| Most Recent Back Issues | 6/27/99 | 6/20/99 | 6/13/99 | 6/6/99 | 5/30/99 | 5/23/99 | 5/16/99 | 5/9/99 | 5/2/99 | 4/25/99 | 4/18/99 | 4/11/99 | 4/4/99 | Jan/Feb/Mar '99 Issues | Dec/Nov'98 Issues | Oct/Sept/Aug '98 Issues | May/June/July '98 Issues | March/April '98 Issues | Jan/Feb '98 Issues | Nov/Dec '97 Issues | Sept/Oct '97 Issues | July/Aug '97 Issues | May/June '97 Issues | March/April '97 Issues | Jan/Feb '97 Issues | Dec '96 Issues | Nov/Oct '96 Issues | Sept/Aug '96 Issues | July/June '96 Issues | This Week's Issue |
(Micah 7:8)
If you just became a Christian five minutes ago I'm going to reveal something to you that you may not know. This is classified information rarely given out at altar calls, printed on the back of tracts, or prominent in the amazing conversion testimonies that instill in us a desire to be born again. Ready? Here it is: You are not perfect.
Far to many of us just don't realize that becoming a Christian does not mean we have attained perfection. We are still going to blow it from time to time, hopefully less than we used to (and with less enjoyment), but we're still going to mess up. It's how we deal with these (expected) human failures that will determine whether we stay in this new faith and grow or whether we just give up and go back to our previous life.
It's important to understand that the New Birth is indeed an instantaneous miracle free for the asking. It can't be worked for. It's a gift. Living as a Christian, however, is a different thing altogether. We will still be vulnerable to temptation, doubt, jealousy, fear, anxiety and every other weapon the enemy has at his disposal. Sometimes he'll get a shot in and we'll fall. Are we no longer saved? Do we start over? Do we give up?
Recently I bought another CD from my favorite Christian vocalist, Bob Carlisle, entitled Stories from the Heart, and the first track is the song We Fall Down (written by Kyle Matthews). This is what it says:
Cursing every step of the way, he bore a heavy load to the market ten miles away, the journey took its toll. And every day he passed a monastery's high cathedral walls and it made his life seem meaningless and small. And he wondered how it would be to live in such a place, to be warm, well fed and at peace; to shut the world away. So when he saw a priest who walked, for once, beyond the iron gate, he said, "Tell me of your life inside that place..." And the priest replied, "We fall down, we get up. We fall down, we get up. We fall down, we get up. And the saints are just the sinners who fall down and get up." Disappointment followed him home. He'd hoped for so much more. But he saw himself in a light he had never seen before, cause if the priest who fell could find the grace of God to be enough then there must be hope for the rest of us. There must be some hope left for us who fall down and get up.
Our greatest proof of Christ in us is not our born again vocabulary, changed lifestyle, church membership, new friends or knowledge of the Word. It's not the things we don't do. It's our ability to scramble back on to our feet and keep going. Again and again. When others would just quit and stay down, we get up. We fall down, we get up.
Some people call this life The Christian Walk. I've always felt that term was a bit misleading. It sounds too easy, like we're just out for a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. If you ask me it's more like walking through Central Park about 3:00 Am carrying a sign that reads MUG ME. Our enemy is always looking for any opportunity to ambush us. Sometimes he will succeed. But the thing that frustrates him, the thing he can't do anything about, is that we have the power to get back up, dust ourselves off, and keep going. Once, twice, a thousand times. This scares him. It reminds him of Jesus. He couldn't keep Him down either.
(Exodus 4:13)
This issue of Rise & Shine marks the 3rd anniversary of this web ministry. That may not be a large deal to you but to me it's fairly astounding, considering I never really planned (or wanted) to do this. I am not a minister. I have no church, no congregation and draw no salary. I have no degree in theology, no credentials. I'm just some anonymous guy in cyberspace. There is no reason anyone should read this or believe a word I say. Who am I to have an opinion worth considering, to give guidance, to interpret scripture or suggest to anyone a course of action? I'm less than nobody.
Still, I do this every week. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 of these spontaneous little sermonettes to date (I have no math skills, either). And though there have been many times when I've wanted to quit, I am always compelled to write just one more. For all my arguments against it, I can say it no better than this is something I am supposed to do, qualified or not.
In today's verse we see a man having a similar conflict with self-doubt, though on an infinitely grander scale. He is in the process of steadily losing a debate he never had a chance of winning in the first place. His name is Moses and his worthy opponent is the William F. Buckley of all time, God.
We have to remember that Moses didn't start out as Charlton Heston. At the time of this cosmic debate he was a fugitive on Pharaoh's Ten Most Wanted List, living in obscurity and seclusion, raising sheep in Midian. He had a wife named Zipporah (probably called her Zippy) and a son named Gershom, which translates as Stranger in a Strange Land. He was content and obviously disinterested in waltzing back into Egypt to face a murder rap. But God, as usual, had other plans.
