— even the LORD, who is my refuge —
Then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
What wonderful words! No one can lay a trap for us! No disease can touch us. No terror can overtake us by night! No warrior can shoot us by day! Thousands may be mown down like grass to the right of us and to the left, but we are left standing, proud and protected, with the Lord at our side. We may have to see what happens to those wicked people when they get what they deserve, but it won't happen to them us! At the end of the day, we will still be standing!
What wonderful words--If only it were true.
I do not question the veracity of God, or that these words were true when David wrote them. I must point out, however, that these words which were given by God for a specific set of circumstances, do not reflect the reality of what happens every day. Anyone who has had a bit of mileage on them knows that Go does not always shield us from disaster.
Steve Brown in his book When the Rope Breaks tells the trut story ofa woman and her children who were caught in a fire. The fireman told her to take hold of a rope and climb out the window. So she did, with her children behind her. He assured her that the rope would hold, and that they would be there to catch them.
Only the rope did not hold. It broke, and they fell to their deaths.
Last year, three deacons and a pastor from that Baptist church in Georgia, who were coming back from a golf outing with the church men at Myrtle Beach. Here at 903 and Potter Road, somehow the lost control of a car, hit a truck and the were all dead.
I think about the first funeral I ever did--a four year old boy who died of cancer. I think about the missionaries in the '60's who went to the jungles of South America and were slaughtered by the natives.
I think about the countless men and women over they years who have looked at me in times of distress and ask "Why?"
Sometimes we get mowed down with the rest of the grass. Sometimes, trouble does not come near us, and sometimes we're caught right in the middle.
We've all asked the question from time to time--why didn't you do what you said you would do in Psalm 91? If the comfort God promises in times of trouble is based upon His protecting us from bad things, then His promises aren't worth the paper they are written on.
We preachers try to answer this question all the time. Truthfully, we usually don't handle it much better than anyone else.
Our first response is just to repeat the words, only louder. We see the problem here. We know that that God really doesn’t save us from every harm, but we don't want to admit it. So we just repeat it, over and over again. It is comforting to hear someone say that God will spare us from suffering, but we know it isn't the whole truth. So we just assert over and over, and suggest that anyone who doesn't believe it doesn't have faith, anyway, and so they won't be protected. If anyone suffers, it must be because they aren't claiming the promises loudly enough, and with enough sincerity..
Our second response is to change the subject. Liberal preachers (who never believed the Bible is true anyway) do not look for miracles or divine protection. They just say that David was being too simplistic, and that we should not take it literally. Instead, they mumble on about the divine inside us all, and how we should be loving to the poor, and hope that their congregations do not notice that they have basically stopped believing in the comfort of God years ago. The only comfort they offer is the thought that somehow they are smarter and more sophisticated than others.
But neither wishful thinking nor elite dismissal is what the Bible means by comfort. God still protects us most of the time. When He does not, He still comforts us all the time.
Suffering is part of the human condition. God created people with a limited life span. Not everyone will die of old age, or in old age People die of a variety of causes, not just one.
While we ae here, God doesn't expect us to live without suffering. We grow old. We get up in the morning with aches and pains. We get headaches. We get the flu. The weather produces heat waves and hurricanes. This is not because of any sin we have committed, but because we live in a material world which has a beginning and an ending. Sickness and death entered this world at the time of the Fall, and will not cease until our death or Second Coming, whichever comes first.
So if God saved us from every fowler's snare, or every deadly pestilence, or if every arrow missed his mark, we wouldn't be a human life. We might as well be Superman.
This is where comfort comes in. Comfort is being in the middle of this fallible, suffering, human world, but with the power of God at our side, helping us to negotiate the hard parts.
David says this at the end of the Psalm
14 "Because he loves me,"
says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him,
for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me,
and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Where is God when we are suffering? He is with us, giving us just the right amount of help to get us through this tough world.
He does not always rescue us at the moment, but he eventually does, when He it is time.
He does not always protect us, but he eventually does, so that our souls survive.
He does not always give us long life on earth, but it does not matter since we have an eternity in heaven.
But at all times and in all circumstances He is with us.
"I am always with you," Jesus said, Even till the end of the age." God entered into our world. Sharing our suffering, so that we may know that our suffering is not in vain. He took on suffering so that He could comfort us in suffering, too. If Jesus could endure the pains of all humanity, then so can we, with His help. Suffering is not all there is to life, but when we must suffer, we do
But religion is a more than comfort. In fact, the comforting nature of religion, if pushed too far, can actually get in the way of some of the other beliefs.
What's wrong with comfort? The first problem is that most of the time, we don't need it. If things are going well, the last thing we need is someone telling us that it's all right and that we should just take it easy. But to many people, that is the main purpose of religion. Karl Marx once said that religion is the opiate of the masses. He typifies the unbelievers' view of religion as no good for anything but comfort.
May Christians have bought into this, too. They only go to church when they need comfort. They keep their religion on upper shelf of their medicine cabinet, and only take it out when we are hurting. The rest of the time, they pretty much avoid it.
Young people particularly have a problem with "comfort" religion. They are not so much looking for a comfort as the are challenge. Yet when they go to church, they see a lot of older, hurting people who want to hear about the sweet heaven, while they are looking for some meat to chew on. No wonder they think that God doesn't have anything to say with them. Maybe someday when they get old and feeble, they'll need the comforting of God, but for not now.
Preaching to people's needs is a challenge for any pastor, because their needs are not all the same. Those who need comfort really need to hear the gentle word of God. Those who need challenge really need the challenge of God. So how do you feed both at the same time?
It might help if we understood what "comfort" actually is. It means "to strengthen together." To be comforted is to be fortified for a siege. God comfort us when He comes along and fortifies us to face the challenge of life.
Comfort is not safety from battle. It is strength in battle. Comfort is not ease, it is courage and confidence.
Let me illustrate this by pointing to a passage that we often use to comfort people when they are hurting--Psalm 91. Next to Psalm 23, it's probably used at more funerals and sickbeds than any other chapter. It begins:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust."
The psalm starts off with exactly what we want and need to hear. If we live in the shelter of the Almighty, we can hide under His shadow. WE are under his protection, and we can hide under his shadow. We can sleep in perfect trust , because we know that He is watching over us.
Then the psalm goes off in an odd direction.
Surely he will save you
from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
And under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be
your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling
— even the LORD, who is my refuge —
Then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
What wonderful words! No one can lay a trap for us! No disease can touch us. No terror can overtake us by night! No warrior can shoot us by day! Thousands may be mown down like grass to the right of us and to the left, but we are left standing, proud and protected, with the Lord at our side. We may have to see what happens to those wicked people when they get what they deserve, but it won't happen to them us! At the end of the day, we will still be standing!
What wonderful words--If only it were true.
I do not question the veracity of God, or that these words were true when David wrote them. I must point out, however, that these words which were given by God for a specific set of circumstances, do not reflect the reality of what happens every day. Anyone who has had a bit of mileage on them knows that Go does not always shield us from disaster.
Steve Brown in his book When the Rope Breaks tells the trut story ofa woman and her children who were caught in a fire. The fireman told her to take hold of a rope and climb out the window. So she did, with her children behind her. He assured her that the rope would hold, and that they would be there to catch them.
Only the rope did not hold. It broke, and they fell to their deaths.
Last year, three deacons and a pastor from that Baptist church in Georgia, who were coming back from a golf outing with the church men at Myrtle Beach. Here at 903 and Potter Road, somehow the lost control of a car, hit a truck and the were all dead.
I think about the first funeral I ever did--a four year old boy who died of cancer. I think about the missionaries in the '60's who went to the jungles of South America and were slaughtered by the natives.
I think about the countless men and women over they years who have looked at me in times of distress and ask "Why?"
Sometimes we get mowed down with the rest of the grass. Sometimes, trouble does not come near us, and sometimes we're caught right in the middle.
We've all asked the question from time to time--why didn't you do what you said you would do in Psalm 91? If the comfort God promises in times of trouble is based upon His protecting us from bad things, then His promises aren't worth the paper they are written on.
We preachers try to answer this question all the time. Truthfully, we usually don't handle it much better than anyone else.
Our first response is just to repeat the words, only louder. We see the problem here. We know that that God really doesn’t save us from every harm, but we don't want to admit it. So we just repeat it, over and over again. It is comforting to hear someone say that God will spare us from suffering, but we know it isn't the whole truth. So we just assert over and over, and suggest that anyone who doesn't believe it doesn't have faith, anyway, and so they won't be protected. If anyone suffers, it must be because they aren't claiming the promises loudly enough, and with enough sincerity..
