Not Who We Think

2/27/2017

Psalm 147.10,11 10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; 11 the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

God is so unlike anything we can comprehend of Him. That isn’t that He isn’t knowable; it’s that He is different than we think Him to be.

This morning, I read  the first half of the account in Numbers, of Balak, king of Edom; and Balaam, the seer whom Balak had summoned to curse the nation of Israel camped outside his door. Balak had paid handsomely for Balaam to come from his homeland to conjure up a powerful curse on Moses and the people. But Balaam couldn’t come through. When Balak angrily demanded to know why, Balaam said:

God is not human, that he should lie,

    not a human being, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?

(Numbers 23.18)

Balak had to learn the hard way that God is not someone to be messed with. Even a pagan witch-doctor knew better than to mess with God.

The psalmist sang: [God’s] pleasure is not in the things in which man takes pleasure. God made the horse, but isn’t impressed with his strength. Nor is God wowed by the prowess of a gung-ho soldier. The horse is a tool, the warrior is an employee. What impresses God is simply this: those who in faith, respect Him and put their hope in His unfailing love. Want to impress God? Try that on for size.

God, is other; He isn’t like what we imagine Him to be: a genie to grant our every wish. God is not our servant. And God takes notice of those who seek after and follow Him. God is impressed with the mystery of faith in the heart of the humble who professes: there is a God, and I am not Him.

Our world is full of those who would have us follow after them and do as they demand. Not God. God isn’t in it for popularity or perks; God is in it to win the hearts of those who believe in Him, and put their hope – not their wishful thinking – in His promises.

To put one’s hope in God is simply to live life according to His promises. I think God is more impressed with our belief than our accomplishments. How can that be? That smacks against the culture of humanity. God is different than we think Him to be. God delights in those who delight in Him. And that is completely counter to the ways of this world.

Lord, today, may I see you as the One who delights in me that I have put my hope in You. May I live out today believing in Your promises and even agreeing with a pagan who said: [You] are not human, that You should lie, deceive and pander; nor are You a human being, that You should flippantly change Your mind. Does You speak and then not act?  Does You promise and not fulfill? No, Lord, You delight in those who fear You, who put their hope in Your unfailing love. Amen

What to Do with Belief

2/26/2017

Mark 5.36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” – St. Mark

In Mark 5, the parents of a dying little girl reached out to Jesus and asked Him to heal her. So, Jesus went to their city to pray for the girl. At some point the girl died and those from the city said, Don’t waste Jesus’ time, your girl has passed away. I imagine the distraught father looking at Jesus as if to say: Now what? And Jesus responded, Don’t be afraid; just believe.

That might be a word for you this day. Bills are piling up. No job. Some disease. Relationships are falling apart… Don’t be afraid, just believe.

The first and best thing to do, is to go to Jesus for help: Help me Lord, my circumstances are overwhelming! And it’s true, they are. You worry and fret. You weep with fear. You can’t hold a conversation with someone about your plight without getting all teary. You want Jesus to help, but you’re too afraid of what’s happening. Jesus would say to you: Don’t be afraid; just believe.

Do you know what believing entails? It is more than just showing up at church. Yes, church is important, but just showing up doesn’t do you much. Believing requires action, and that action has to be able stand up to the fears that oppress and torment you, by claiming the Lord’s rescue, His assistance, and His deliverance or provision.

Two questions: If He’s not going to do it, who is? And, if He’s not going to do it, why ask?

True faith is active belief. The man knew he needed help from Jesus if his little daughter was to be saved. But things were swirling around him and people were saying things and the rational voice proclaimed: Dude, this is beyond what anyone can do. And there, precisely is where the fight of faith starts: in circumstances that are beyond what we or anyone else can do.

God isn’t just anyone. God is the God of the Big Ask. Our problem is we are so hammered mentally by our circumstances that we find ourselves in a place without hope. Hope is this: God has said. Wishful thinking is this: I hope God hears my prayers… See the difference? I pray because He hears! If the answer is, No; then I can lay my head on the pillow tonight and say: I prayed. And trust His answer.