One day when out doing shepherd stuff, Moses sees a bush on fire. He stops. Huh. The bush is on fire, but not being consumed by the flames. It is here we see a glimpse of Moses' famous quick wit as he says, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn", to nobody in particular. Little did he know that his idle curiosity about a flaming shrub would catapult him into the pages of history.
Of course the Fire is really the Lord and He reveals to Moses His plan for freeing the Israelites from the oppression and bondage of the Egyptians. Moses will go tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses, hoping there's a Plan B, counters, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Besides things are pretty good in Midian with Zippy.
The Lord assures Moses that it's really a good plan, that He will be with him and he can even tell the people so. "Just say I AM sent me." The Lord concludes this point with the promise of much wealth, courtesy of the Egyptians. Still Moses stands his ground, raising another but, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'"
No problem. God shows Moses three impressive miracles to perform to convince the Israelites he's their deliverer: rod into snake, instant leprosy/instant healing, and water into blood. Still Moses manages to come up with another excuse, albeit desperate: He's known far and wide as a lousy after-dinner speaker. Moses stutters, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." The Lord is starting to get a bit impatient now and says that He made Moses' mouth and He can make whatever He wants come out of it.
Moses is really desperate now. All pretense of argument is gone. He just wants to be excused from duty, saying, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." In other words, "Anyone but me." God is getting angry at this beating around the bush, but finally allows Moses to take his brother Aaron with him as spokesman. The debate is over. God 1, Moses 0.
Often we will find ourselves in much the same situation Moses encountered. God will draft us to do something we neither want to do or feel qualified to undertake. We may as well make it as painless as possible and just give in. All the buts and what-ifs we raise aren't going to change a thing. God will have His way. God always knew that Moses was the right man for the job, even when Moses didn't. Turns out He was right. But then, doesn't it always?
OR: Never raise yours to the Lord.
(Matthew 18:4)
The disciples had a tendency to be a bit too preoccupied with their places in Jesus' kingdom. One gets the impression there was, in their short time with Him, a constant jockeying for position in a future revolution and reign they completely misunderstood.
In today's verse we see this surfacing again. The disciples approach the Lord asking the question, "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Whether they were genuinely seeking knowledge or merely pursuing selfish interests, the answer was likely a disappointment to them as Jesus called a small child over and placed him in the middle of the group, saying, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:1-4).
Who knows if they understood this? Their response is not recorded.
More important for us, however, is whether we understand this example. Like many truths Jesus taught, we have become so accustomed to hearing them that we don't really pay much attention. Yet it must be an important concept because Jesus reiterates it in the next chapter with, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). What did Jesus see in the children that was lacking in the adults? What qualities do we need to recapture, to rediscover, to be part of this kingdom? What do kids have that we don't?
Children haven't changed. The children Jesus used as His examples were not unusual. They played, cried, fought with their brothers and sisters and acted up at the marketplace. They delighted their parents and drove them crazy at the same time. They refused to eat their couscous. They got spanked. They got rewarded. They jumped in mud puddles and climbed trees in their good robes. But then as now they had a simple quality that age gradually erodes: the ability to believe anything, even the impossible.
Children can be incredibly selfish. They can be monstrously disobedient. But they have an incredible power to believe. Unconditionally. They can trust absolutely, blindly. They don't analyze. They operate on pure faith.
That, I think, is what Jesus is getting at when He talks about humbling oneself as a child. Not groveling, not being the toilet cleaner at the local church, but consciously abandoning our learned reality for God's, being childlike enough to say, "If God said it, it must be true. I can trust Him." This is pure faith. A child's faith.
This faith brings with it a reliance and a dependence, and this also is part of the humility Christ describes. Children are totally dependent on their parents. God wants us totally dependent on Him, to rely on His care, believing He knows best and will do so. That is being truly humble, subjecting our will to His. It's not a showy humility, not a works thing for others to marvel at. But for us adults this does not come naturally. As you probably know from experience, by the time most of us are young teens we've pretty much figured out that our parents, previously the smartest people on earth, are pitiable idiots, lucky to still be functioning in a world they made but are now unable to comprehend. We do the same with God. We figure He couldn't possibly understand us or have the slightest clue as to what we're going through. We start to question His authority, even His truthfulness. And just like that, we're children no longer.
Jesus wants to change that, to restore our ability to believe. Obviously the goal is not to behave like children. Growth is good. Learning, exploring and questioning is necessary. Age is friendly (and inevitable) and should bring wisdom and knowledge. But somehow we need to recapture that childlike power to believe impossible things. A sense of wonder wouldn't hurt either. Worked for George Lucas.