Our second response is to change the subject. Liberal preachers (who never believed the Bible is true anyway) do not look for miracles or divine protection. They just say that David was being too simplistic, and that we should not take it literally. Instead, they mumble on about the divine inside us all, and how we should be loving to the poor, and hope that their congregations do not notice that they have basically stopped believing in the comfort of God years ago. The only comfort they offer is the thought that somehow they are smarter and more sophisticated than others.
But neither wishful thinking nor elite dismissal is what the Bible means by comfort. God still protects us most of the time. When He does not, He still comforts us all the time.
Suffering is part of the human condition. God created people with a limited life span. Not everyone will die of old age, or in old age People die of a variety of causes, not just one.
While we ae here, God doesn't expect us to live without suffering. We grow old. We get up in the morning with aches and pains. We get headaches. We get the flu. The weather produces heat waves and hurricanes. This is not because of any sin we have committed, but because we live in a material world which has a beginning and an ending. Sickness and death entered this world at the time of the Fall, and will not cease until our death or Second Coming, whichever comes first.
So if God saved us from every fowler's snare, or every deadly pestilence, or if every arrow missed his mark, we wouldn't be a human life. We might as well be Superman.
This is where comfort comes in. Comfort is being in the middle of this fallible, suffering, human world, but with the power of God at our side, helping us to negotiate the hard parts.
David says this at the end of the Psalm
14 "Because he loves me,"
says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him,
for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me,
and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Where is God when we are suffering? He is with us, giving us just the right amount of help to get us through this tough world.
He does not always rescue us at the moment, but he eventually does, when He it is time.
He does not always protect us, but he eventually does, so that our souls survive.
He does not always give us long life on earth, but it does not matter since we have an eternity in heaven.
But at all times and in all circumstances He is with us.
"I am always with you," Jesus said, Even till the end of the age." God entered into our world. Sharing our suffering, so that we may know that our suffering is not in vain. He took on suffering so that He could comfort us in suffering, too. If Jesus could endure the pains of all humanity, then so can we, with His help. Suffering is not all there is to life, but when we must suffer, we do
On Being Judgmental, Part 3
Sometimes I wonder if extreme judgmentalism should not be classified as a kind of personality disorder. We are all judgmental at times, but there is an impulse to judge that goes beyond the normal in some people. Being judgmental creates an illusion of being in control. If we cannot control what goes on around us, we reach for the false security of being able to make sense of it. If we can label the things around us as good or bad, we have simplified things into two camps. That makes us feel slightly more secure in our place in life. It also leaves us with a feeling of usperiority over others. Passing judgment gives us a feeling of the moral highground. This is odd, because people who have the same vices still feel somewhat more moral if they can judge others to be sinners for doing the same things that they know they are doing.
This brings up the greatest challenge for the judgmental--self judgment. If we do not judge others or judge God, we still may judge ourselves.
Paul must have suffered from self judgment, judging by what he said in 1 Cor 4:3-5
3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself . 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes.
Paul's conscience is clear because he is forgiven, not because he is perfect. God has taken away from him the penalty for sin.
That was not always true for Paul. When he was a Pharisee, under the law, Paul spent a lot of time in self-judgment. Self-judgment was (and still is) viewed by many as a good thing, a trait that will get us on the road to self perfection. But self-perfection is a dead-end street. We will never get there until we are reborn in the new kingdom of God without the stain of original sin. Until then, we will make errors, mistakes, and even wllful sins.
Most Christians show signs of extreme judgmentalism. Why do I say that? It isn't because they necessarily express their judgment of others. Some do, but most have learned to keep judging to themselves. "Judge not, that you will not be judged." No, I believe Christians struggle with judmentalism because of the misery in their lives. Christians ought to be a happy people, a joyful people. But when we look at Christians honestly, we recognize that most of them are not. That is because inside they still beat themselves up for being bad people. Most of us are more keenly aware of our own sins than we are of others.
Self judgment is basically the same as the judgment we pass on others. All judgment is a desire to feel superior. If we judge others, we are trying to feel superior to them. If we judge circumstances, we are basically telling God what to do. And if we judge ourselves, we are really judging the One who made us.
If you struggle with self-esteem issues, I'm not trying to put you down. Neither am I telling you to stop judgment. Then we would be judging ourselves on how judgmental we are! Instead, I would suggest some readjustment of perception of the way things are, that's all. If we see God more clearly in His relationship to us, then we will also see ourselves the way He sees us.
Here are a few things that God thinks about us.
1. We are fantastically beautiful in the eyes of God. We are the epitome of creation, and the most beautiful thing to Him in the whole world. He did not say of squirrels and monkeys that they were made in His own image. He did not look at turtles and chickens and say "This is very good." He did not die for dogs. He died for us. We are to God as fantastically beautiful as our children were when we first held them in our arms.
2. He is generous with our faults. Sometimes we stress that God is perfection, and that we are all imperfect and sin-stained. But God has a relationshiop with us nevertheless. He talks to us, and comforts us. This is in spite of the fact that our sins are far more numerous and serious than we think they are. The sins we notice are like a spot of mud on a pigs nose--we see them as great, but if we could really see the rest of us, we would know that they are really small compared with the sins we don't see. Our good deeds are are like the collar on a dog. They may be the only clothing we have, but it sure doesn't cover much. God could care less. He loves us, not because of what we do right, but in spite of what we do wrong. He is more generous to us than we are to ourselves.
3. He is passionate about forgiving us. If the value an object is proven by what we are willing to pay for it, then our forgiveness must be the most valuable thing in the world. God paid the price of the cross for us. How, then can we call it of no account? Why do we insist upon holding onto the guilt of past sins when in fact God has paid the ultimate price for it?
4. He wants to walk beside us always. Whenever I am tempted to hold a grudge against a person, one of the questions I have to ask myself is how much that grudge is worth. Is it worth disrupting my life for it? Is it worth changing jobs to avoid seeing them, or changing churches? Is it worth splitting up a family or ruining a friendship? Most of the time, I conclude that grudges are just too expensive.
Self grudges are highly expensive, too. They cause us to avoid confronting ourselves. When we don't like ourselves, we resort to all kinds of diversions and amusements to keep from dealing with genuine issues. We avoid uncomfortable realities, hide from ourselves uncomfortable facts, and think that, if we never think about it, our guilt will go away. We can make it go away for a time, but it is really still there, and the cost of avoidance becomes bigger every day.
God could act the same way to us, but He doesn’t. He would rather overlook our faults, and forgive our tresspasses than to break our friendship. God does not abandon us. It is we that run away from Him, usually because we do not think He can handle our sinfulness. Rest assured, God can.
The biggest argument I can make against judgmentalism is that it is a waste of time and energy. We waste time thinking about oughts and shoulds and have no time left to deal with what is and isn't. Judging self is no more useful than judging God and others.
Nevertheless, judgments do have its uses, which we will talk about in our next installment.
This brings up the greatest challenge for the judgmental--self judgment. If we do not judge others or judge God, we still may judge ourselves.
Paul must have suffered from self judgment, judging by what he said in 1 Cor 4:3-5
3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself . 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes.
Paul's conscience is clear because he is forgiven, not because he is perfect. God has taken away from him the penalty for sin.
That was not always true for Paul. When he was a Pharisee, under the law, Paul spent a lot of time in self-judgment. Self-judgment was (and still is) viewed by many as a good thing, a trait that will get us on the road to self perfection. But self-perfection is a dead-end street. We will never get there until we are reborn in the new kingdom of God without the stain of original sin. Until then, we will make errors, mistakes, and even wllful sins.
Most Christians show signs of extreme judgmentalism. Why do I say that? It isn't because they necessarily express their judgment of others. Some do, but most have learned to keep judging to themselves. "Judge not, that you will not be judged." No, I believe Christians struggle with judmentalism because of the misery in their lives. Christians ought to be a happy people, a joyful people. But when we look at Christians honestly, we recognize that most of them are not. That is because inside they still beat themselves up for being bad people. Most of us are more keenly aware of our own sins than we are of others.
Self judgment is basically the same as the judgment we pass on others. All judgment is a desire to feel superior. If we judge others, we are trying to feel superior to them. If we judge circumstances, we are basically telling God what to do. And if we judge ourselves, we are really judging the One who made us.
If you struggle with self-esteem issues, I'm not trying to put you down. Neither am I telling you to stop judgment. Then we would be judging ourselves on how judgmental we are! Instead, I would suggest some readjustment of perception of the way things are, that's all. If we see God more clearly in His relationship to us, then we will also see ourselves the way He sees us.
Here are a few things that God thinks about us.
1. We are fantastically beautiful in the eyes of God. We are the epitome of creation, and the most beautiful thing to Him in the whole world. He did not say of squirrels and monkeys that they were made in His own image. He did not look at turtles and chickens and say "This is very good." He did not die for dogs. He died for us. We are to God as fantastically beautiful as our children were when we first held them in our arms.