Jesus says, Don’t be afraid, just believe. That doesn’t mean we get what we want, it means we had faith enough to come to God with what we need, trusting that He hears – and fighting our fears – with our prayers. Regardless of what He does, can we believe God? That is the question. And if the answer is no, do we quit believing in Him? What do we do with God’s answers?

Friend, our job is to believe. Our job is to bathe the throne of God with our sloppy prayers and believe for the greater miracle: that God hears us. We are to live out our days believing in faith, not living in fear.

Father in Heaven, You know the things I grapple with and the energy I expend in fear of those things. Today, it’s don’t be afraid, just believe. Help me God, to believe that You are You and that You are with me and not against me. Help me to believe You know and hear my prayers, and You are acting on my behalf with what I am struggling with. May I kill fear with belief. May I honor You with believing prayer. Amen

The Worship of Other

2/25/2017

Psalm 29.2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his* holiness.

*Or, Lord with the splendor of

Holiness is a special term – simply said, it means, otherness. Holy (or holiness) occurs in the NIV (on Bible Gateway®) 551 times. Personally, I have trained myself to insert ‘other’ every time I read the word, holy. (I also insert the word favor every time I read the word, grace).

The Psalms are third in their usage of holy or holiness (Leviticus being first and Isaiah second). So, it is no wonder that holy is found in Psalm 29. Ascribe (assign, credit, attribute, declare) to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness… or with the splendor of holiness.

Worshiping God is as much holy as God’s holiness is holy. Alright Pablo, make your point.

Well, my point is this: other. Other, in that worship of God is common to this world. Worship is in this world, because His people are. But the world – in the sense that all that is not of God, is not in the custom of worshiping God; His way. The world worships other things but certainly not in holiness – the world only knows sameness. All that is of this world is all that we know. But holiness is other than we know and only the children of God are invited into His realm of otherness.

And though worship of God is directional to Him, worship of God is as different in this world as God is different in this world. Other is other. It is not normal. It is not garden variety. Our worship of God is unworldly, or better, other-worldly.

That is one reason why the Church is so confusing to some, they just can’t comprehend the otherness of it all. Yes, there are different kinds of words and rituals and all of that, but the true Church is as other as the Bible itself is other. And it takes an ‘other’ mindset to deal with it; the worldly cannot understand it.

Worship, according to Jesus, is spirit and truth. What in the world does that mean!? It means simply this: God only accepts other worship – worship that is true, and of the spirit. Spiritual worship is the worship that connects with the Spirit of God by the Spirit-indwelt spirit of man. It’s the only way it can happen. Our minds and our bodies may participate, but the spirit, connected to God, is the only way true worship can happen – and brother, if you’ve ever experienced it, it’s other…

It’s other in the sense that in God, by Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, darkness becomes light. Death becomes life. What isn’t becomes what is. The realm of Heaven connects with the hearts of mankind. The miraculous becomes normative. Up is down. In is out. And the love for God is expressed in doing what He commands of us here on this earth, indwelt, and directed by Him. Period. That’s an ‘other’ experience.

Father as You are not just another god, so may we, Your people be other in how we connect with You, worship You, and do, on this earth, what You command us to do – amen

Indignant

2/22/2017

Mark 1 41-42 41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. – St. Mark

When I read this today, I thought, now wait a minute, I thought Jesus was filled with compassion for this man and reached out and healed him. So, I looked up the passage in a printed Bible (I tend to use an electronic version these days) and sure enough, it read: “Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man…” So, I thought: why the need for indignation? What’s up with that!?

I read also today, the account of the quail in Numbers 11 where the people grumble to Moses that they are sick and tired of manna, and they want some meat. They don’t just want, they crave some meat. God was indignant. And God was insulted that they had rejected His miraculous provision of manna and were demanding other food.

I think we prefer a Jesus meek and mild. By, meek, I think we mean weak. A tame Jesus is more palatable to our modern western minds. Don’t rock the boat Jesus, You’ll offend people! A tame Jesus is a lame Jesus. Of course he was indignant with the man’s request for healing!! Jesus expected them to recognize His messiahship, and they were like us: O Lord, we are so unworthy! If You could find it in Your busy schedule to help us, that’d be great. They came to God wanting Him to do something but not expecting Him to respond.