(Matthew 13:57)
Here we have another famous line from the Gospel of Matthew that has found its way into common and secular speech. We have come to see Jesus' slightly exasperated explanation of His friends' and neighbors' rejection of His ministry as the Biblical equivalent of "Familiarity breeds contempt". This is fair enough, but on reading this verse again today I saw something that I had never really noticed before. That is, these people, more than anyone, should not only have accepted His ministry, they should have been anticipating it and eagerly waiting for it to begin.
For some reason, we have this idea that Jesus' ministry was a sudden phenomenon. One day He was quietly making tables and chairs and the next day He emerged from the sawdust and declared Himself to be the Son of God. Of course His friends and neighbors would reject Him. He was just the carpenter's son, no different from any other working class kid on the block. They had seen Him grow up. They knew Him. How could He be the Messiah, the Savior of Israel and the world? We see the Nazarenes plead this ignorance in the lines leading up to today's verse.
This would make pretty good sense if it were true. But it isn't.
A quick trip back to the opening pages of Matthew's gospel demonstrates that Jesus' ministry did not begin in a vacuum. He did not just appear without warning, a common man suddenly becoming uncommon. There were clear signs. I'm not referring to Old Testament prophecy, with which these ordinary Nazarenes may have been unfamiliar, but with events that spoke undeniably to the true identity of Jesus.
We see in the very first chapter that Joseph knows who this Child is, and who He will grow up to be. From Luke's gospel we are also convinced that both Mary and Elizabeth (the mother of John the Baptist) know that Jesus is God's Son. I would think this knowledge would certainly color the parents' attitude and behavior, something that must have been apparent to those who knew them.
In chapter 2, something happens that would be even more difficult to ignore. It must have caused a stir in the sleepy village that night. Three wise men, (rich) gentiles for that matter, show up out of the blue with expensive gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This would have been about like having Ed McMahon show up at your house with one of those gigantic checks. The neighbors must have assumed something was up, even if they hadn't noticed the huge, bright star shining directly down on the house. And when the Magi fell prostrate at the feet of the Child Jesus and began to worship Him it must have occurred to them that this was not just your average kid.
If this weren't enough to convince those in Bethlehem that they had a special resident, Herod's slaughter of their male children, following right on the heels of the wise men's' visit, and the conspicuous absence of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, should have got them thinking.
There are many other events that would be impossible for those around Jesus to ignore and even more difficult to forget. There is the story of Zacharias, struck deaf and dumb by unbelief and finally making a dramatic (and very public) prophecy on the moment of his healing. There is the revelation to the shepherds, which I doubt they kept secret. There are the confirmations of Simeon and the prophetess Anna as to the divinity of Jesus and His mission, also delivered publicly. Even the teachers in the temple, struck by the understanding and wisdom of the twelve year old carpenter's son must have realized this was someone very special (Luke1:59-80, 2:8-20, 2:25-38, 2:41-50). Did everyone simply forget that all this had happened?
I find it hard to believe that the people who surrounded Jesus throughout His early life, who knew Him and saw the incredible things that happened to Him and because of Him, weren't literally watching Him every day to see what would happen next. He was certainly what we would call "gifted" today. They even saw John, whom they respected, baptize Him and the spectacular result of that act. And when He came back to His own hometown, after, according to Matthew, already healing multitudes, delivering the Beatitudes, healing lepers, the centurion's servant, Peter's mom, calming storms and walking on water, sending demons into herds of pigs, restoring sight to the blind and teaching like no one had ever taught before, I would think they would have (at least) been lining up to shake His hand. But they weren't. Matthew says, Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. After all they had seen? After they had been prepared for this for years? How could people with such intimate knowledge of Christ ever doubt Him? What more proof did they need? How could they fail to believe in Him, to expect great things of Him? The same way we do.
(Exodus 20:7)
When we look at this commandment warning us against taking the Lord's name in vain, we usually think of it as a ban on cursing. Today we're going to get out of that box. It is that, of course, but it is also much more. The Lord and His name are inseparable. His name is who He is; it defines and, to even a certain degree, contains His character, His will and His power. It is foolish to swear by it. It is dangerous to invoke it casually or for the wrong reason. Its use is for believers only. The following is a good example:
Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded (Acts 19:11-16).
You get the picture. Paul had caused a tremendous stir with his appropriate (and authorized) use of the Lord's name. It had become so powerful in Ephesus that to the still uninformed this name appeared to be some new magic, a previously unknown and powerful incantation. These traveling exorcists probably decided they could make some big bucks with this name, figuring it wasn't copyrighted, but found out very quickly that they were dealing with something way too big for them. We see that they fled, wounded and humiliated. Scripture doesn't reveal their end or if they ever stopped running. But it does reveal a very remarkable conclusion to this drama:
This became known to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed (Acts 19:17-20).
