Long Time Gone

Well, it has been a long time since I have blogged. Recently, I decided it was time to start writing again. Problem was that I forgot my password. It had been so long since I had written in my blog that I could not remember how to sign it to my account. Further, as I went through multiple attempts to get back in, it seemed as though my blog account was locked out because of inactivity. I tried to start another blog...I couldn't get that account verified.

There are times when I feel like what I experienced is the story of my life. I start something...the newness wears off, and I forget about it for a while. Later on, the interest returns, and what had been relatively simple, at one point in the past, becomes infinitely more complicated. What had been almost second nature, is weird and uncomfortable again.

It is quite interesting to me that good habits are so hard to create and bad ones are so very easy to put into practice. I guess that is why discipline is so very hard. Doing the right things over, and over, and over again is a monotonous rhythm. Many times there is little reward, or verification that we are doing the right things. Yet, we know in our soul that the discipline we are exercising is for our own good. Eating right, exercising, practices of spiritual formation: prayer, reading, study, meditation, solitude and others, all take a dogged determination to become routine. We know that when we practice these things, everything else in life is better. Yet somehow, we just neglect the truly important things in our lives...

So, time has come to begin to reorganize and re prioritize...

 

Be Still...

I hated those words as a child. I would much rather be outside doing something. It didn't matter what, as long as I could be active. I could play baseball or cowboys. A football game always perked me up. Hunting was my number one choice. Riding my bike got the juices flowing. I loved to be outside, doing anything. I loved to do. I hated to be still.

It seemed to me that being still was such a waste of time. I mean, really, you could do anything. Why should I just sit and waste time?

I admit that texts like, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 37.7) perplexed me and caused me great consternation. There are so many things to see and try to understand when you sit still. I found great difficulty sitting still.

As I have reflected upon the state of my church and the state of Christianity recently, I have come to understand more fully that too few people know how to sit still in the presence of God. We are so busy “doing” churchy things and involving ourselves in everything that we just cannot “be” like Jesus. People are so busy with all of the things that need to be done that they spend all of their time doing and far too little time being.

We wonder why our churches do not look like communities of faith and love. The answer is that we are so busy doing, that we cannot be Jesus. The result is that our relationships are shallow and do little to transform us. Our worship is done to our glory and to make us feel good rather than to encounter God in a transforming and renewing meeting. We do not because we are not.

Our inability to wait before God to allow his still small voice to transform us has robbed us of his character. Our unwillingness to disengage from the frenetic pace of our world to “waste time” before and with God has weakened us to the point where we cannot hear his voice.

I have been reminded by his Holy Spirit of the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was so caught up in making the perfect visit that she missed the quiet time with Jesus that he craved. She wore herself out doing that she could not be with Jesus. Far too many times I identify with Martha.

Forgive me Lord. Help me to seek out those quiet times when I can see you at work and can witness to what you are up to.

 

Halfway Best

No big scripture reference today...

Just pure pondering... You know those random thoughts that roll through my head that cause me to pause and say, "Hmmmm."

I have been thinking a great deal about the faith we live and the way that we seek renewal. It seems to me that many churches and church people SAY that they want to see renewal come. They think that they want their church to be everything that God wants it to be. We often say that we really want to see God's Holy Spirit move in the church as he did in the olden days.

Honestly, I wonder.

The prescription for renewal has not changed. The effort needed to see the power of the presence of God has not diminished. The simple things we must do to receive the fullness of God in us has not changed. We must give God our BEST.

Oftentimes, I see people (people who should know better) offering to God less than their best. They offer him their halfway best. Rather than fast and pray, they only pray. Rather than gather in corporate worship and prayer, they are content to worship at home. Instead of going all out in their personal pursuit of God, we only pursue him halfway. We offer him our halfway best.

We long to hear the voice of God, yet we don't take the time to listen to him. We hunger to see his Holy Spirit move in worship, yet we do not come nor do we prepare to hear his voice. We say we want to see the church make a difference in the world yet we do not involve ourselves in his mission. We offer God our halfway best.

I am reminded of the NFL's ProBowl game a couple of years ago. In that game, the stars of the NFL only gave about half an effort. It was painfully obvious, as I watched that telecast, that they weren't really trying. They were only trying about halfway. I got disgusted and turned off the television. For the next week, sports-talk radio lambasted the players. Fans called and were furious that their favorite players tanked in that game. They did not accept the football players halfway best.

How much less pleased is God of our halfway best?

Just my pondering today...

I am so sick of manna!

The riffraff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.”

