Holy Week 2010

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Cor. 5:21

After my last post, God did something He is prone to do in my life: He called me on what I said to you. You'll recall I blogged about the challenge of seeking to be devotional rather than just focusing on what to write or teach. Well, the rest of Holy Week was definitely about what God wanted to say to me ... and to make sure I didn't forget it, He kept the circumstances just enough out of my control to keep me off the computer and away from the blog.

It's not that He doesn't want me to write ... I've had confirmation after confirmation, most notably through my husband, that I should be writing. It's just that He didn't want me reading those significant words for any reason other than relationship with Him. He wanted this Holy Week to refocus me on the cross and away from my own efforts - because even those efforts that are God-glorifying, Christ-honoring, and Spirit-led can easily become "works", especially in our results-oriented society.

But for 2 1/2 years now, God has been teaching me that a relationship with Him and me joining Him in His work is a lot more about process than it is about results. Oh, results happen. But as my life verse at the top of this blog reminds me, they happen because of Him, not because of me! I have to focus on the process and what He wants to teach me and where He wants to place me and who He wants to connect me with and what HE is doing that He wants to invite me to join. For a task-oriented person like me, that is incredibly hard. I'm so grateful that He knows when to intervene more radically and protect me from my own tendencies ... like this week.

I have really had an amazing Holy Week. God has spoken to me in dramatic ways through each day's readings. This year, He seemed to give me an overall "theme" for each day, which He allowed me to see threaded throughout that day's readings. This helped me tie together sometimes large chunks of Scripture around one central lesson. Here are the "themes" for the days since I last wrote:

* Tuesday of Holy Week: "What am I doing with what He has given me?" We are all given truth and resources. What am I doing with them? Jesus took what He was given and served. Luke 22:27 "For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves."

* Wednesday of Holy Week: There are no readings for this day. This has been called Jesus' "silent" day. But it's a reminder that the silence is always only from our side. He is always at work.

* Thursday of Holy Week: "My great need and His great supply." The disciples had a great poverty of understanding, of love, of strength to stay awake. As I read this day I realized how much of it reflects the needs of humanity. Jesus' teaching and prayer in John 14-17 especially underscore this truth.

* Friday of Holy Week: I can say it no better than C.J. Mahaney: "We never move on from the cross, only to a deeper understanding of the cross." As I read all the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion at one sitting, I was hit with an incredible sense of the injustice of it all. The one perfect man, God in the flesh, beaten and mocked and spat on and rejected and betrayed. Everything in me wanted to stop it, to say it was wrong. Imagine how the Father felt. And yet Scripture tells us that on the cross, God demonstrated His justice. Why? Because a holy God cannot ignore sin. He loved us enough to make a way for relationship with Him, but that way had to deal with the sin that stood in the path. He dealt with my sin ... with your sin ... with the sin of the world ... on the cross. If Barabbas had been executed instead, none of us would say it was injust. He earned execution due to his crimes. Jesus' crucifixion would have been injust -- except for the fact that He bore our sin. All the sins of the world were heaped on Him and God's justice - the justice due every person in the world - was satisfied. And He went beyond justice - after judging our sin on the cross, He gives those who embrace the work of Christ on their behalf His righteousness. He makes us new. As the Scripture above says, He became our sin so we would have the chance to become His righteousness. That should take our breath away and cause us to fall to our knees in worship. My sin is what kept Jesus' crucifixion from being an injustice and instead, made it a demonstration of God's perfect justice.

* Saturday of Holy Week: The women, ah the amazing women. They couldn't wait to get to the tomb! After Sabbath was over (about 6 p.m. Saturday evening), they got things ready to go to the tomb. I'm not sure exactly what all this looked like, as we know they discovered the empty tomb at dawn on Sunday. But what spoke to me was their eagerness to get to Jesus. They didn't know He would be risen. They just wanted to do what they could for Him. Mary Magdalene represents so many of us who have been forgiven much and so love much. May I awaken every morning with her eagerness to get to Him!

I can't wait for tomorrow. Here's a little secret: I am happy to have friends who live where it's already resurrection morning, so I can send them greetings tonight a little ahead of time. But there will be something special about those early morning hours tomorrow. I want to look ahead in my Bible to the empty tomb. But that isn't how it works. Tomorrow, along with millions around the world, I'll turn to those timeless words and discover that the tomb, nearly 2000 years later, remains empty.

For tonight, I close with one of my favorite modern hymns. The lyrics are below. Tonight, remember the wounds which marred the Chosen One are the wounds which brought us to glory. Hallelujah.




How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulder
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Monday of Holy Week: Follow the Leader

Today's readings: Matthew 21:12-13, 18-19; Mark 11:12-18; Luke 19:45-48; John 12:20-50
 
As I sought the Lord about the word He had for me today from Monday of Holy Week, I noticed many interesting things about these passages. I noticed that there was a lesson from the withering of the fig tree. I observed the obvious missional message of the coming of the Greeks signaling Jesus' "hour has come". I saw the sad truth that many fail to confess Him because they "loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." But none of these, I sensed, were His word to me.