Again God does something only He can do: He turns the situation upside down. Even though the misuse of the Lord's name backfires spectacularly on the travelling exorcists, He allows their complete failure to have a life-changing effect on the people of Ephesus. Sure they had seen Paul heal the sick and cast out demons. They were impressed. Some were converted. But when they saw the power of this name revealed in such a negative way they were scared spitless. They realized that this wasn't just any name. This was the name. Their magic, for which Ephesus was world famous, was anemic and pathetic compared to the power of God. The bonfire of occult books the Ephesians ignited that day showed just how serious they were. This was not token symbolism. My Bible informs me that each of those fifty thousand pieces of silver was the equivalent of a day's wages. This was an expensive act of repentance and faith.
It's dangerous to misuse the name of the Lord because it's not just a name. It's alive. As believer's, we need not fear to use it, but we should always remember how we acquired the right to do so. It was a gift. And should we misuse it, use it for selfish reasons or to manipulate others, we might find ourselves being nothing more than another great example of what God can do. Without us.
(I Timothy 6:12)
Far too often we think of faith as what we believe instead of what we do. We hear the word faith used interchangeably with the word religion, as in "I was raised in the Catholic faith" or "What faith are you?" Originally this may have made some sense, as we expected people to actually live what they claimed to believe. But now it means almost nothing at all, with the possible exception of a general acquiescence to an idea, doctrine or religious system. Faith is more than that. Faith is an action, an aggressive action, as today's verse clearly demonstrates. More than that, it's a struggle. There is nothing remotely passive about it.
Using another of his great ESPN analogies, Paul compares the person of faith to a fighter, a wrestler, grappling with a tough opponent, the goal being to lay hold on eternal life. This is what Paul says. What is more interesting is what is merely implied.
Paul loved sports (it's a guy thing). Timothy did too (he was the guy who held up the John 3:16 banner at the stadium at Ephesus). That's why Paul used this analogy to inspire his young friend. They both knew that fighters train. Hard. They work out. They stay in shape for competition. They don't just show up in the ring and hope for the best. They'd get slaughtered.
Building one's faith requires the same disciplined effort. Like muscle, it gets stronger with regular workouts. But there's more to using one's faith successfully than just pumping it up. There is technique and strategy. There is endurance and flexibility. There is knowledge and confidence. The well-trained fighter has these attributes.
Another thing to bear in mind is that being a good fighter is not a matter of physical stature. If one has trained well and has the confidence that training creates, a larger opponent is not a problem. Example: My wife Chee is by no means a large lady. She claims to be five feet but she's actually a shade under that (she's not lying, just rounding off to the nearest number). She dresses like a real girl and looks nowhere near her actual age (forget it, I'm not telling). Like the prototypical Proverbs 31 woman, she runs her own company, one which deals with all aspects of those infernal spawn of the devil, computers. Her mild-mannered patience, calmness and friendliness, as well as her expertise, are what her clients constantly remark about. It never occurs to them she could take their heads off. But as a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and American Karate she can do just that. She's had years of training. For her, a bigger opponent is just a larger target. To keep that perspective, she trains daily with men who outweigh her by a well over a hundred pounds. She's ready. She's not afraid of anyone.
Our faith needs to be ready, too, so we can fight the good fight, and not get our butts handed to us on a plate. Face it, you're not going to need it for opponents smaller and weaker than you. You have to learn to take a punch as well as throw one, to get back up and keep fighting. You have the Training Manual. Read it. Apply what you learn. You have the best Trainer in the business. Listen to Him. You might find yourself going toe to toe with a Mike Tyson someday and you'll be ready for him. Sure, he'll land a few. It will hurt. Shake it off. He won't fight fair and Mills Lane won't be there to stop him. Keep your guard up. He'll get you in a clinch and gnaw your ear half off. It won't phase you. Jab. You know who's going down. He'll bite your ear again. And again. Punch. Your faith will just get stronger with each bite. After all, faith comes by earing.
(I John 5:12)
You know, every once in a while it's a good idea to strip away the symbolism, the metaphors and allegory, the candy-coating we Christian writers tend to wrap our words in, and speak plainly. It isn't always fun (or appreciated); it doesn't always feel good or make us all warm and fuzzy inside. But it is necessary. Actually, it's sorta like our job.
Today's verse is a great example of a usually gentle-handed writer putting on his spiritual brass knuckles. In the midst of John's comfy treatise on love and brotherhood, he steps back for just a moment and sucker punches us with an often avoided truth: Jesus Christ is not an option when it comes to eternal life.
This is, of course, wildly, radically, politically incorrect. It was then and it is now. But John, the Apostle of Love, isn't giving us a love-tap. Is he saying these things because he has a mean-streak? Because he's arrogant? Because he believes himself to be better than others? Because he hates people of different faiths? No. He's trying to save lives, here and in the hereafter.
It's for this reason that he speaks plainly, and to some I'm sure, offensively. Truth is sometimes like that. In fact I find that people, myself included somewhere at the top of the list, are rarely as offended by a lie as they are by the truth, as my little sermonette will undoubtedly prove.