Most, today, prayer in fear. We say we hope God hears us, but our use of the word hope betrays an expectation He won’t. For some reason, we pray timid prayers (if we even pray at all) because we fear God – not in respect, but in fear that He is indifferent to who we are and the struggles we have. Why demand quail? Because of fear manna wasn’t good enough. It’s one thing to fear God; it’s another to be afraid of Him.

And there are those who teach us to cower before God. If we’re to do that why does He invite us to come to Him? Why does He even speak to and with us? If God is some celestial meanie, why bother? It’s because we’ve been taught that God will put up with our arrogance that He is too busy or otherwise unconcerned or unable to help us.

The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are the same God. God dealt with the Jewish nation in the Old Testament to rid them of their Egyptianity. God showed Himself worthy of their praise AND thanksgiving! But they believed that He was somehow not good enough because there was no meat. The same people, centuries later, complained of the same thing believing Jesus to be just one more in the crowd of a corrupt priesthood that cared more about their perks than their people.

Can we insult God? Perhaps. Can we come to God with doubting, fearful hearts and expect Him to receive it well? Perhaps not. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, Hebrews 11.6.

Father God, Create in me a pure heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not indignantly cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me because of my unfounded and phony fear of You. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Amen

The God I Serve

2/20/2017

Acts 27.23-26 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

In the account in Acts 27, we see the will of man pitted against nature. Sailing in ancient days was risky at best, but sailing at the wrong time of year was catastrophic. Paul had been sent to appear before Caesar and he was under guard because he was a prisoner of the Roman government. So, dispatched to Rome, he was with other prisoners who were to be dealt with by Rome as well.

Sailing, although the most expedient way to transport these men, was problematic – weather and other factors prevailed. One factor was timing, and another was commerce – the ship’s owner(s) got paid for the use of his boat. Commerce overruled nature...

Paul was certainly no seaman but he had sailed before and he – untrained as he was – knew there were better times to sail during the year than others. It’s like us, travel in winter – sometimes the roads are not all that conducive for journeying. Paul told the centurion and the ship’s owner that sailing so late in the year would be disastrous but he was overruled by an impatient soldier, and the pilot of the ship.

The story goes that, “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so, they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.” (Verse 13) And not long after, the breeze turned into a near hurricane and the ship was driven along by the storm.

I can imagine the mood. But Paul, in great wisdom, stood and said: “For the last fourteen days you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” (Vv. 33-34) He lightened the mood. Everyone ate and was encouraged.

The point of all this is, we are, as Christ’s servants, to look for every opportunity to lighten the mood. Not everyone believes but everyone suffers from fear, and everyone needs to be somehow encouraged and urged to, perhaps, see things from a different perspective. Followers of Jesus are to take the initiative to make the best of things and set the example in leading the way. Food and some brief fellowship certainly prepared them all for what was coming next.

My job in this world is to avoid the negative-Nancy’s, and to look, in faith, for the God I serve to come to my aid – however and whatever that looks like. How I act, is going to go a long way to show others how I relate to the God I say I serve. My actions truly underscore my words.

The ship wrecked and all were saved. But, I think, all of them viewed this Jewish preacher differently after that and I believe God used Paul to reveal to them more about Himself, at work, in the life of His servant.

Father, may I learn to serve like Paul. May I keep my eyes on You no matter what. And may the way I conduct myself reveal to someone who You are – the God I serve… Amen

I Will Bless

2/19/2017

Numbers 6. 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

It sounds like there are two parts to this brief instruction: ‘they’ and ‘I’. They, the priests, specifically, Aaron and his sons, were to bless the people as commanded by God and spoken through Moses. God said, they will put My Name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

The role of pastor and priest is, partly, to bless God’s people. The way to bless God’s people is to put God’s Name on them. To say, God bless you, is a way to put God’s Name on another.

We want to bless others but the truest blessing of all is the blessing of God who knows our needs and meets them in ways we cannot think of.