Numbers 11.4-6 The Message

 

 

The history of the Children of Israel is so very interesting. Few people get to see the hand of God manifested in such amazing ways. Really, they were delivered from slavery by God raising up an unconventional leader. That leader was the voice of God who rained down plagues that revealed the impotence of the Egyptian gods. The people were brought across the Red Sea on dry land. God gave his people water from rocks and manna in the morning to nourish them and provide strength for their journey. By all accounts, manna was wonderful to eat, a delicacy unlike any other.

 

Yet, in Numbers chapter 11, we find the people complaining about manna and not having any variety in their diets. In fact, they were so sick of manna that they remembered the wonderful and varied diet of Egypt. They seemed to be willing to trade their freedom (and the care of a loving God) for the fish sautéed in onions, garlic, and leeks! (Talk about bad breath!) The Israelites complained that God provided for their needs, and didn't give them the luxuries that they craved.

 

Simply put, they complained because enough wasn't enough.

 

How similar we are to the Israelites. God provides for our needs (he promises to do that!) and we complain that we just simply don't have enough! Because our every want and desire isn't met, we complain. We moan. We long for the days of more. Complain, complain, complain...

 

Our complaining flies in the face of the amazing generosity with which God grants us his grace. He loved us so much that he traded the glory of heaven, for the pain and suffering of the cross. All of this pain was to enable us to return to him. His act of love on our behalf frees us from death and slavery to sin and gives us life eternal. What amazing provision he has made for us.

 

Yet we long for fish poached in onions, garlics, and leeks...

 

--Just my ponderings... 



Piles of Stones

Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’”



-Joshua 4.5-7 The Message

To the untrained eye, it is just an ordinary pile of stones, lying beside the riverbank. Perhaps a flood deposited the stones there; or perhaps a child playing beside the water. However, the stones are far from meaningless or mute. For those who were in the know, this simple pile of stones served to testify to the great power of the Holy God who acts. For those who knew, this simple pile of stones served to testify to the work of God, who delivered his people. They were stones of hope.

We have a powerful need for altars, piles of stones, in our lives and in the world today. These simple piles of stone are the memories of God at work that serve to show us where God is moving in our day and where He is leading us into our future. Memorials are no mere sentimentalism, they are the living reminders that God is at work in our midst.

The amazing this about the day in which we live, is that WE ARE HIS ALTARS. We don't go around piling up stones where something significant happened in our life, WE testify to the activity and purpose of God in our lives. We become altars that should cause people to ask "What are these stones?" Our lives become the testament to God at work delivering his people, revealing his love, and working in the world. God has designed that we become living altars that point people to his love, his grace and his care.

I am praying today that you live out the love and grace of Jesus Christ in such away that people ask "What is it about you anyway?" Then you can be the living memorial of Christ in His world.

 

--Just my pondering...

 

 

Wheat and Weeds

 

 

God has been speaking into my heart lately about a parable that Jesus taught. The parable is found in Matthew chapter 13. If you turn there you will find a very well-known parable, the Parable of the Seed. This is not the parable that God has been speaking to me about. He has been speaking to me about the lesser known parable that follows, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.

In a nutshell, a farmer planted a field with good wheat seeds; that is seed that had no week seeds in it. Yet, during the night an enemy stole in and planted weed seeds throughout the good crop of wheat. The results are obvious, weeds grew up in the wheat. The temptation for the farmer’s workers was to go and root out the weeds. The farmer, in his wisdom, asked his workers to let the wheat and the weeds grow together so that the wheat would not be damaged by the zealous weeding of the field. Anyone who has ever grown a garden knows how easy it is to damage the crop by ripping up the weeds.

It occurs to me that Jesus is talking about the situation in which we who belong to the church find ourselves. If the church is being the church, we will find that the gospel will produce fruit. Yet, at the same time, we will see those in the church who do not exhibit the fruit of the kingdom in their life. In other words, we find weeds in the church.

Throughout my life time, I have witnessed those who have done their best to tear out the weeds in the church. They do everything in their power to judge their lives, set them on the straight-and-narrow, and protect the body. In their honest attempts to clear the field the poke eyes and tear up the field.

The words of our Savior remind us that it is not our position to “weed the garden,” it is his job. Our job is to fling the seed, the good seed of the gospel and let him worry about the weeds. The kingdom would be better off if we would…

—Just my musings

Bringing Our Pain to God: Michael Card and Calvin Seerveld on biblical lament in worship

Bringing Our Pain to God: Michael Card and Calvin Seerveld on biblical lament in worship