Here's a secret about teaching and writing: There is a constant temptation to read Scripture for lesson preparation and God's Word to "them" - whoever the audience might be at a given moment. This morning, as I dialogued with God about Monday of Holy Week, I was reminded of a basic lesson that the Teacher taught this teacher: If I'm not digging into His Word devotionally and studiously for myself, just for what He wants to teach me, then I have nothing to say to you or anyone else. One of the earliest prayers He taught me to pray over my teaching was "Lord, make the lessons that I teach manifest in my life." He has never failed to do that. I'm convinced one reason Scripture tells us that teachers incur a stricter judgment is just this very principle. Nothing will shut my mouth faster than realizing I'm about to say something that I only know academically. Because God is far too faithful to His body to let me get by with that one. So please, pray for your teachers and pastors and church leaders. You can rest assured that God won't let them get by with an abstract understanding of truth.

So - back to today's lesson. As I processed all of the above yet again, I told God to show me what the lesson was for me. What I needed to be reminded of in these familiar words. Two verses jumped out at me:

John 12:26: "If anyone serves me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him."


John 12:49 "For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak."

When I read these I immediately thought of Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God Bible study. One of his key teachings is that God is always at work and invites us to join Him in His work. That's key because it's His work, not ours; we don't invite Him to join us, He invites us to join Him. I should look for where He is at work and join Him. The first passage reminds me to follow Him - where He is, His servant should desire to be. The second passage tells me that He models what He expects of me; He spoke not on His own initiative but the Father's.

All of this reminds me of the childhood game "Follow the Leader." I am in a season of rest following an intense focus on getting a master's degree. I don't know what God has next for me, but this is yet another remind that He wants me to let HIM be the leader. I have to trust Him.

Here's the beautiful thing about this level of submission: Colossians 3:3 tells me, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Yes, I am not "the leader". But in that death to self, I am in the most secure place possible. As Corrie Ten Boom described it, Christ cups me in His hand and God cups Christ in His ... so I am doubly-covered.

It's a lesson that I can never learn enough!

Palm Sunday of Holy Week: Do we recognize His presence?

Today's passages: Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:1, 9-19

For over a decade now, I've set aside whatever Bible study I've been doing, pushed the pause button on wherever I am in my on-going read-through of the Bible, and pick up my Parallel Gospels to focus on the happenings of Holy Week. Each day, I read through all 4 Gospel accounts of the events leading up to Jesus crucifixion. This practice has helped me stay focused on the cross, fully feel its crushing blow to the disciples, and rejoice on Resurrection Morning as I realize afresh why the message of the early church was, "He is Risen! He is risen indeed!"

Another habit I've developed in conjunction with this is praying for God to reveal something at a deeper level each time I read the now-familiar passages. I don't want to check something off a list. I've learned that Scripture is like an onion with many layers and as we seek to know and obey Jesus, the Holy Spirit will peel back more layers. As I prayed that prayer this morning, I began to see a theme throughout the Palm Sunday readings: Do we recognize His presence? The passages give us several portraits of individuals at various points on a spectrum of awareness that can be instructive to the church today. I pray that the Lord will use these portraits in your life and in the life of your church or small group as we seek Him during this most significant of all weeks on the church calendar.

Clued in: The owner of the colt and Jesus' 2 disciples. (Mark 11:1-7; see also Matt. 21:1-3 and Luke 19:29-34)

(Mark 11:1-7 NASB) - As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. "If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here." They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it.

On our spectrum, these individuals are as aware as they could be prior to the day of Pentecost and the eye-opening Holy Spirit. What strikes me the most about these individuals is their unqualified obedience. The 2 disciples, of course, had been around Jesus and realized that He could make some, shall we say, unconventional requests (see: Loaves and Fishes, Water to Wine, Mud for healing blind man). What intrigues me about these disciples' obedience is that as far as we can see in Scripture, there is no questioning or second-guessing. While the disciples certainly felt the freedom to ask questions - Scripture records numerous occasions - by this point these two disciples apparently had learned enough to just go along. They were clued in to His presence enough to know that if He asked them to go do something, He had a reason.

The owner of the colt also exhibits a high level of "clued in". We don't know any more about this man other than an important quality: He surrenders what he had to the Lord. Did he know "the Lord" was Jesus? We really don't know. But for nearly 2000 years his obedience has set a high bar for believers in Jesus. Like this man, anything in our possession should be available if "the Lord has need of it". 2 Corinthians 8:12-15 provide our best understanding of how this might look in our lives: God wants us to meet the needs of others with our resources. If we have more than our basic needs, then "if the Lord has need of it" through the needs of one of His people, we should be willing to supply.

Interestingly, neither the disciples nor the owner of the colt are named. Like so many shining examples of the faith, they remain anonymous except in His eyes. It didn't matter that we know their names. What mattered is that He knew they were willing to obey ... and that they were clued in to His Lordship.