Blessing is happiness. The word bless, means, happy. And God wants us happy. Now, I know there are those who would sternly, stare down the length of their meerschaum pipes and snort: God wants you holy, not happy! Well, true, He does, but if that is the case then why the blessing? Why demand holiness without happiness? Ah, well, perhaps happiness is found in holiness. Perhaps doing things God’s way, brings happiness our way.

Can you imagine the length God has to go to condescend to us? Our problem is our view of God and our incessant penchant to bring Him down to our level as He is trying to bring us up to His. God is so vastly beyond what the human mind can comprehend but that doesn’t mean knowing Him is sans benefits. One of the chief-est of bennies is this: happiness. God does desire us to be happy in holiness. He really just wants us to be happy in Him. If we are happy in Him, the holiness will take care of itself.

Happiness and holiness are states of mind anyway. Happiness and holiness are perceptions. It doesn’t mean they aren’t true, it just means that defining them is more difficult than just being them.

So, to put God’s Name on someone is one of the greatest things we can do for that person. It sounds like if that is a part of our routine, God’s part is to make them happy, blessed. “God bless you”, is no small phrase.

Part of why I am on earth is to both bless, and be a blessing to others. That is part of my calling as a human and as a child of God. I am to put God’s name on people. God wants to bless everybody and it appears He has gone way out of His way to do so. I think the heavenly host watches in marveled amazement of the blessing of God on humanity. God is a God of happiness – the happiness that is found only in Him.

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen

I Appeal to…

2/18/2017

Acts 25. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

If we learn nothing else from Paul, we should learn this: he was deft on his feet. In other words, Paul understood the circumstances around him and was very good at assessing his options. Now, that isn’t to call the Apostle some kind of superman; it’s that we understand a bit more, and emulate how he operated. Paul was very smart – and I believe he possessed a measure of “spiritual cleverness”.

Cleverness can be positive or negative. Clever, can be ingenious, astute, or adroit; or it can be shrewd, crafty, wily, or cunning. There are hues of cleverness that can shade one’s MO. Paul, I think, was on the positive side of cleverness. Paul correctly assessed the situation and saw what his options were and went with what he knew to be his opportunity.

Like him or not, our present Commander-in-Chief is somewhat like Paul. (I can hear the shrieks of disagreement and judgment of heresy – I get it.) But one thing our current CIC does that his enemies can’t quite figure out: he doesn’t seem to act the way they expect him to. Paul’s enemies thought the same – they expected Paul to act the way they would. Paul, I think, knew that and responded accordingly.

So, what do you do when someone you expect to act your way, doesn’t? Why in the world, in the midst of a theological debate, would someone appeal to Caesar, or the government? Why wouldn’t they appeal to theology or the religious law or play by that set of rules? Is it because they are deft, adept, and quick on their feet; or do they appeal to a different calling? And wasn’t it Paul who told the Corinthians, “Why in the world would you take a dispute between yourselves to a pagan court!? Can’t you guys in Christ work that out on your own!??” (Cf. 1 Corinthians 6)

In our lives, we need reliance on the presence of God and ability to remain light on our feet. That doesn’t mean malicious, deceptive, or devious – but it does mean assessing the situation from a godly perspective and using all the tools possible to do as we think God would have us do. Practical knowledge and application of the Word is a great place to start.

We know Paul, but we only know him from a distance. We know Paul but we don’t really know the culture he lived in or how people actually thought in those days. But we emulate Paul in the stories and accounts we have of him. We emulate Paul in his relationship with God as we would have our relationship with God. Does that mean our circumstances will be identical to his? No. But it does mean we ask God for wisdom with the expectation that He will provide it for us. If He won’t or there’s some question as to if He will, then we needn’t ask at all. God answers expectant prayers.

Lord, may I live for You with the vigor and determination Paul had; and my I learn to see what I can do and wisely avoid the things I cannot. I have rights not only as a citizen of heaven, but also as a citizen of earth. May I use the tools I have to further Your work in this world; that others may hear, and see, and know Your glory and goodness! Amen