So let's back up for a minute and allow The Beloved Disciple to body slam us: He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (I John 5:10-12). Ouch.
Could anything be clearer? Do we need some bearded, degreed panel of experts to explain the hidden meaning of all this? Is there another interpretation lurking here that would make Jesus Christ just a nice (but sadly deluded) guy, a good teacher, an equal to Buddha, Mohammed or even Moses, an optional choice like an entrée on a dinner menu? Is eternal life a human version of All Dogs Go to Heaven, Jesus being just one of hundreds of ways to get there? Could God really be that particular? Well, I don't have a son myself, but if I did and people treated him the way they did (and do) Jesus, I would be less than inclined to have them live with me forever.
And did you catch the part about the denial of Jesus' Sonship being a virtual slap in the face, not to Jesus, but to the Father, in effect calling Him a liar? Do we really believe the Almighty would have a problem with that? I'd rather not find out, but from John's tone He's not too thrilled about it. Fortunately, God is long on forgiveness and so desirous to offer it, if one simply apologizes, we need not ever find out. That's if one apologizes.
Still, John's blunt speech is not the product of vindictiveness, but love. God's love. Okay, it's tough love, but it has to be when dealing with family. As John himself explains: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (I John 5:13).
This is one thing we must be absolutely clear about. The name counts. It's the only One that does. We must be willing to speak this truth. Sure it will offend some people, even whole nations, to say that their trust is dangerously, even morbidly, misplaced, that they're headed for disaster of (literally) Biblical proportions. But look at it this way. If you saw someone barreling down the road, unaware that they were approaching a washed out bridge over Devil's Canyon, would you just stand there or would you jump up and down, wave your arms and do just about anything to stop them? Wouldn't you risk making a spectacle of yourself? Wouldn't you risk being splashed with mud from head to toe, completely ruining your clothes? Wouldn't you risk being run over yourself just to save them? Wouldn't you risk them misunderstanding and possibly stopping and shooting you for yelling at them? Right. Me neither.
(Psalm 46:10)
It's possible to know just enough Scripture to be confused. Or frightened. Or dangerous. And when certain verses are taken out of context they can be especially misunderstood. There is also the likelihood at this point that they will be misquoted, producing weird doctrine and disillusioned people. Example: Money is the root of all evil. Most of us that have more than a nodding acquaintance with the Word know that this is a misquote, the real verse reading, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (I Timothy 6:10). Big difference. Yet you will hear this misquote for the rest of your life, and not always from laypersons. It will be used to make the Christian feel guilty about God's generosity. Don't let it. Let it make you generous.
Today's verse is another good example of this kind of poor scholarship. How many times have you heard quoted, Be still and know that I am God, as if it were the Eleventh Commandment? Possibly you have heard this verse used as a call, or at least an excuse, for somber, silent worship services. I know I have. Yet nothing could be further from its true meaning.
The trick, of course, is to read the whole psalm, which is only eleven short verses, and then the intent becomes obvious. In Psalm 46, a song of thanks for God's salvation in the midst of conflict and violence, there are three actors: God, His people, and the warring nations. The first few verses express the peoples' faith in God as a refuge, a very present help in trouble, trouble being symbolized by stormy seas and violent earthquakes. Verse four continues with a description of the the life-sustaining river that waters His people as the nations rage outside the sanctuary.
There is an abrupt change at this point. Our focus is now on the warring nations. We are invited to Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. My Bible defines this word desolations as astonishingly terrific events, such as follows in the next verse, He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.
It is at this point God speaks, and He is addressing the very warring nations that He has just immobilized, Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Translation: Stop it, you guys! This is God talking! I'm going to win and you don't have a snowball's chance! Not even a word of this is about being quiet in church.
Still don't believe me? Read the very next Psalm, number 47. It begins, Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to the Lord with the voice of triumph! Hmm. Sounds kind of noisy, but this is a God-approved method of worship. In fact, nowhere in the entire Bible will you find an admonishment to bow our heads for a moment of silence. God likes to hear our praise.
Who's to blame for this? Well, for years we could actually blame the church. For centuries Scripture was the sole property of priests who read it only in Latin. The average guy knew zip. He didn't have his own Bible. He believed what he was told. But times have changed. Almost every home in this country has a Bible in it somewhere collecting dust and holding old photos. So the blame must rest on us. We're responsible for what we know.
Think of it this way. Would you sign even an ordinary, everyday contract without reading it first? Would you trust the salesman and just put your name on it? Hopefully not. We've all heard enough horror stories to know better. Well this Bible is a contract between you and God. It lists all the terms of the agreement as well as all the benefits and penalties. You need to read it. Don't trust anyone to tell you what it says. You will be held responsible for what you know and don't know. There will be a quiz.