Getting a clue: The crowd. (Matthew 21:8-17; see also Mark 11:8-11; Luke 19:35-40; John 12:12-18)

(Matthew 21:8-17 NASB) - Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee." And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS ' DEN ." And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF'?" And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Further down the spectrum we find the crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem, the Triumphal Entry that fulfilled prophecy. This crowd always intrigues me, since we know that it is likely many of the same people who, 5 days later, will be calling for Jesus' crucifixion - people in Jerusalem for the great Passover feast. In that, the crowd represents our human condition and the fickleness that we have toward those in whom we place great hope. But today, I see something different in the crowd. I see glimpses of understanding. I see a group of people who don't completely realize the significance of what they were doing, and yet who still present a picture of praise.

The crowd gets a lot of things wrong. They have Messianic expectations that are focused on political solutions - treating Jesus as a king coming to overthrow the Romans and retake Jerusalem. They readily recognize Jesus as a prophet, but fail to submit to His unqualified Lordship as the disciples and owner of the colt do. They praise God for the miracles that Jesus had done and continues doing even in their midst as He heals the blind and lame in the temple. John tells us that many were drawn to the gathering after hearing that He raised Lazarus from the dead (see John 12:17-18). Their focus seems more on what He can do and what they hope He will be, than on who He has revealed Himself to be. From the vantage point of 2000 years, we could pick apart their theology for hours. And yet ...

Jesus does not condemn the crowd. In fact, He defends them. When the Jewish leaders call for Him to rebuke the crowd in Luke's account, Jesus responds: "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:39-40). In the passage above in Matthew, when the leaders are indignant over the children's worship of Jesus, He pulls out a passage from the Psalms and defends their praise. In Jesus' reaction I see both the obvious - He was the Messiah, and He was being very public about it - and the subtle. He doesn't condemn them not only because what they are saying is true, but because He is the Messiah who, in the words of Isaiah, does not break bruised reeds or extinguish faintly burning wicks (Isa. 42:1-3). He doesn't condemn us for our less-than-perfect understanding, our faltering faith, or our human errors in methodology. He knows when the focus is on Him, and when our eyes are rightly focused and our hearts willing, He can teach us and correct us.

Don't get me wrong. Sound doctrine is critical within the church on essential matters. When we have the full counsel of God's Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we should not be easily swayed (see Ephesians 4). However, I see the crowd as more like those who are trying to understand, who have a limited awareness of Jesus because they come from a background where He wasn't known or if known, not honored and His Word not taught. Even within the church, our awareness of Him should constantly be growing (compare 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and rejoice!). But especially for seekers and new believers, I believe it's important to point toward Jesus as the object of worship, and the Holy Spirit and Word of God as the tools for revelation. If those with the Ephesians 4 gifts (apostles, evangelists, prophets, teachers, pastors) consistently teach and speak God's Word and point new believers back to it, helping them learn to discern the Holy Spirit's voice, those early errors will quickly be corrected. When dealing with those 'getting a clue', let's learn to match the gentleness of Jesus as He defends their imperfect praise.

The clueless: The Pharisees, the chief priests and the scribes. (Matthew 21:15-17; Luke 19:39-40; John 12:10-11, 19).

Jesus' words of rebuke are leveled at the religious leaders who, in their minds at least, knew the truth. Never mind that Jesus had made clear early in His ministry that they sought the Scriptures but missed Him (John 5:39-47). These "leaders" clearly had their own agenda already; they determined to put Jesus and Lazarus to death after He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:53 and 12:10-11). John 12:19 reveals the heart of their concerns: The Pharisees therefore said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."

"The world has gone after Him." What a clueless reaction. Of course the world would go after Jesus - the Messiah, the Savior, God incarnate. They had tried unsuccessful to thwart His ministry and now, on the day of His triumphal entry, failed to stop the praise that He was rightfully due. Their plan to kill Jesus now begins to gather steam and it will culminate later in the week.

What a rebuke to the "religious elite" whose focus lies everywhere but Jesus and who, by their actions, try to stop what God intends to allow. We see it every day: established churches critique a new start-up; denominational churches denounce non-denominationals; non-denominationals judge denominationals; we hold up this or that method and verbally blow holes through it; and on it goes. Again, I'm not talking the fundamental doctrines of the faith. So much of this happens over non-essentials, preferences, even cultural issues like whether to use African drums in worship! We fail to take a step back and see if we can recognize His presence in a non-traditional format. We fail to examine whether the unfamiliar paths lead to the cross.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be "clueless" - I want to be "clued in". Hopefully I'm at least "getting a clue", because I don't want Jesus to say to me, as He said of Jerusalem in Luke 19:44, "you did not recognize the time of your visitation." May we always recognize His presence.

See previous Palm Sunday posts here and here.  

Psalm 124

If the Lord had not been on our side - let Israel say -
If the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us,
When their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive.
The flood would have engulfed us,
The torrent would have swept over us,
The raging waters would have carried us away.

Praise be to the Lord who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare;
The snare has been broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
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Wholeness. That's the word that comes to mind when I think about what the psalmist was dealing with in these verses. Again flowing perfectly with the previous Psalm in which they entrusted themselves to God's mercy, here the Psalmist leads Israel in remembering a time when God's mercy led to deliverance.