2. He is generous with our faults. Sometimes we stress that God is perfection, and that we are all imperfect and sin-stained. But God has a relationshiop with us nevertheless. He talks to us, and comforts us. This is in spite of the fact that our sins are far more numerous and serious than we think they are. The sins we notice are like a spot of mud on a pigs nose--we see them as great, but if we could really see the rest of us, we would know that they are really small compared with the sins we don't see. Our good deeds are are like the collar on a dog. They may be the only clothing we have, but it sure doesn't cover much. God could care less. He loves us, not because of what we do right, but in spite of what we do wrong. He is more generous to us than we are to ourselves.
3. He is passionate about forgiving us. If the value an object is proven by what we are willing to pay for it, then our forgiveness must be the most valuable thing in the world. God paid the price of the cross for us. How, then can we call it of no account? Why do we insist upon holding onto the guilt of past sins when in fact God has paid the ultimate price for it?
4. He wants to walk beside us always. Whenever I am tempted to hold a grudge against a person, one of the questions I have to ask myself is how much that grudge is worth. Is it worth disrupting my life for it? Is it worth changing jobs to avoid seeing them, or changing churches? Is it worth splitting up a family or ruining a friendship? Most of the time, I conclude that grudges are just too expensive.
Self grudges are highly expensive, too. They cause us to avoid confronting ourselves. When we don't like ourselves, we resort to all kinds of diversions and amusements to keep from dealing with genuine issues. We avoid uncomfortable realities, hide from ourselves uncomfortable facts, and think that, if we never think about it, our guilt will go away. We can make it go away for a time, but it is really still there, and the cost of avoidance becomes bigger every day.
God could act the same way to us, but He doesn’t. He would rather overlook our faults, and forgive our tresspasses than to break our friendship. God does not abandon us. It is we that run away from Him, usually because we do not think He can handle our sinfulness. Rest assured, God can.
The biggest argument I can make against judgmentalism is that it is a waste of time and energy. We waste time thinking about oughts and shoulds and have no time left to deal with what is and isn't. Judging self is no more useful than judging God and others.
Nevertheless, judgments do have its uses, which we will talk about in our next installment.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
On Being Judgmental, Part 2
Judgmentalism is more than something that we are towards other people. It is also what we do to God. It is impossible to be judgmental without judging God.
My grandchildren, Ethan and Chloe, seem to have already been bitten by the judgmental bug. We know this because whenever they don't get what they want, they say "This is the worst day ever." I ask them "Why is it the worst day ever?" Then they tell me about how they did not get the snack they want or the toy they want, or that someone did not allow them to play with matches or stick their fingers in an electric socket. Never mind that whatever authority did not allow them these privileges did it for their benefit. Never mind that they say it coming home from a movie that they loved. Never mind that they had just eaten their favorite lunch and played happily all day. One little "no" makes it the worst day ever.
These little children are expressing a misguided view that is common even with the grown ups around them. Why do we think that our worst day was our worst day? What happened to make it a bad day? For that matter, what made our best day our best day? Are we sure?
Whether a day is good or bad is not up to us. Every day is a providential day, one decreed by God to be the day we receive. Somehow, though we feel it is necessary to label days or events good or bad, and to store away the memory of the day in some neat little pigeon hole in our mind.
But in God's mind, how do we know what is good or bad for us? Illness breaks and softens us. Riches can destroy us. A wedding day is a great day, but becomes a bad memory when the marriage ends in divorce. A firing is a bad day, but becomes a blessing when it opens the door to a greater opportunity. All we have and are comes from the hand of a God who loves us and has a plan for our lives. God can make a good day from a bad one, and a bad day from a good one.
When we label the events of our lives as good or bad based on a moment's pain or enjoyment we are no better than ungrateful children. We are judging God's motives and purpose. If we had the faith we claim to have, we would be happy with what we have, enjoying the moments we have, instead of trying to judge our moments as good or bad.
Having judged God, we move on to judging others. Since we can't accept what God has given us, we can't accept others, either. We want to put labels on people, just like we do on our moments. Is this person good or bad? Are they working for our benefit, or are they out to get us? We do have friends and enemies, to be sure, but most people have their own agendas, most of whom have nothing to do with us. They are neither trying to help us or hurt us, but are living their own lives, under the all-judging eye of God. It is not our place to decide if they are living to God's satisfaction. Instead, it s our job to do good to all people, especially those who call themselves our brothers and sisters.
If we can learn to enjoy what God has given, and give up our right to judge the moments, then we can also perhaps learn to enjoy others without judging them. Every individual who comes across our path was put there, or allowed to be there, by a benevolent God who seeks only our benefit. No one is an accident, and no one can come near us without God's permission. Once we give up the right to judge others, we are free to see the blessings that may come from them.
Later, I'll talk about who we judge the most.
My grandchildren, Ethan and Chloe, seem to have already been bitten by the judgmental bug. We know this because whenever they don't get what they want, they say "This is the worst day ever." I ask them "Why is it the worst day ever?" Then they tell me about how they did not get the snack they want or the toy they want, or that someone did not allow them to play with matches or stick their fingers in an electric socket. Never mind that whatever authority did not allow them these privileges did it for their benefit. Never mind that they say it coming home from a movie that they loved. Never mind that they had just eaten their favorite lunch and played happily all day. One little "no" makes it the worst day ever.
These little children are expressing a misguided view that is common even with the grown ups around them. Why do we think that our worst day was our worst day? What happened to make it a bad day? For that matter, what made our best day our best day? Are we sure?
Whether a day is good or bad is not up to us. Every day is a providential day, one decreed by God to be the day we receive. Somehow, though we feel it is necessary to label days or events good or bad, and to store away the memory of the day in some neat little pigeon hole in our mind.
But in God's mind, how do we know what is good or bad for us? Illness breaks and softens us. Riches can destroy us. A wedding day is a great day, but becomes a bad memory when the marriage ends in divorce. A firing is a bad day, but becomes a blessing when it opens the door to a greater opportunity. All we have and are comes from the hand of a God who loves us and has a plan for our lives. God can make a good day from a bad one, and a bad day from a good one.
When we label the events of our lives as good or bad based on a moment's pain or enjoyment we are no better than ungrateful children. We are judging God's motives and purpose. If we had the faith we claim to have, we would be happy with what we have, enjoying the moments we have, instead of trying to judge our moments as good or bad.
Having judged God, we move on to judging others. Since we can't accept what God has given us, we can't accept others, either. We want to put labels on people, just like we do on our moments. Is this person good or bad? Are they working for our benefit, or are they out to get us? We do have friends and enemies, to be sure, but most people have their own agendas, most of whom have nothing to do with us. They are neither trying to help us or hurt us, but are living their own lives, under the all-judging eye of God. It is not our place to decide if they are living to God's satisfaction. Instead, it s our job to do good to all people, especially those who call themselves our brothers and sisters.
If we can learn to enjoy what God has given, and give up our right to judge the moments, then we can also perhaps learn to enjoy others without judging them. Every individual who comes across our path was put there, or allowed to be there, by a benevolent God who seeks only our benefit. No one is an accident, and no one can come near us without God's permission. Once we give up the right to judge others, we are free to see the blessings that may come from them.
Later, I'll talk about who we judge the most.
Monday, August 2, 2010
A Reason to Live
On September 11, 2001, nineteen men boarded four airplanes, gained entrance to the cockpits, and hijacked them. Three of the airplanes hit their targets. One crashed in an open field
Two weeks later, a friend from Rock Hill--Kyle Torreyson, left for New York with the Red Cross. He served doughnuts and breathed the poisoned air of the World Trade Center. Years later, Kyle got cancer from being there. He knew it was a possibility when he went, but he was willing to risk his life to serve doughnuts and ground zero.
In the last nine years, hundreds of thousands of men and women have gone into harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan—every one a volunteer. Thousands did not come back. But they went, believing in a cause greater than themselves.
There is a big question that hangs over all of this. Why do people walk into danger, even certain death? There is one simple answer--because they believe in something greater than self, greater than comfort, and even greater than family.
It was the same reason that Christ went to the cross. If life is all there is, then it doesn’t make sense.
Spirituality is not just a matter of religion. Just as there is a Holy Spirit, there is a human spirit--a part of all people regardless of their beliefs. That spirit fulfills an essential function in who we are and what we do.
Think of the human soul as a triangle. The top two sides are our physical and the psychological self. The physical side contains our bodies and the needs of our bodies. It involves our health, our jobs, houses, etc. Our psychological self is everything that it non-material--our relationships, social standing, memories, intellect, and our wants and needs.
But underneath all this, there has to be a foundation. The foundation is our spiritual self. It is the system of belief and values that keeps us going. It helps us resist temptation, take the difficult road, keep on enduring, and put ourselves in harm’s way, when necessary. It is what makes a man fight for his country, and a missionary travel to the ends of the earth. It is what we love and believe.