(Psalm 94:19)
Last week I had an appointment to deal with a situation that had been causing me some major anxiety. Even though I tried to put my worries aside and go about my business full of confidence that everything would work out, I still had this intermittent sense of dread that things might not turn out as I hoped. When the morning of my appointment finally came, I was terribly nervous, but I went ahead with my routine as always. As I was taking my morning run the doubts were playing over and over in my mind like an old record with the needle stuck in a scratch. Suddenly I stopped on the shoulder of the road and said, "Wait a minute. I have already prayed about this and I'm not going to think about it anymore." I began to recall every verse about anxiety and worry and casting our cares on God. I put my headphones back on, cranked up the tunes and took off down the road.
The appointment I had been dreading went well, in fact better than I had even dared to imagine. My worries were totally unfounded. For the rest of the day I was so happy I could hardly stand myself. I felt 50 pounds lighter but also exhausted and drained, both physically and emotionally. I didn't realize how heavy this anxiety had been. Even my legs were tired.
This is why I chose this verse from Psalm 94 for today: In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. We all give in to anxiety from time to time but this verse provides some insight we might not have considered. I wonder if the same two words caught your attention the way they did mine.
Within. Think about it. Anxiety is not external, it's internal. Sure, situations can cause anxiety but the anxiety still comes from within us. It's nothing more than guessing, with total negativity, as to a yet unseen outcome. Anxiety is conceived in us. We give birth to it. We feed it, and if we're not careful, it will eventually take over. In the situation I described earlier no one was anxious except me. No one else was worried about the outcome. I created the problem in my own mind. There was no problem anywhere else.
Delight. This is an interesting word. It comes from the Hebrew sha'a and is used in very few passages. The best way I can describe it would be to imagine a father picking up his crying baby, setting the child on his knee, and tickling it. That's sha'a. Suddenly the fussing baby is laughing and whatever was bothering it two minutes earlier has been forgotten. Your comforts delight my soul. God's cootchy-coothy-coo for troubled souls.
There are real problems, real challenges in all our lives. They are not all products of our imagination. We will experience loss, pain and hardship, no matter how spiritually strong, no matter how positive we are (or try to be). That's life. It's guaranteed. But not one difficulty we ever face will be improved or alleviated by anxiety. Not one. Which is probably why we have prayer meetings instead of worry meetings.
(Psalm 118:24)
These two lines from Psalm 118 are actually part of a Messianic passage foretelling Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and, of course, symbolically into our hearts. Ordinarily it is not a good idea to take a verse out of its context, but this one can actually be removed from its element and survive.
Every day that we wake to, whether we bounce out of bed refreshed and bursting with excitement about the possibilities of the next 24 hours or whether, after repeated snooze button hits, we crawl to the bathroom on all fours bemoaning the start of yet another day, that day was made by God. It was planned before we were born and has a purpose for existing.
Though the Lord finished His creation of this universe millennia ago, He still has a hand in its operation. We are not on automatic pilot. As He has proved in the past, He can stop the sun (Joshua 10:13) or even make it go backwards (Isaiah 38:8). Fortunately, it's His will that it rose today at all. It didn't have to.
We received a new day today because God wanted us to. Though it seems like any other day, it's not. It was custom-made. In fact you'd have better odds finding two matching snowflakes than two identical days. Each one is an individual, hand-crafted creation, not just the output of some perpetually chugging and clanking cosmic factory. Each one has meaning and each one is a gift.
And that's how we should view each day, as a gift to us, loaded with possibility. They were created especially for us. God has no use for them Himself, not measuring time as we do (II Peter 3:8). They are for our use, but there are no guarantees as to how many we get, or even if there will be one more.
Now that last sentence can be a depressing thought to some, but to others it is invigorating, the realization of this truth stirring them to live life fully every day. That is what the psalmist is encouraging here in the second line of today's verse, We will rejoice and be glad in it. His use of the word will shows a mindset, a determination to make a conscious effort to not just be thankful for another day, but to enjoy it, to relish it. This is not to say the day will be without its problems or even its tragedy, but the knowledge that God created it is enough. Rejoice, not for the things that don't go right, but in spite of them. This day is not an accident, and neither are you. Be happy you got one more. It might turn out to be the best you've ever had.
Of course you can also opt to be miserable. It's your choice. You can greet each day with all the fervor of a convict serving consecutive life terms, expecting to have another gray day and guess what? You probably will. On the other hand, if you get up and say, "This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!", you might have a better time of it. Eventually this could even become a habit, starting your day on a positive note, the effects lasting longer and longer into each day. You might find yourself having less conflict, less problems simply because your attitude doesn't smell like a case of rotting shrimp. Before long it could become second nature to expect good things to happen, not just bad. In the back of your mind will be the thought, "Hmmm. God made this day for me. I wonder what He has planned? Gotta be better than anything I could think up. Cool." Things will change. People that used to drag you down will find less and less to say to you. You just won't respond the same way. Dogs will like you. Your atrophied smile muscles will rejuvenate. Yes, people will think you're weird for being happy every day, but that's just the price you'll have to pay. What, you thought custom-made days were free? Get real.