The anger is pictured vividly in these verses - words like attack, flare, and raging; animal imagery like tearing by the teeth and a bird in the snare, all combine to help us visualize the problem facing Israel. We don't know exactly which struggle was remembered here, and that's okay, because we know what happened. God stepped in.

Anger is probably the emotion I struggle with the most. For a host of reasons, nothing shuts me down like being around an angry person. And there is no emotion I have a harder time expressing. So as I've memorized this Psalm, I haven't had any trouble at all personalizing the deliverance.

But this Psalm also reminds me of another type of deliverance: spiritual. When I look back over my life and the person I was 20 years ago, I know without a doubt that "the snare has been broken, and [I] have escaped." I also know that "if the Lord had not been on my side" ... I wouldn't even want to finish the sentence. I don't want to know where I would be.

One thing God's been teaching me this year is wholeness. A new insight for me is that freedom in Christ doesn't truly come until there is wholeness. Deliverance from a besetting sin or captive situation doesn't equal freedom until something healthy is embraced instead. For example, I've been struggling to lose weight for years now. I've embraced the concept that overeating is a sin and that I need to be healthy. But my "default" until recently has been unhealthy choices. I would eat healthy because I "had" to, not because I wanted to. But on a vacation my husband and I had trouble finding a meal with veggies one day due to limited choices in the small towns we visited. By the next day, we both wanted salad. I knew then that I had turned a corner. I knew that true freedom was coming because I had replaced an unhealthy desire with a healthy one.

Wholeness is a critical concept. There are a lot of false teachings out there about freedom. One places everything on "the devil". I call this "devil made me do it" theology. There's a demon around every corner, and an entire industry exists to help you get rid of them. There is a much stronger focus on the enemy than on God.

Another false teaching about freedom is a belief shared with Buddhism; it's the idea that the desire itself is the problem. Now many Christians would be shocked at being accused of harboring Buddhist beliefs; but the reality is that while we rarely put it in those terms, we act as though desire is the problem. This is especially seen in areas of sexuality but can be reflected in any number of spheres of life. I work at a University and I have talked to Christian students who were taught, implicitly or explicitly, that considering their passions and interests in determining a career choice was wrong and even selfish. They had truly never considered that God had placed within them a unique set of skills and interests and that He might be using their passion to guide them to the field in which He had uniquely designed them to excel.

Another area I've seen this tendency to squelch "desire" - and been guilty myself - is personality. When I began walking with the Lord I thought that my personality had to go. I had to become this "ideal Christian woman" which meant quiet, unopinionated, always spiritual, and loving to work on crafts and shop at Branson malls on the way home from retreats. Well, none of those things are me. I'm frequently loud, very opinionated, growing spiritually but not always spiritual, hate crafts, and would pull my hair out if after 3 days with a group of people I had to stop and shop at a mall. I had to learn to quit denying who God made me to be. I had to embrace my personality to be free - and whole.

Freedom is a journey. If the Lord had not been on my side, I wouldn't have even known I was in a snare. He set me free. I could list the ways for hours. But tonight, I am most grateful that when He freed me from that fowler's snare, He didn't just turn me loose. He cupped me in His nail-scarred hands and began the lifelong process of making me whole.

Psalm 123

I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He shows us His mercy.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.
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"Eye-hand coordination." That's what ran through my mind the entire time I was memorizing this psalm. When I memorize, I look for repeated words that can help me link sections of the passage. So as I studied this psalm to find memory cues, what quickly jumped out was the repetition of "eyes" and "hand".

I'm focusing on improving health lately, so eye-hand coordination is a concept I'm familiar with. It's one thing that can be an indicator of cognitive function as well as physical ability. This Psalm helps us to see that eye-hand coordination is significant spiritually as well.

At the heart of eye-hand coordination is a simple concept: Where are you looking? Where do you trust? Where do you look to have basic needs met. "Give us this day our daily bread." That's a Biblical prayer, and one that reminds us where we should be looking. Whether basic needs, significant problems like the Psalmist will address in the next chapter, or ridicule and contempt that he addresses here ... we need to look to one place: the hand of God.

The Psalmist's request is interesting. When he looks to God, he doesn't ask God to come against those who are ridiculing him. There's a Biblical basis to expect that God would take seriously ridicule and attacks on one of His own. Acts 9:4 records Jesus asking Saul "Why are you persecuting me?" when he was attacking Christians. Gen. 12:1-3 records God's call of Abram and His promise that those who bless Abram would be blessed and those who curse him would be cursed. As the descendant of Abram, the Psalmist could have prayed this passage and asked God to curse the enemy. In fact, we see other Psalms where the Psalmist does just that. But here, we see the Psalmist's cry at what I believe is a deeper heart level: mercy.

Mercy has been defined as "not getting what we deserve" while grace is "getting what we don't deserve". That's a good Biblical definition of each from a New Testament perspective. The Old Testament word for mercy, however, combines the concepts. So the Psalmist is saying, Lord, we're waiting on you until you give us what we don't deserve and not give us what we do deserve. It's a concept that is echoed three times in two verses; they beg for mercy because of the ridicule and contempt they have endured. They leave it in God's hands how that mercy will look.