This spiritual basis is not just a feeling. It is farther down than feelings. People will act contrary to all their feelings if they do it for love or loyalty. There is something that cries out to be part of something greater than ourselves. We want to have contributed, not only to our family, but to our world.
Years ago there was a psychiatrist named Maslow, who came up with an idea he called the "priority of need." He said that if a man is hungry he will think about nothing but food. If he is insecure, he will think about nothing but security. But if a man is full and if he is secure, he will think about other things--love, a family, friendship. If he has those things, then he will seek for something else--something he called "self-actualization." It is having a purpose in life. We do not want to think that we've lived and died in vain.
I disagree with Maslow in one way. I think that this desire for a reason to live is far deeper than food or drink, or security. I think everyone, no matter where they might be, needs to have a reason to live.
And the first place people go who need a reason to live is to their church.
God promised Jeremiah this when he said “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not evil to give you an end and a purpose.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
God has a plan and purpose for our lives.
Unfortunately, many will walk away from church without a reason. They will leave frustrated and disappointed, because the church does not give them a reason to live.
Try to imagine what it is like for the poor seeker who comes to church. He comes looking for a challenge, a real God, and real love. He wants to be part of God’s great movement in
But what does the seeker get instead? He hears tired old songs, incomprehensible messages, meaningless rituals, and people who look as though they can't wait to get out and go home. The messages are aimed at soothing and comforting those who are already saved. The seeker does not want soothing and comforting. He wants a fresh challenge and a holy cause. It's frustrating for a seeker, especially a young seeker, to find that the church has no reason to exist, except to keep its own members comfortable. It is as though they showed up at the army recruiters and discovered they were meeting inside the lobby of a nursing home. They take one look at the people around him, and leaves because he thinks he’s gone to the wrong place.
What is your reason for living? Don’t say that your reason for living is to get to heaven—that’s our reason for dying, not living. That’s like saying that the reason for doing your job is to retire. We need more than that—some reason for being here in this life. We need to know why we are doing what we are doing.
There was once a king named Solomon. He had great wisdom and knowledge. He had literally hundreds of women at his beck and call. He had all the money he could stand. He had absolute power. But none of this gave him a reaon to live. He said of it all, "Meaningless--it is all meaningless." After he explored wine, women, wealth, and wisdom, he still could not find a reason to live.
Most people live like Solomon without the wealth and power. They live for pleasure, wealth, or fame. As long as they can have a good time, then they do not care whether life has a meaning or not. In the end, though, money fades, along with power and glory. Even the people we love on earth, even our family disappears in the end/
Suppose some day we stand before God and God asks us "what have you made with the life I have let you borrow?" Would we say. "I sat six hours a day in front of my big screen TV all week, and spent two days on the lake in my motor boat. I owned a vacation home, listening to my music, and partied whenever I got the chance?" Meaningless, Solomon said--all is meaningless.
There is something I've noticed about some people who become wealthy. They are no happier than the poor. The rich seem to go through three stages. First, they use their wealth to meet their needs, and their family's needs. That ought to make them happy, but I usually doesn’t. Then they feel the need to play with their wealth. They fulfill their wildest desires. But after a while, this, too becomes boring. Finally, they get an itch to do something important with their money. They give to charity, politics, or religion. They look for a reason to spend, and a cause to suppoer.
I wish it were true for all rich people, but it is not. Some people never grasp that were given what they have to give what they can. Too late, they recognize Solomon’s words-- "Meaningless--all is meaningless."
It was not until late in his life that Solomon understood it’s meaning. He wrote in Ecc. 12:13-14 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
You don't have to be as rich or as smart as Solomon to find the meaning. You don't even have to read Solomon’s book. Just flip to the back page and read the conclusion. We exist to fear and obey God. He is the meaning of life.
How do we do that?
First know what you believe. Don't settle for secondhand faith. Is fearing God and obeying His commandments really foremost in us? Or do we say that because we think we are supposed to say it?
We are all too quick to let others think for us. We often are guilty not putting what we hear to the test. As a result, when tests come, we find that our faith is not as strong as we thought. Second hand religion produces secondhand lives--lives that are carbon copies of those we have observed, without any divine spark of purpose. Secondhand faith does not really inspire
us to deep purpose or sacrifice.
In Herman Hesse's novel Siddharta, a seeker after truth in India spend years searching for the Buddha. When he finally meets the Buddha, he receives an invitation to become a disciple. The man turns him down. When the Buddha asks why, he replies tha the wants what Buddha has, not just o follow him. He wants bo be enlightened, not to live off he enlightenment of others. This ought to be the vision of we Christians. We want to now Christ, not to just know those who know Christ. We want to serve Christ, not to serve those who serve Christ. This kind of faith cannot be arrived at without struggle.
Second, know what is really important. Don't waste time on secondhand goals.
There is only one leading north from Waxhaw--highway 16. They have been working on that intersection and it has been shut down. Now, suppose I went to the drug store, taking my usual, and came to that detour. Instead of going around, I park my car and wait until they reopened the street. My real goal is not to pass through that intersection, bt to get to the other side. That would be confusing the road with the destination.
We confuse our road with our destination. The church could use a building, but our goal is not to build church buildings. We make money, but now to have money. We don’t even raise children for their sake, but to instill in them the same reason for existence as we have ourselves. God is the purpose for our being, and all other things take second place.
Third, constantly reinforce the truth. Don't settle for being a "cross-eyed" Christian. Know our purpose does not end our struggle. Our minds must be conquered for Him, bringing every thought into captivity for His divine purpose.
Faith requires constant reinforcement. Even Paul had to to this. See Phil 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Moses put it this way in Deut 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Today, no doubt, he would put it differently. He might say “Hang them as pictures on your walls. Put them as bumper stickers on your cars. Make them the screen savers on your computers. God wants us to put Him in before us at all times. That’s because God knows how easily we forget. So we must keep being reminded that we have a reason to live.
A Reason to
Two weeks later, a friend from Rock Hill--Kyle Torreyson, left for New York with the Red Cross. He served doughnuts and breathed the poisoned air of the World Trade Center. Years later, Kyle got cancer from being there. He knew it was a possibility when he went, but he was willing to risk his life to serve doughnuts and ground zero.
In the last nine years, hundreds of thousands of men and women have gone into harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan—every one a volunteer. Thousands did not come back. But they went, believing in a cause greater than themselves.
There is a big question that hangs over all of this. Why do people walk into danger, even certain death? There is one simple answer--because they believe in something greater than self, greater than comfort, and even greater than family.
It was the same reason that Christ went to the cross. If life is all there is, then it doesn’t make sense.
Spirituality is not just a matter of religion. Just as there is a Holy Spirit, there is a human spirit--a part of all people regardless of their beliefs. That spirit fulfills an essential function in who we are and what we do.
Think of the human soul as a triangle. The top two sides are our physical and the psychological self. The physical side contains our bodies and the needs of our bodies. It involves our health, our jobs, houses, etc. Our psychological self is everything that it non-material--our relationships, social standing, memories, intellect, and our wants and needs.
But underneath all this, there has to be a foundation. The foundation is our spiritual self. It is the system of belief and values that keeps us going. It helps us resist temptation, take the difficult road, keep on enduring, and put ourselves in harm’s way, when necessary. It is what makes a man fight for his country, and a missionary travel to the ends of the earth. It is what we love and believe.
This spiritual basis is not just a feeling. It is farther down than feelings. People will act contrary to all their feelings if they do it for love or loyalty. There is something that cries out to be part of something greater than ourselves. We want to have contributed, not only to our family, but to our world.
Years ago there was a psychiatrist named Maslow, who came up with an idea he called the "priority of need." He said that if a man is hungry he will think about nothing but food. If he is insecure, he will think about nothing but security. But if a man is full and if he is secure, he will think about other things--love, a family, friendship. If he has those things, then he will seek for something else--something he called "self-actualization." It is having a purpose in life. We do not want to think that we've lived and died in vain.
I disagree with Maslow in one way. I think that this desire for a reason to live is far deeper than food or drink, or security. I think everyone, no matter where they might be, needs to have a reason to live.
And the first place people go who need a reason to live is to their church.
God promised Jeremiah this when he said “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not evil to give you an end and a purpose.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
God has a plan and purpose for our lives.
Unfortunately, many will walk away from church without a reason. They will leave frustrated and disappointed, because the church does not give them a reason to live.