(I John 4:8)
No doubt about it, the Bible can be a daunting read to first-timers and those who have little or no foundation in the faith. There are situations and imperatives in the Old Testament that are difficult to comprehend and balance with our New Testament beliefs; they challenge us to seek explanations. Then there are the many prophetic passages, especially those relating to eschatology, so open to various interpretations that one rarely finds complete agreement, even with those sitting in the same pew.
Today's verse, however, is striking in its simplicity and clarity. There is no word longer than four letters. A doctorate in theology is not required to realize its absolute meaning. There is no hidden message, no subtext and no ambiguity. It could be read and fully understood by the average third-grader. I will not be delving into my Strong's Concordance this week to make certain we all know what love means. This verse is impossible to misinterpret. It is, however, apparently easy to forget and ignore.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Go ahead, try to twist it into something else but it will still come out the same. You can't be a Christian and not love. You can't worship a God of love and be full of hate. Yet a love-less form of the Christian religion is everywhere and spreading.
I was prompted to write this article (which, sorry to say, will be one of my least amusing ever) by what I have seen around me in the last few weeks, starting with March 26 USA Weekend supplement in my Sunday paper. On its cover was a clean-cut young man whose Baptist church runs an aggressively vicious gay-bashing Web site. In it they callously mock the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay student beaten to death in Wyoming and actually have a counter running to keep track of how many days he has spent in hell (so far). A quote from his grandfather, the pastor of this church, says it all, "We define ourselves as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God hates fags." While not aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention, I would think there would be a tremendous outcry from the 15 million member SBC for presenting themselves as a Baptist church. I have heard none. I hope it has just escaped my attention.
Christians, real Christians, everywhere should be outraged. This is not what we are about. Our mission is to reach out in love to everybody. This does not represent us or our God. Our God does not hate homosexuals or any other sinners (a category we all fit). He hates the sin. He sent his Son to die for Matthew Shepard as much as for the people who tortured him to death. He loves the whole world. He is love, no matter what these people who do not know Him preach.
Sadly, this is just one of dozens of internet sites preaching a perverted mixture of hate, racism and Christ. Some of them go so far as to have cute, colorful web sites that target children, your children, with little racist crossword puzzles and games designed to suck them into this sickening morass. More are sprouting up every day, like mushrooms in a cow pasture.
Unfortunately, we can see all too well where this love-less "Christianity" leads. One only needs to turn on the TV and watch the ethnic cleansing (a disgusting euphemism) taking place in Kosovo to realize the danger. These people, the Serbs, call themselves Christians. Even Milosovich, who has engineered this horror for over a decade describes himself in such terms. The general population seems to support, even idolize, him and believe that the brutal suffering they are inflicting on the Muslims is proper and justified. It goes with their religion, which has become nothing more than racial identity, with purity the goal. There is no love involved here. There is no knowledge of God. It's empty ritual, Christian in name only. The most amazing irony to me, however, was their outrage, expressed with self-righteous disbelief and indignation, that Easter in Belgrade might be disrupted, a traditionally festive time of hand-painted eggs and orthodox pageantry, by NATO bombing. This, while giving absolutely zero thought to the hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians made homeless, sick and dead by their own army. No concern for the villages in smoldering ruin and families ripped apart. No concern for the raped women, dead men and orphaned children. I don't know if I'll ever look at an Easter egg again without revulsion.
This is what happens to Christianity when the love goes out of it. It becomes a political party, a racial statement, a weapon. It becomes a means of destruction instead of rebirth, division instead of reconciliation. It looks nothing like Jesus. The Holy Spirit is conspicuously absent. It's nothing I want any part of.
Here in Hawaii we are very proud of our Kona coffee. We get upset when people sell Colombian or any other variety and call it Kona (in fact, they get busted, like Kona Kai Farms). We demand that vendors label a blend blend so that consumers know what they're getting. It has to be 100% Kona to be called Kona coffee. That word Kona means something. It's a pity there are no such restrictions on use of the word Christian.
Know love, know God. No love, no God.
(Joel 2:23)
As mentioned in the intro to this page, I do take requests to write on subjects of interest to my readers. Recently I received one such request from one of my favorite supporters, Martha. She wrote, "There is something I'd like to see you write on.....The revival the Word says will happen before Jesus comes, the latter rain. So many people are just "hunkerin' down", "trying to hold on til the Rapture", and they are totally clueless about the glory that is about to be poured out." Here goes, Martha.
Of course the term latter rain she used is found in today's somewhat lengthy verse from Joel, latter rain being the spring rain that immediately precedes the harvest, while the term former rain denotes the one that occurs during the planting season. There could not be a more eloquent analogy for God releasing, pouring out, His Spirit on us.