Sometimes ridicule and contempt are important in shaping us. I love a quote from Francis Frangipane:

To inoculate me from the praise of man,
He baptized me in the criticism of man,
until I died to control of man.

If God knows that I need to be inoculated from the control of man, removing all ridicule and contempt would not be merciful. Yet in His mercy, God can strengthen me to focus on Him and enable me to learn the lessons I need to learn. Other times, God's mercy might step in and apply a balm to the relationship to end the contempt. Still other times, His mercy might remove me from the situation.

God has a character of mercy. He is ALWAYS merciful. Yet each of us have our own walk with God and our own lessons to learn. As a result, the application of His mercy will look different for everyone. When you cry out to God for mercy, He knows how to respond.

Psalm 122

I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord."
Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.
That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord, according to the statute given to Israel.
There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels."
For the sake of my brothers and friends I will say, "Peace be with you".
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your prosperity.

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Just as Psalm 120 seemed to flow seamlessly into Psalm 121 - a distress call becoming a turning to the Lord - Psalm 122 continues the thought of Psalm 121. Knowing these were sang as a unit on a journey to Jerusalem, I can really see the connections that our artificial chapter divisions hide.

Psalm 121:7-8 contains a promise that God will watch over our lives, and over our coming and going. Psalm 122 opens with a rejoicing in going to the house of the Lord. This speaks to me of what He wants us to do with the freedom we have in the Lord. He gives us security. As believers we know that He is FOR us (Romans 8:31). We know that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:4). So - what to do with all that security and freedom? Psalm 121:7-122:1 gives us a portrait of the Psalmists answer to that question: WORSHIP. Free in the knowledge that God would watch over all his comings and goings, he chooses to go to the temple and rejoices at the journey.

Wow. What an amazing thought - that our joy, our freedom, could be so wrapped up in Him! That is upside-down thinking, but completely Biblical. Our joy and worshipping Him are not at odds. In fact, only in Him will we find true joy. John Piper puts it this way: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." He is about creating willing worshippers - people whose heart wants to worship Him - not reluctant religious robots.

Worship is far more than the service we have on Sunday mornings - though we should gather as believers and experience the unity of corporate worship. Worship, according to the whole counsel of the word of God, is a life focused on loving God and loving others, on glorifying Him through our thoughts, words, and deeds. Worship is what we do at church and at home and at work and at the Wendy's drive-through. Worship occurs when we gather and sing and hear the Word; it also occurs when we turn off a movie that dishonors God and blasphemes His name; when we embrace the outcasts of our society; when our passion for God exceeds our passion for food or money or drugs or sex or work. All these things aren't bad. Some are quite good, under the control of the Spirit. But they are to be experienced secondarily to a passion for Him.

How can we have that kind of passion for Him? I think verse 2 contains a hint: "Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem." How easy it was to worship when standing in front of the temple ... when the Holy of Holies was only feet away ... when the Shekinah glory fell. In my life, the times of strongest passion for God have occurred when I recognized the reality of His presence ... when I knew that through Christ I could get closer to the Holy of Holies than these travellers ever dreamed of - I can go right into His presence (Hebrews 10:19-22). I can confidently enter His sanctuary - and He has made ME His temple! That is almost unfathomable. No, it is more than that. It IS unfathomable, because my past is anything but glorious. I'm not just talking about my pre-Jesus past. I'm talking about last week - yesterday - this morning! Yet because His Spirit indwells me, because His blood covers me, I am His temple. And so are you. Are you feeling the passion with me yet?

When things get routine or ritualistic, when I struggle to have that passion, inevitably I realize that I have stepped into my own flesh and quit believing Him for the dailyness of His presence. That doesn't mean that we don't go through what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul." We all at times don't have the feelings of passion. But we can still have it by faith, by trusting that He is with us and for us and in us and using us and hearing us, and we can rejoice at what He is doing or will do ... even if we don't "feel" it at the moment.

So the Psalmist then moves into a focus on Jerusalem. This passage is rightly used to challenge us to pray for Jerusalem, and we should. This Scripture even tells us HOW to pray. I love that we have permission to pray for Jerusalem to have peace. If there is any place in the world that needs it, that town does. And yet I seem something more in this passage. I see a missions Scripture (surprise!).

Acts 1:8 tells us that the disciples became Jesus' witnesses in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth." I'd like to use verses 3-9 to challenge you to prayer for YOUR Jerusalem. I want you to think about this along two tracks:
1) Your spiritual Jerusalem (your place of worship, a church or small group)
2) Your ministry Jerusalem (the town in which you live and work and do life)

The answers are going to be different for each of us, but I'd like us all to follow this pattern for both your spiritual and ministry Jerusalems based on vv. 3-9:

1. Describe how your Jerusalems are designed (not necessarily literally) (v. 3) - for example, for my hometown I can say that God has placed me in "Fayetteville, an eclectic city filled with people from all over the world." For my church I would say, "Calvary Chapel, a church devoted to sound doctrine and the teaching of the Word of God." Your approach will be unique to your situation.
2. Next, describe what happens in your Jerusalems (vv. 4-5). This can be related to your description, or unrelated if you have something else on your heart. For Fayetteville, I have said, "You have brought the nations to our door. They have a chance here to hear of Your name, to know You through our love." For my church I would say, "This is where people come to hear truth and find a place that tries to find a Biblical balance to many of the non-essential issues that divide Christians."
3. Write a prayer for your Jerusalems. (vv. 6-7)
4. Determine what you will do out of love for God and others (vv. 8-9).