Try to imagine what it is like for the poor seeker who comes to church. He comes looking for a challenge, a real God, and real love. He wants to be part of God’s great movement in
But what does the seeker get instead? He hears tired old songs, incomprehensible messages, meaningless rituals, and people who look as though they can't wait to get out and go home. The messages are aimed at soothing and comforting those who are already saved. The seeker does not want soothing and comforting. He wants a fresh challenge and a holy cause. It's frustrating for a seeker, especially a young seeker, to find that the church has no reason to exist, except to keep its own members comfortable. It is as though they showed up at the army recruiters and discovered they were meeting inside the lobby of a nursing home. They take one look at the people around him, and leaves because he thinks he’s gone to the wrong place.
What is your reason for living? Don’t say that your reason for living is to get to heaven—that’s our reason for dying, not living. That’s like saying that the reason for doing your job is to retire. We need more than that—some reason for being here in this life. We need to know why we are doing what we are doing.
There was once a king named Solomon. He had great wisdom and knowledge. He had literally hundreds of women at his beck and call. He had all the money he could stand. He had absolute power. But none of this gave him a reaon to live. He said of it all, "Meaningless--it is all meaningless." After he explored wine, women, wealth, and wisdom, he still could not find a reason to live.
Most people live like Solomon without the wealth and power. They live for pleasure, wealth, or fame. As long as they can have a good time, then they do not care whether life has a meaning or not. In the end, though, money fades, along with power and glory. Even the people we love on earth, even our family disappears in the end/
Suppose some day we stand before God and God asks us "what have you made with the life I have let you borrow?" Would we say. "I sat six hours a day in front of my big screen TV all week, and spent two days on the lake in my motor boat. I owned a vacation home, listening to my music, and partied whenever I got the chance?" Meaningless, Solomon said--all is meaningless.
There is something I've noticed about some people who become wealthy. They are no happier than the poor. The rich seem to go through three stages. First, they use their wealth to meet their needs, and their family's needs. That ought to make them happy, but I usually doesn’t. Then they feel the need to play with their wealth. They fulfill their wildest desires. But after a while, this, too becomes boring. Finally, they get an itch to do something important with their money. They give to charity, politics, or religion. They look for a reason to spend, and a cause to suppoer.
I wish it were true for all rich people, but it is not. Some people never grasp that were given what they have to give what they can. Too late, they recognize Solomon’s words-- "Meaningless--all is meaningless."
It was not until late in his life that Solomon understood it’s meaning. He wrote in Ecc. 12:13-14 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
You don't have to be as rich or as smart as Solomon to find the meaning. You don't even have to read Solomon’s book. Just flip to the back page and read the conclusion. We exist to fear and obey God. He is the meaning of life.
How do we do that?
First know what you believe. Don't settle for secondhand faith. Is fearing God and obeying His commandments really foremost in us? Or do we say that because we think we are supposed to say it?
We are all too quick to let others think for us. We often are guilty not putting what we hear to the test. As a result, when tests come, we find that our faith is not as strong as we thought. Second hand religion produces secondhand lives--lives that are carbon copies of those we have observed, without any divine spark of purpose. Secondhand faith does not really inspire
us to deep purpose or sacrifice.
In Herman Hesse's novel Siddharta, a seeker after truth in India spend years searching for the Buddha. When he finally meets the Buddha, he receives an invitation to become a disciple. The man turns him down. When the Buddha asks why, he replies tha the wants what Buddha has, not just o follow him. He wants bo be enlightened, not to live off he enlightenment of others. This ought to be the vision of we Christians. We want to now Christ, not to just know those who know Christ. We want to serve Christ, not to serve those who serve Christ. This kind of faith cannot be arrived at without struggle.
Second, know what is really important. Don't waste time on secondhand goals.
There is only one leading north from Waxhaw--highway 16. They have been working on that intersection and it has been shut down. Now, suppose I went to the drug store, taking my usual, and came to that detour. Instead of going around, I park my car and wait until they reopened the street. My real goal is not to pass through that intersection, bt to get to the other side. That would be confusing the road with the destination.
We confuse our road with our destination. The church could use a building, but our goal is not to build church buildings. We make money, but now to have money. We don’t even raise children for their sake, but to instill in them the same reason for existence as we have ourselves. God is the purpose for our being, and all other things take second place.
Third, constantly reinforce the truth. Don't settle for being a "cross-eyed" Christian. Know our purpose does not end our struggle. Our minds must be conquered for Him, bringing every thought into captivity for His divine purpose.
Faith requires constant reinforcement. Even Paul had to to this. See Phil 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Moses put it this way in Deut 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Today, no doubt, he would put it differently. He might say “Hang them as pictures on your walls. Put them as bumper stickers on your cars. Make them the screen savers on your computers. God wants us to put Him in before us at all times. That’s because God knows how easily we forget. So we must keep being reminded that we have a reason to live.
A Reason to
Listening
1 Kings 19:11-13
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
There are two kinds of people in this world—those who hear God speaking, and those who do not. Most of us fall in this latter category. We hear God only rarely, if at all. When we do, it is usually through some indirect means such as the Bible or a sermon. We do not expect that God will speak directly to us, because we live in a world that is rational and pragmatic. To us, a thunderstorm is just a thunderstorm, and an earthquake is jus an earthquake. We don’t listen for the voice of God in them as Elijah did.
We don’t hear directly from God very often, and truthfully we like it that way. Divine revelation comes from a world we cannot control or understand. It upsets our feeling of being in control of our own existence. That is why we neither seek nor do we expect to hear God’s voice. We wake in the morning and go to bed at night with no expectation of dreams, visions, or omens.
Even so, there are a few people who fit into the former category. They hear from God all the time. They hear from God in the same way others hear from their wives or husbands. Everything that happens to them is a sign of God’s presence.
Most of my life has been spent among people who did not regularly hear from God. Even as a believer, I had no expectation that I would regularly hear from Him. Outside of some vague feelings of peace, I really could not say there was much actual communication from Him—neither did anyone I knew claim to have direct contact with the Almighty.
Then in the summer between high school and college I worked at a Christian summer camp in the mountains of Tennessee. There were church services twice a day at the camp, and all kinds of pastors and evangelists came and went from the camp. One of them was a man who claimed to have seen angels. I asked him if he had really ever seen an angel. He replied “Yes, there’s one standing over there in the corner.” Was he crazy? Or was he a man who actually was able to see angels.
In the Bible, some people had the ability to peer into the spiritual realms. Jacob had dreams of angels. Joseph was an interpreter of dreams. God spoke regularly with Adam and Eve. Noah heard from God and built the ark. Abraham heard from God and left his country. Moses heard the Ten Commandments and the Law. During the Exodus, God went before his people in a pillar of fire. The Prophets were all called by God, and spoke the oracles of God. John heard from God and wrote about the end of the world. Throughout the Bible people communicated directly with God.
The great men and women of the Bible all had this in common—they heard God. Think about the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon). His intelligence did not make him wise. Whatever wisdom he had came from his communication with God. Think about the most foolish hero in the Bible (Samson). He became great in spite of being foolish, because he knew how to draw on the power of God. Listening to God is made both of them great. Neither were paragons of virtue, but when they listened and obeyed, they were great.
Yet most Christians do not expect to hear from God. Why?
We have been told that God speaks to man only infrequently--and there is some justification for this. In the Bible, there are often hundreds of years between divine visitations. When God speaks, not everyone hears Him. Even if He is speaking, we may not listen.
Why God chooses to speak clearly only infrequently I do not know. But God has caused a veil to fall between us and the full extent of His majesty and presence. In the Bible, we sometimes see examples of people who encounter God, and anyone who did was permanently changed. The direct sight of God in our bodies of flesh strikes us with fear and terror. God usually appears veiled to us in the natural, so that we may stand His presence.
But God does reveal Himself in indirect ways. God shows Himself in the creation of the World. He has also revealed him in the written record of His acts on earth—the Bible. God handles us with the gloves of this rational world. But if we are discerning, and recognize His presence behind all things, we encounter him every day.
Prayer is part talking, but mainly listening. So why don’t we hear His voice more often? Why don’t we see angels, or have visions? Why do we not hear the quiet whisper?
Hearing God requires three things—faith, calmness, and discipline.
Faith is the assurance that God still speaks to people today. In the Bible, God sometimes spoke in an audible voice--through dreams, visions and signs. The way God speaks is through impressions in the heart. We feel His voice more than hear it. This is where faith comes in. We learn to trust the inner voice of the Father.
Those who hear God’s voice often believe that they will. They are looking for it. Everything that happens might be an omen. Every dream might be a message. Every impression of the heart must be paid attention to. God can speak through anything and anywhere.
I do not mean to say that every impression is of God. But some impressions of the heart are from God, so we had better listen to them.
In regard to divine impressions, it is a good rule to keep four harbor lights in sight when we navigate those waters. First--the written Word of God. Second--the witness of the Spirit in our heart. Third--circumstances that God arranges. Last--the witness of others. Before we make a serious decision based on an impression, we should wait until the lights line up.