We see throughout scripture that God watered the Word He sowed faithfully. Then the seed He planted finally broke through the parched ground of Bethlehem of Judea and grew into manhood. This was the culmination of centuries of care, a process nurtured by the former rain, the planting rain. But what of the later rain, the rain that tells us harvest time is upon us?
Again, it's the prophet Joel who tells us what this will be like, this latter rain: And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29). This is what it will be like, but when are those days? When will this happen? How long must we wait?
For all you gotta-have-it-now types this will be good news: You don't. Almost two thousand years ago, a virtually unknown fisherman walked into a crowd of rather confused bystanders gathered around a nondescript old building in the heart of Jerusalem. They had been drawn there, thousands of them, by the ruckus going on inside, the sound of a mighty windstorm, and the voices of Galileans speaking in every known language (and some unknown). As if to explain the unexplainable, the onlookers came to the erroneous conclusion, as people often will, that this was nothing more than a case of the Galileans having a bit more wine than was good for them. It was at this moment that the big fisherman raised his voice and thundered, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh... (Acts 2:14-21).
As Peter continued quoting the rest of Joel's prophecy, he unequivocally pronounced it fulfilled, while also leaving no doubt that the last days weren't coming, they were in fact here. And if those were 'last days' back then, they surely are now. Even Jesus Himself told us to lift up our eyes and look at the fields, already white for harvest (John 4:35). He knew the time. The latter rain, the harvest rain, is upon us and has been for some time. While God will still continue to do amazing things and stir revival here and all over the world (and in many unlikely places), the outpouring is not about to happen, it began long ago in an upper room in Jerusalem. That's why the phenomena Joel listed are happening right now. There is no need to pray for rain. It's simply a matter of choosing to get wet.
I'm singin', just singin', in the rain...
(Psalm 16:10)
I know, it's somewhat unorthodox to pick an Old Testament verse for an Easter, or Resurrection Sunday message but orthodoxy has never been one of my strong suits. Besides, this comes from one of my favorite writers of all time, that wild and crazy red-headed guy God called a "man after His own heart". These words, penned by shepherd, giant-slayer, king, poet, musician, warrior, adulterer, murderer, penitent, dancer and sometimes prophet David foretell the event Christians worldwide celebrate every Spring: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter later echoed these very words on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-31), before the bewildered (and very skeptical) men and women of Jerusalem, announcing the fulfillment of this centuries-old prophecy. These words still hold tremendous meaning for us today.
Before we get into that, however, let's define a couple of terms in this verse from Psalm 16. First, Sheol. This is a term used to describe the abode of the dead, the grave, sort of a shadowy netherworld. Bible scholars (of which I am not) could give a fuller and more accurate definition of this realm, but for our purposes here it is a place of isolation, silence and separation from the hand of God. The Bosom of Abraham it isn't.
The second term we must understand is to see corruption. Not a political term, it means to undergo the decomposition process, a fairly gross but efficient means of recycling the Lord came up with after the First Couple proved incapable of following instructions. This fate, death, has been passed down the generations to us. In addition to the gift of death, Adam and Eve also provided us with the prototype of the dysfunctional family and made The Jerry Springer Show possible. Gee thanks, guys.
Now back to our verse. There are actually two prophesies in here. The first refers to David himself: For you will not leave my soul in Sheol. This is a statement of tremendous faith, something David, in spite of his human failings, had a large supply of. David knows he will die eventually, but he is absolutely confident that he will will not face eternal separation from God. Death will not be his end. He does not claim that he will not die (or even that he will be spared corruption). That honor is left to Christ, The Holy One, the Firstborn from the dead and Heir to David's throne: Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. Centuries later Paul attests to the truth of this with, "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts 13:36-37). Yes, David died. But because Christ rose uncorrupted, defeating death, though David's body may have stayed in the ground, his soul did not. Neither will ours.
That's what Easter is about. The Resurrection is not just something that happened to
Jesus for Jesus' own sake. It's much more. It's about people like me and you and David knowing
that because Christ rose bodily, incorruptible, from the dead, proving once and for all
that He is the living Son of God, we have a future, a promise. The Holy Spirit
allowed David to look across time and see his Messiah rising, and to voice not only his
own hope, but ours as well. In this Psalm David envisioned the birth of our Faith, Christ
being delivered from the earth and from death. It was a great Day for Jesus but an even
better one for us. His victory became our victory. Just as Adam delivered a gift of death
to us and guaranteed that we would all die, Jesus, the second Adam, delivered us from
this death and guaranteed that we would live forever with Him. David knew this Day was
coming and he was excited about it, "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory
rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope" (Psalm 16:9). Our flesh should know
that same hope. Because of Resurrection Sunday it can.
Christians at Easter Service: People all dressed up with someplace to go.
.HAVE FAITH IN GOD!
Rise & Shine On-Line Magazine:
| Back to top Menu | Email | Recent Back Issues | About Kona |