I hope this exercise helps you as it has me. It's hard to know how to turn passages like this into practical application for today, but I believe that the pattern it sets is one that can help us whatever the current situation of our church and ministry "Jerusalems".

The Priority of Love

You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life. (John 5:39-40)

My friend has a book title in her head: "Exercises in Missing the Point." She constantly files away examples when someone majors on minors to the point that they miss the forest for the trees. In John 5, Jesus address the Pharisees who have completely missed him in their deep searching of Scriptures. This is a passage that should give pause to all of us who love Bible study, because we too can miss the point.

I love truth. Perhaps because I walked in deception for so many years, I am vigilant about not believing any more lies. This vigilance, however, has a shadow side. I could easily become a portrait in my friend's book if I allow myself to miss the priority of love.

Love - the greatest commandment. Love God, love others. Love permeates the New Testament. We're told it's the way we fulfill the law. We're instructed to love deeply, sincerely, and continually. Even our presentation of truth is to be done in love. In fact, in one of the most well-known New Testament passages, Paul tells us that without love we are "nothing". We're not just falling short, we're completely failing to communicate when love is not behind every word we speak. Love is our defining mark as believers in Jesus. Our love for God, for each other, and for the world authenticates our message. Our failure to love speaks louder than any words.

Within the body of Christ, we are called to pursue sound doctrine. But even here, love should reign. The reality is, sound doctrine does not equal perfect theology. As you read this blog you will find times when my theology falls short. Bible studies, however well-researched, well-written, and well-presented, are not Scripture. The only perfect theology is found on the pages of the Bible, and the minute we start interpreting our biases and prejudices and cultural lenses can lead us astray. That's why God gives us the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, and we can help each other stay within the bounds of sound doctrine on the essentials of the faith.

But that won't mean we won't have differences on non-essentials, or approach essentials from different angles. That's why we need to be in unity with other believers who can enrich our understanding within the bounds of sound doctrine. For example, sound doctrine about Jesus attests to both His full humanity and full divinity. Some churches emphasize His humanity without diminishing His deity; they remind us that He knows our weaknesses, understands temptation, and entered into His suffering with full physical consequences, so He has compassion on our physical suffering as well. Other churches emphasize His deity without diminishing His humanity; they remind us that He is Lord, that He gave up communion with the Father to come to earth, and that His priority for us is spiritual and eternal. Approaching a different emphasis with love rather than judgment will enable us to learn from the best of each other.

Paul had plenty of people picking him apart. In Thessalonica, Jewish leaders acting out of jealousy led the citizens in an uproar against Paul's team, picking out the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ and using it as a hook to get the people to reject the teaching. Paul's next stop introduced him to a completely different bunch of people. The Bereans are often held up as examples when assessing doctrine. However, it's not usually noted that they weren't looking for errors; instead, they were seeking to confirm truth. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11). 

The Bereans were eager, and they went back to Scripture for confirmation. The Bereans give me to the sense of someone who wonders if the Gospel could be too good to be true and then find out that it is indeed true! What joy, what thrill to hear an awesome teaching and then see it confirmed in the Word! I'm so thankful that God gives us teachers, evangelists, prophets, pastors, to teach us His Word and help us see things from a different angle. Yes, we have to go back to Scripture. We have to test everything against the Word of God, and He's given us the Holy Spirit to assist in that process. But in an attitude of love, we can seek what we can learn from others who are sound on the essentials, even if they differ on non-essentials or approach Scripture from a different angle or with a different cultural background.

In our quest for truth we must never forget that truth is ultimately a Person, Jesus Christ. We encounter a person, not a boxed-in set of beliefs to check off  our list. When we pursue Him, He will lead us to a unity of faith around some key doctrinal essentials. As we walk together in those truths, we must never forget the priority of love. What we do will speak louder than any theology textbook or Bible study, regardless how accurate it might be.

Love God, love others. Take it in and live it out. And let's help each other not miss the point. Like John wrote in his second epistle, let us love in truth.

Ezekiel 8 Moments

Idolatry. That's not really a word we think about a lot these days. Few Christians in the west have to decide what to do with the household idols. We mistakenly think that idolatry is outright, blatant worship of a false god. Scripture gives us a vivid picture to the contrary. In Ezekiel 8, we see idolatry as a spectrum, ranging from false compromises to false worship, with stops at false beliefs and false focuses along the way. 