Here’s a rule of thumb on divine impressions. If it involves no risk or inconvenience, then we should do it immediately. But if God is telling us to do something that is life-changing, we should seek careful confirmation before we act upon it. That confirmation should come from circumstances, other believers, the Bible, as well as the inner voice of the heart. If God wants us to move in a certain direction, He will make it abundantly clear before we go.
Calmness is a second prerequisite to hearing listening to God. We must stop what we are doing and listen. To hear the voice of God, we must learn to be calm. Psalm 131 says I have calmed and quieted my soul. Until we learn to be calm, we cannot hear that still small voice.
How do we get calm? First of all, we need to turn off the noise and distractions. We who live in a technological age are seldom calm and quiet. We are bombarded with sensory overload. If we are to hear God clearly, then we must break free of all this. We must get away and listen.
This cannot happen overnight. But it can be done, even in the busiest of lives. Remember that God wants time alone with you, even if you don’t want time with Him. He desires to speak with you more than you desire to listen.
We are not likely to hear God’s voice over the television or radio noise. We have to get alone in a quiet place. If you are still trying to have devotions between commercials or driving down the road, you will probably miss much of what God is saying. So lay aside your outward distractions, and concentrate on that “still small voice” within.
There are many techniques. One is to take a single verse each day, repeat it to yourself, over and over until you have memorized it. Concentrating on one verse or phrase can help you focus on Him. Clear your mind of everything but thoughts of Him, and then look at the world around you.
Have you ever seen a “magic eye” picture? When you first see it, it looks like a meaningless pattern. But usually there are two dots at the bottom.
If you look at the two dots, then cross your eyes until the two dots seem to come together. Then when you look at the picture and be still, a picture seems to emerge from the mess, and hover above the page. By focusing on the dots and looking away, you see the message in the mess. The same is true with hearing from God. Once we focus on Him, we can see the method in the mess around us.
The third prerequisite is discipline. Discipline is denying those feelings which we think of as natural instincts for a higher purpose.
Listening to God also must become a habit. God speaks to us primarily in two ways—through the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. If we are to hear God, we must discipline ourselves to constantly seek the Word of God. The Word of God to us is the Bible.
One thing we can know about God is that He will never contradict the truth that He has already said. Our God is a God of consistency and order. That is why we need to make a constant, lifetime study of the Bible. The Bible is a record of what He said to the people of God in the past. Nothing that God says to us today will contradict what He has said in the past.
One of the names for the Bible is the “canon” of Scripture. “Canon” means a plumb line, a weight on a string used to test whether a building is truly perpendicular. The words of the Bible give us a measure of whether or not we have heard correctly.
As we begin to listen, it is vitally important that we read the whole Bible in a systematic fashion. If we only read portions of it, who knows what we might be missing.
We need to have humility while we read. There are many things in the Bible that a casual reader may not comprehend. That is why commentaries and other Bible helps are so important. Those who know the Bible can help us interpret it correctly.
Throughout church history, whenever God wanted to change His people’s direction, he usually did it through someone reading the Bible, and discovering something they had missed. When the church of the Middle Ages was going in the wrong direction, God showed Martin Luther a single verse in Romans “The just shall live by faith.” This revelation from the Scriptures changed the course of world history.
God may not change history through what He shows you in the Bible, but He will certainly change your life and direction.
God has a message for you. You must seek that message through faith, calmness, and discipline.
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
There are two kinds of people in this world—those who hear God speaking, and those who do not. Most of us fall in this latter category. We hear God only rarely, if at all. When we do, it is usually through some indirect means such as the Bible or a sermon. We do not expect that God will speak directly to us, because we live in a world that is rational and pragmatic. To us, a thunderstorm is just a thunderstorm, and an earthquake is jus an earthquake. We don’t listen for the voice of God in them as Elijah did.
We don’t hear directly from God very often, and truthfully we like it that way. Divine revelation comes from a world we cannot control or understand. It upsets our feeling of being in control of our own existence. That is why we neither seek nor do we expect to hear God’s voice. We wake in the morning and go to bed at night with no expectation of dreams, visions, or omens.
Even so, there are a few people who fit into the former category. They hear from God all the time. They hear from God in the same way others hear from their wives or husbands. Everything that happens to them is a sign of God’s presence.
Most of my life has been spent among people who did not regularly hear from God. Even as a believer, I had no expectation that I would regularly hear from Him. Outside of some vague feelings of peace, I really could not say there was much actual communication from Him—neither did anyone I knew claim to have direct contact with the Almighty.
Then in the summer between high school and college I worked at a Christian summer camp in the mountains of Tennessee. There were church services twice a day at the camp, and all kinds of pastors and evangelists came and went from the camp. One of them was a man who claimed to have seen angels. I asked him if he had really ever seen an angel. He replied “Yes, there’s one standing over there in the corner.” Was he crazy? Or was he a man who actually was able to see angels.
In the Bible, some people had the ability to peer into the spiritual realms. Jacob had dreams of angels. Joseph was an interpreter of dreams. God spoke regularly with Adam and Eve. Noah heard from God and built the ark. Abraham heard from God and left his country. Moses heard the Ten Commandments and the Law. During the Exodus, God went before his people in a pillar of fire. The Prophets were all called by God, and spoke the oracles of God. John heard from God and wrote about the end of the world. Throughout the Bible people communicated directly with God.
The great men and women of the Bible all had this in common—they heard God. Think about the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon). His intelligence did not make him wise. Whatever wisdom he had came from his communication with God. Think about the most foolish hero in the Bible (Samson). He became great in spite of being foolish, because he knew how to draw on the power of God. Listening to God is made both of them great. Neither were paragons of virtue, but when they listened and obeyed, they were great.
Yet most Christians do not expect to hear from God. Why?
We have been told that God speaks to man only infrequently--and there is some justification for this. In the Bible, there are often hundreds of years between divine visitations. When God speaks, not everyone hears Him. Even if He is speaking, we may not listen.
Why God chooses to speak clearly only infrequently I do not know. But God has caused a veil to fall between us and the full extent of His majesty and presence. In the Bible, we sometimes see examples of people who encounter God, and anyone who did was permanently changed. The direct sight of God in our bodies of flesh strikes us with fear and terror. God usually appears veiled to us in the natural, so that we may stand His presence.
But God does reveal Himself in indirect ways. God shows Himself in the creation of the World. He has also revealed him in the written record of His acts on earth—the Bible. God handles us with the gloves of this rational world. But if we are discerning, and recognize His presence behind all things, we encounter him every day.
Prayer is part talking, but mainly listening. So why don’t we hear His voice more often? Why don’t we see angels, or have visions? Why do we not hear the quiet whisper?
Hearing God requires three things—faith, calmness, and discipline.
Faith is the assurance that God still speaks to people today. In the Bible, God sometimes spoke in an audible voice--through dreams, visions and signs. The way God speaks is through impressions in the heart. We feel His voice more than hear it. This is where faith comes in. We learn to trust the inner voice of the Father.
Those who hear God’s voice often believe that they will. They are looking for it. Everything that happens might be an omen. Every dream might be a message. Every impression of the heart must be paid attention to. God can speak through anything and anywhere.
I do not mean to say that every impression is of God. But some impressions of the heart are from God, so we had better listen to them.
In regard to divine impressions, it is a good rule to keep four harbor lights in sight when we navigate those waters. First--the written Word of God. Second--the witness of the Spirit in our heart. Third--circumstances that God arranges. Last--the witness of others. Before we make a serious decision based on an impression, we should wait until the lights line up.
Here’s a rule of thumb on divine impressions. If it involves no risk or inconvenience, then we should do it immediately. But if God is telling us to do something that is life-changing, we should seek careful confirmation before we act upon it. That confirmation should come from circumstances, other believers, the Bible, as well as the inner voice of the heart. If God wants us to move in a certain direction, He will make it abundantly clear before we go.
Calmness is a second prerequisite to hearing listening to God. We must stop what we are doing and listen. To hear the voice of God, we must learn to be calm. Psalm 131 says I have calmed and quieted my soul. Until we learn to be calm, we cannot hear that still small voice.
How do we get calm? First of all, we need to turn off the noise and distractions. We who live in a technological age are seldom calm and quiet. We are bombarded with sensory overload. If we are to hear God clearly, then we must break free of all this. We must get away and listen.
This cannot happen overnight. But it can be done, even in the busiest of lives. Remember that God wants time alone with you, even if you don’t want time with Him. He desires to speak with you more than you desire to listen.
We are not likely to hear God’s voice over the television or radio noise. We have to get alone in a quiet place. If you are still trying to have devotions between commercials or driving down the road, you will probably miss much of what God is saying. So lay aside your outward distractions, and concentrate on that “still small voice” within.
There are many techniques. One is to take a single verse each day, repeat it to yourself, over and over until you have memorized it. Concentrating on one verse or phrase can help you focus on Him. Clear your mind of everything but thoughts of Him, and then look at the world around you.