As I read this chapter today, God immediately struck my heart with the realization that there are many ways idolatry can take place right on the grounds intended to worship God - in our personal temples and corporate places of worship. The visual associated with this text would be that each stage of idolatry was associated with a more intimate part of the temple. On the grounds of the temple, a "statue of jealousy" was erected - blending worship of Yahweh with worship of a false deity. At the entrance to the court of the Israelites, tools intended for worship of Yahweh were used in idolatry, because the people rejected the truth of God and embraced a lie. At the Nicanor gate, women focused on a false god. And in the inner court, the people's backs were turned to the temple and they engaged in full-blown idol worship of the sun. The closer to the holy of holies, the worse the idolatry became. Why? Because it was accepted at the earlier stages, by the time it reached the inner court the people were experts at rationalizing.


I thought a lot about this. The reality is that the more we accept false compromises, the easier it becomes to believe lies and focus on the wrong things and ultimately find ourselves worshipping someone or something other than God. The examples in italics below helped me wrap my mind around how incredibly easy it is to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

It seems like such a small thing. Nothing, really, if you think about it logically. Talking about God and spirituality without reference to Jesus and the cross just makes me more relevant, opens more doors, keeps me in a place of influence. I'm just waiting for the right moment. Paul did it in Acts 17 - appealed to the people of Athens from their level of understanding. Of course, he did make it clear that he was there to proclaim truth. I haven't quite gotten to that point yet. But I will, really. I'm just waiting for the right moment. A false compromise.

8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.

8:6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing – the great abominations that the people of Israel are practicing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see greater abominations than these!”

There is no way that I can reconcile this tragedy with the sovereignty and goodness of God. I can't really admit it at church, but I think God isn't as involved with our lives as we'd like to think. So now as I face these people at work and try to help them, I need to give them something they can understand. I used to think God was watching everything I did but now I'm not so sure. I think I'll just Google some self-help phrases, and lead the staff in a positive thinking exercise. That should be sufficient. When I go to church I'll try to think about this from God's perspective but right now, I just need something that makes everyone feel better. A false belief.

8:7 He brought me to the entrance of the court, and as I watched, I noticed a hole in the wall. 8:8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and discovered a doorway.

8:9 He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations they are practicing here.” 8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure of creeping thing and beast – detestable images – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. 8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.

8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’” 8:13 He said to me, “You will see them practicing even greater abominations!”

Our church has to be relevant. People just don't want to hear doctrine and sit through long sermons. Besides, who are we to say we have a handle on the truth. It's a new century. Some people say we have to hold on to our roots in the midst of a shifting landscape. Maybe that's not the case at all. Maybe letting go of our roots is the only way we can see where this new world takes us. Besides, look at all the failures of the church through the ages. Those roots haven't really helped, have they? A false focus.

8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 8:15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater abominations than these!”

Seriously, did people ever believe that? We have found a new idea, a new way to relate to truth. Our church has embraced this new approach and we boldly move forward. A false worship. 

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, facing east – they were worshiping the sun toward the east!

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! 8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

I wrote these examples not in judgment but in understanding, because at one point or other in my life I've faced each of those struggles. The answer for me - for all of us - can be found in the first verses of the chapter, before Ezekiel was shown these visions.

8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand of the sovereign Lord seized me. 8:2 As I watched, I noticed a form that appeared to be a man. From his waist downward was something like fire, and from his waist upward something like a brightness, like an amber glow. 8:3 He stretched out the form of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue which provokes to jealousy was located. 8:4 Then I perceived that the glory of the God of Israel was there, as in the vision I had seen earlier in the valley.

When we encounter the glory of the living God ... when we perceive His presence and His hand seizes us ... when our focus is on Him and we are increasingly knowing Him ... when we love Him more than life itself ... we find Him fully sufficient. We find clarity that allows us to compromise on non-essential things like worship style but refuses to yield ground on essentials like the object of our worship. We find intimacy that gives us an understanding of the character of God and the person of Christ, and we quit believing lies. We find ourselves so enthralled with Him that we can't focus anywhere else. And we find that false worship holds no appeal whatsoever. Like a newlywed madly in love, we simply don't want anyone else. And in His presence, we find true wholeness.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip - He who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life;
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
_______________________________________________________________

What a beautiful pilgrimage Psalm. I can't imagine a better prayer over a traveler - especially one who would be camping outside and traveling over deserts and facing enemies of both the animal and human kind.

It's important to remember that these Psalms of Ascent were not "chapters" but were just a collection of songs that, among other uses, travelers would sing on the way to Jerusalem for the feasts. So as I have reflected and focused on memorizing this Psalm this week I can't help connecting it to Psalm 120 - which would be what they sang immediately prior to this one. In Psalm 120 the Psalmist honestly cries out to God about the problems of living among those who hate peace. He is among deception and violence on an ongoing basis. In that context, Psalm 121 sounds like a declaration of faith: Yes, here is what is bad - but guess what ... my help comes from God.

That is exactly what we need to hear right now. When you memorized or reflected on Psalm 120, what realities did you cry out to God? He wants us to do that - but equally He wants us to follow that cry with a declaration of faith. Our help comes from God - the creator of heaven and earth. I think that is very intentional terminology used by the Psalmist ... He links the Lord, Yahweh, to creation. The God is Israel isn't just a territorial God, He is the God who created the earth. When we need help, we need someone who can handle a big job. I would say creating from nothing is a big job!