Have you ever seen a “magic eye” picture? When you first see it, it looks like a meaningless pattern. But usually there are two dots at the bottom.
If you look at the two dots, then cross your eyes until the two dots seem to come together. Then when you look at the picture and be still, a picture seems to emerge from the mess, and hover above the page. By focusing on the dots and looking away, you see the message in the mess. The same is true with hearing from God. Once we focus on Him, we can see the method in the mess around us.
The third prerequisite is discipline. Discipline is denying those feelings which we think of as natural instincts for a higher purpose.
Listening to God also must become a habit. God speaks to us primarily in two ways—through the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. If we are to hear God, we must discipline ourselves to constantly seek the Word of God. The Word of God to us is the Bible.
One thing we can know about God is that He will never contradict the truth that He has already said. Our God is a God of consistency and order. That is why we need to make a constant, lifetime study of the Bible. The Bible is a record of what He said to the people of God in the past. Nothing that God says to us today will contradict what He has said in the past.
One of the names for the Bible is the “canon” of Scripture. “Canon” means a plumb line, a weight on a string used to test whether a building is truly perpendicular. The words of the Bible give us a measure of whether or not we have heard correctly.
As we begin to listen, it is vitally important that we read the whole Bible in a systematic fashion. If we only read portions of it, who knows what we might be missing.
We need to have humility while we read. There are many things in the Bible that a casual reader may not comprehend. That is why commentaries and other Bible helps are so important. Those who know the Bible can help us interpret it correctly.
Throughout church history, whenever God wanted to change His people’s direction, he usually did it through someone reading the Bible, and discovering something they had missed. When the church of the Middle Ages was going in the wrong direction, God showed Martin Luther a single verse in Romans “The just shall live by faith.” This revelation from the Scriptures changed the course of world history.
God may not change history through what He shows you in the Bible, but He will certainly change your life and direction.
God has a message for you. You must seek that message through faith, calmness, and discipline.
The Prayer of Asking
We have been learning about the various skills that go into effective prayer.
The meaning of the word "pray" means “to ask.” This aspect of prayer is also called petition.
Jesus said this.
Matt 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 for everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 18:6-8 and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
John 14:13-14 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus wants us to ask, so he can give. Yet we act as if it is an imposition!
re are dangers in petition, of course. Here are a few examples of prayer that God will not answer.
“God, I want to die!”
“God, punish him!”
“God, help me win this game!”
“God, let me win the lottery!”
“God, let me live forever!”
“God, take away this test!”
I confess that there is much about prier I do not understand. But one thing I do not, God desires us to be utterly dependent upon Him in all things. He wants us to uphold us, because He loves us. There is no good logical reason for this. It is an emotional desire of God to be loved. Just as worldly parents desire to care for their children, so our heavenly father desires to take care of His.
But how do we petition God? What do we ask for? How do we know what He wants us to ask? God has given us a pattern for effective petition in the Lord’s Prayer.
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to prayer. Other rabbis often gave his disciples prayers to pray. But there is nothing in the passage to suggest that Jesus was giving them the Lord’s Prayer simply to repeat. This was a pattern prayer—an example that still applies today.
The Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6: 9-13.
The Lord’s Prayer is not some kind of mantra to be repeated by rote. It is a pattern for our prayer life, and a revealer of God’s desire. It shows us both in what order we should pray for things, and how we should pray or hem. It is a brilliant piece of work.
Let’s see it piece by piece.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed is Thy Name.”
The first lesson we learn from the Lord’s Prayer is that God cares more about the “who” in our relationship than the “what.” God doesn’t care what your prayers sound like, or if you get the words right. All he cares about is that first and foremost we acknowledge Him to be our holy Lord as well as our divine Father. Our relationship matters to Him.
In New York they have automats. It is a mechanical restaurant, without waitresses or cooks. Everything is prepackaged. You just stick your coins in the appropriate slots and out comes fruit, apple pies, sandwiches, and soups, whatever. You never have to talk to a real person at all.
This might be an efficient way of distributing food, but it is not very appealing. People like to receive their meals from people, not from slots. We like to have waitresses take our order. We enjoy the touch of a human hand. It’s nice to know the person giving us the food.
God is not an automat. Our spiritual nourishment comes from a relationship with Him. Prayer begins with an acknowledgement of that relationship. If we cannot say that God is our Father and our Lord, then don’t ask for anything until we get our relationship straight. He is our Father, and He is holy. This is praise—the acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done for us.
“Our Father” he says--not just “My Father“ but ours. There is a second relationship at play here. We are not just related to God, but to all who stand praying beside us. Our prayers are not just something we do as individuals, but we also are part of a praying and loving group of people. We are first part of an “our” and secondarily a “my.” God wants us to pray for our group needs first before e pray for our personal ones.
“Thy Kingdom Come.” This is a call to join in God’s battle against global darkness. Darkness. Before we pray for anything else, remember that the needs of the world are greater than our own little circle. It is a desire to see God’s kingdom grow.
Imagine we were praying for our country. “Lord, let America grow.” What would that prayer imply? It would imply that America was to perfect, that it was not yet big enough. We would be saying that we want America to encompass more land and more people. We would be praying that the government we enjoy would be expanded to include others.
That’s the problem with most of our prayers. We really don’t want God’s kingdom to grow. Can we truthfully say we want the people around us in the church? Do we want all races, all classes to be represented in the church? Or would we rather see only our faithful few people our own race, our own culture, our own music.
Culture is defined by the externals—language, clothing, music, customs. When we want the church to look like it always did and sound like it always did, and when we resent others who might make it different, then we are saying essentially that we are only interested in the Kingdom of God coming to those who are already much like ourselves. We would rather see the kingdom isolated. Therefore, we cannot pray with all sincerity “Thy kingdom come.” We only want the kingdom to come to our own little place and group.
When we pray “Thy Kingdom come,” We need to get down to specifics. What part of the world do you want Jesus to come to? Where are the greatest needs? Who needs to be overcome by the Kingdom of God? When do you want to see it? How can we best help in the bringing in of the Kingdom? These specifics make it more real to us.
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Do we pray for social improvement? Are there places in our world that do not conform to God’s will?
Often this petition is misunderstood. It is prayed as a kind of fatalistic acquiescence to the will of God, a kind of excuse for our prayers not being answered. If all “thy will be done” meant was, “God do whatever you wish,” then why pray it at all. Do you think that a sovereign, almighty God needs our approval or encouragement to do His will? This is not necessary, and may even be hindrance to effective prayer. God already knows His will.
This is a call to action, not passivity. We should be praying that His Will be true in all the earth.
Before we pray for ourselves, lift up the needs of others. Pray “God, let Your Will come in my neighbor’s life” before we ask that it come in our own.
Again, this calls us to ask for specifics. What specific circumstances in the world need to change? Where is the world tour of God’s will? Where does it need to be more like heaven?
Think about the Christians who behind the Iron Curtain. They prayed for the Berlin Wall to come down. Then one day it did. Think about the Christians during World War II. They prayed that Hitler would be defeated, and one day he was. Think about the many slaves who prayed for their freedom and then were free. They were praying for the Will of God to come. Prayer was an effective a weapon as tanks, planes, or the atomic bomb.
When you pray for the will of God, pray for specifics. Where in your community, in your world, in your neighborhood does the will of God need to be realized? When we ask specifically we get specific answers.
“Give us this day, our daily bread.”
Pray for our own needs—after we have prayed for others. When we do, we should boldly state them.
“Daily” is a key word. Most of us desire a safe, regular, and predictable life. But a safe, predictable life does not force us to pray. God wants us to seek safety in Him, not in careful planning or worldly security. He is our refuge for the future. Anything else that appears to guarantee us safety forever eventually becomes an idol.
There are three reasons for this. First, because He loves us and wants us to be happy. Second, because he wants us to be effective in our service of Him. Third, because it builds our faith.
Faith is like exercise. The more you stretch, the stronger you become. Start of by asking for little things. Then you can believe for big things.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Near the end, the Lord’s Prayer includes a petition of confession and forgiveness. Notice that this confession comes after our daily bread. God’s provision for us is not based on our confession or our forgiveness, but upon His love for us, which has no conditions. He gives to us because He wants to give.
Because of His love to us, we owe a debt to him. This is not a legal obligation, but an obligation of love. When we fail God, we need to ask his forgiveness. First, we acknowledge that we have sinned. Then we acknowledge that we have been saved. It is a process that Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ called “spiritual breathing.” We exhale our sins and inhale forgiveness.
Then Jesus connects our forgiveness with the forgiveness of others. God is very serious about us forgiving those who have wronged us, just as He is serious about forgiving us. Our unforgiveness of others is the single greatest sin we commit that comes between us and Him.
Again bring this down to specifics. Who has wronged you that you have not forgiven? What specific thing sod you need forgiveness for? It is up to God to show us what forgiveness really means.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from The Evil One.” Temptation is inevitable, but yielding is not. We can resist. There is an Evil One. We pray not only for deliverance from temptation but also for deliverance from the Devil.
Anyone who thinks he can defeat Satan by his own power is a fool. Any one of us can defeat Satan, and resist temptation, but only by relying on the power of God.
There is one more portion of the Lord’s Prayer, as we are used to say it. “For Thine are the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” There is a textual problem in this passage. Some ancient manuscripts include it that others do not. It is possible that these words may have been authentically Jesus’ words, and it was only recorded in some manuscripts. It is also possible that it was a translator’s note that got included later by copying. Whether or not it is authentic, it is true. It is His Kingdom, His Power, and His Glory. He is glorified by giving us what w asks and we ask to glorify Him. Anyone who asks Him will not be ashamed. God will give us what we ask, when we take the time to ask.
The meaning of the word "pray" means “to ask.” This aspect of prayer is also called petition.
Jesus said this.
Matt 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 for everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 18:6-8 and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
John 14:13-14 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus wants us to ask, so he can give. Yet we act as if it is an imposition!
re are dangers in petition, of course. Here are a few examples of prayer that God will not answer.
“God, I want to die!”
“God, punish him!”
“God, help me win this game!”
“God, let me win the lottery!”
“God, let me live forever!”
“God, take away this test!”
I confess that there is much about prier I do not understand. But one thing I do not, God desires us to be utterly dependent upon Him in all things. He wants us to uphold us, because He loves us. There is no good logical reason for this. It is an emotional desire of God to be loved. Just as worldly parents desire to care for their children, so our heavenly father desires to take care of His.
But how do we petition God? What do we ask for? How do we know what He wants us to ask? God has given us a pattern for effective petition in the Lord’s Prayer.
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to prayer. Other rabbis often gave his disciples prayers to pray. But there is nothing in the passage to suggest that Jesus was giving them the Lord’s Prayer simply to repeat. This was a pattern prayer—an example that still applies today.
The Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6: 9-13.
The Lord’s Prayer is not some kind of mantra to be repeated by rote. It is a pattern for our prayer life, and a revealer of God’s desire. It shows us both in what order we should pray for things, and how we should pray or hem. It is a brilliant piece of work.
Let’s see it piece by piece.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed is Thy Name.”
The first lesson we learn from the Lord’s Prayer is that God cares more about the “who” in our relationship than the “what.” God doesn’t care what your prayers sound like, or if you get the words right. All he cares about is that first and foremost we acknowledge Him to be our holy Lord as well as our divine Father. Our relationship matters to Him.
In New York they have automats. It is a mechanical restaurant, without waitresses or cooks. Everything is prepackaged. You just stick your coins in the appropriate slots and out comes fruit, apple pies, sandwiches, and soups, whatever. You never have to talk to a real person at all.
This might be an efficient way of distributing food, but it is not very appealing. People like to receive their meals from people, not from slots. We like to have waitresses take our order. We enjoy the touch of a human hand. It’s nice to know the person giving us the food.
God is not an automat. Our spiritual nourishment comes from a relationship with Him. Prayer begins with an acknowledgement of that relationship. If we cannot say that God is our Father and our Lord, then don’t ask for anything until we get our relationship straight. He is our Father, and He is holy. This is praise—the acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done for us.
“Our Father” he says--not just “My Father“ but ours. There is a second relationship at play here. We are not just related to God, but to all who stand praying beside us. Our prayers are not just something we do as individuals, but we also are part of a praying and loving group of people. We are first part of an “our” and secondarily a “my.” God wants us to pray for our group needs first before e pray for our personal ones.
“Thy Kingdom Come.” This is a call to join in God’s battle against global darkness. Darkness. Before we pray for anything else, remember that the needs of the world are greater than our own little circle. It is a desire to see God’s kingdom grow.
Imagine we were praying for our country. “Lord, let America grow.” What would that prayer imply? It would imply that America was to perfect, that it was not yet big enough. We would be saying that we want America to encompass more land and more people. We would be praying that the government we enjoy would be expanded to include others.
That’s the problem with most of our prayers. We really don’t want God’s kingdom to grow. Can we truthfully say we want the people around us in the church? Do we want all races, all classes to be represented in the church? Or would we rather see only our faithful few people our own race, our own culture, our own music.
Culture is defined by the externals—language, clothing, music, customs. When we want the church to look like it always did and sound like it always did, and when we resent others who might make it different, then we are saying essentially that we are only interested in the Kingdom of God coming to those who are already much like ourselves. We would rather see the kingdom isolated. Therefore, we cannot pray with all sincerity “Thy kingdom come.” We only want the kingdom to come to our own little place and group.
When we pray “Thy Kingdom come,” We need to get down to specifics. What part of the world do you want Jesus to come to? Where are the greatest needs? Who needs to be overcome by the Kingdom of God? When do you want to see it? How can we best help in the bringing in of the Kingdom? These specifics make it more real to us.
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Do we pray for social improvement? Are there places in our world that do not conform to God’s will?
Often this petition is misunderstood. It is prayed as a kind of fatalistic acquiescence to the will of God, a kind of excuse for our prayers not being answered. If all “thy will be done” meant was, “God do whatever you wish,” then why pray it at all. Do you think that a sovereign, almighty God needs our approval or encouragement to do His will? This is not necessary, and may even be hindrance to effective prayer. God already knows His will.
This is a call to action, not passivity. We should be praying that His Will be true in all the earth.
Before we pray for ourselves, lift up the needs of others. Pray “God, let Your Will come in my neighbor’s life” before we ask that it come in our own.
Again, this calls us to ask for specifics. What specific circumstances in the world need to change? Where is the world tour of God’s will? Where does it need to be more like heaven?
Think about the Christians who behind the Iron Curtain. They prayed for the Berlin Wall to come down. Then one day it did. Think about the Christians during World War II. They prayed that Hitler would be defeated, and one day he was. Think about the many slaves who prayed for their freedom and then were free. They were praying for the Will of God to come. Prayer was an effective a weapon as tanks, planes, or the atomic bomb.
When you pray for the will of God, pray for specifics. Where in your community, in your world, in your neighborhood does the will of God need to be realized? When we ask specifically we get specific answers.
“Give us this day, our daily bread.”
Pray for our own needs—after we have prayed for others. When we do, we should boldly state them.
“Daily” is a key word. Most of us desire a safe, regular, and predictable life. But a safe, predictable life does not force us to pray. God wants us to seek safety in Him, not in careful planning or worldly security. He is our refuge for the future. Anything else that appears to guarantee us safety forever eventually becomes an idol.
There are three reasons for this. First, because He loves us and wants us to be happy. Second, because he wants us to be effective in our service of Him. Third, because it builds our faith.
Faith is like exercise. The more you stretch, the stronger you become. Start of by asking for little things. Then you can believe for big things.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Near the end, the Lord’s Prayer includes a petition of confession and forgiveness. Notice that this confession comes after our daily bread. God’s provision for us is not based on our confession or our forgiveness, but upon His love for us, which has no conditions. He gives to us because He wants to give.
Because of His love to us, we owe a debt to him. This is not a legal obligation, but an obligation of love. When we fail God, we need to ask his forgiveness. First, we acknowledge that we have sinned. Then we acknowledge that we have been saved. It is a process that Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ called “spiritual breathing.” We exhale our sins and inhale forgiveness.
Then Jesus connects our forgiveness with the forgiveness of others. God is very serious about us forgiving those who have wronged us, just as He is serious about forgiving us. Our unforgiveness of others is the single greatest sin we commit that comes between us and Him.
Again bring this down to specifics. Who has wronged you that you have not forgiven? What specific thing sod you need forgiveness for? It is up to God to show us what forgiveness really means.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from The Evil One.” Temptation is inevitable, but yielding is not. We can resist. There is an Evil One. We pray not only for deliverance from temptation but also for deliverance from the Devil.
Anyone who thinks he can defeat Satan by his own power is a fool. Any one of us can defeat Satan, and resist temptation, but only by relying on the power of God.
There is one more portion of the Lord’s Prayer, as we are used to say it. “For Thine are the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” There is a textual problem in this passage. Some ancient manuscripts include it that others do not. It is possible that these words may have been authentically Jesus’ words, and it was only recorded in some manuscripts. It is also possible that it was a translator’s note that got included later by copying. Whether or not it is authentic, it is true. It is His Kingdom, His Power, and His Glory. He is glorified by giving us what w asks and we ask to glorify Him. Anyone who asks Him will not be ashamed. God will give us what we ask, when we take the time to ask.
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