Verses 3-8 move into the arena of protection. We often spiritualize these verses, and they have a definite spiritual application. But as I picture a traveler singing this on a pilgrimage, I can't help but think how literal these travelers would have taken these verses. If I'm on a journey, I want to know God has my back! Asking God for safe travels is Biblical - but in a context.

Remember Ezra leading the travelers back to Jerusalem? In Ezra 8:21-23 prior to leading the Israelites back to Jerusalem from captivity (another time when the Psalms of Ascent were sung), Ezra declared a fast and prayed for a safe journey. His reason is significant: "I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, 'The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him.'"

God's glory was at stake in the protection of His people on a journey! That is pretty amazing. The reality is that Ezra's journey as well as the journey up to the feasts are God-honoring, God-glorifying journeys, kingdom-centered journeys. When we are on a kingdom-centered journey, God is with us. And when we are on that kind of journey, I think we do have permission to pray this Psalm literally as well as spiritually.

In the other window on my computer is an amazing message by Christine Caine from Hillsong Australia. She's talking about purpose, about mission - she said that we are called to take risks for God. We're not called to be tame but to make a difference. She compared our choice to animals living in their natural environment (risky) versus living in a zoo (safe). If we live life in the wild, then we need God's protection. We need His help to keep from slipping and protection from the sun and watching over our every step. She recounted 3 times when she barely missed terrorist attacks. Risky? Sure. But God was with her.

That doesn't mean we'll never have tragedies or trials. But that will happen for God's glory too. He'll still watch over us in the midst of it. However, the important thing for our part is to remain on mission with God. If we do that, we can pray that as we are about God's business taking light into the darkness instead of storing up more light for ourselves, we will find Him with us in a special way.

Psalm 120

I am currently working on memorizing the Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134) with a group of women. I thought I'd cross-post my devotionals on each Psalm here.
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I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me.
Save me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.
What will He do to you, and what more besides, o deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree.
Woe to me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

Psalm 120 is a beautiful reminder that not all our prayers find immediate resolution. Sometimes, the point of prayer is just to be heard by God.

To grasp the depth of the psalmist's cry, let's look at the full context of this Psalm. The Psalmist was embroiled in some sort of situation where he longed for peace but others wanted war. In the midst of a conflict we never wanted, Paul's command to live peaceably "as much as it depends on you" can feel insufficient. When we desperately want peace, our hearts wish that Paul had given us a promise instead of a command. Like a child, we just want God to fix it.

The first of our Psalms brings to mind occurrences in all of our lives when we found ourselves desperately wanting peace, but embroiled instead in conflict. Maybe it was a relationship, or a work situation, or even a church setting where we discovered that everyone else wasn't as eager for peace as we were. I've been there, and so have you. I've cried out to God to just make the conflict go away, to make things right again. As I worked on this Psalm, I could identify with the depth of the psalmist's cry in verse 1.

The word used for "distress" in verse 1 is very interesting. It means "anxiety, trouble" as you might imagine, but it is the exact word used in 1 Samuel 1:6 to identify Hannah's husband's second wife, translated in some cases as "rival wife". Imagine the pain of a rival wife. Imagine the distress Hannah felt as this other women kept provoking her over her childlessness. Hannah wanted a peaceful life, but someone in her life kept stirring up conflict ... someone close enough to make it hurt very badly. That's the type of distress the psalmist experienced. And it drove him to God.

Verse 1 recounts that the psalmist called on the Lord and God answered him. We don't see an immediate resolution in the psalm, but we do see an assurance of judgment. The psalmist cried out for God to save him and God's answer wasn't necessarily immediate. Instead, he received the assurance he needed to write that God would definitely punish the deceiver. In our own trials and pain, delayed justice can be hard to swallow. Yet it was just this type of delayed justice that Paul wrote about to the church at Thessalonica:

"God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you, and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels." (2 Thess. 1:6-7)

God will fix it alright - when Jesus comes. Don't get me wrong - this doesn't excuse us from the responsibility to do all we can to seek justice now, to bring glimpses of His kingdom to earth, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can and should fight injustice and work for righteousness to prevail ... as much as it depends on us. The psalmist testified in verse 7 that he spoke up. He tried. But at the end of the day, when we've done our best and "they" are still for war - when the conflicts in our family and church remain, when the wrong law is upheld in court, when the nice guy finishes last ... we have an assurance of a perfect justice yet to come.

We won't always live in Meshech and dwell in Kedar. As long as we do, we have a lot of work ahead of us. But we can throw our hearts into that work knowing how things turn out in the end!

"Watch Over Your Heart"

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

"Guard your heart." That's advice that I've heard ever since I became a Christian and frankly, I never really knew what it meant.

Since I come from a background where I lived by my feelings for years - with horrible results - I really related to  Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" The first time I read that verse, I was stunned. I'd been told all my life to follow my heart. I had never considered that it could lead me astray.

So, I carried my understanding of Jeremiah 17:9 into my interpretation of Proverbs 4:23. I had to guard my heart, I thought, because otherwise it would deceive me. I had to protect me from my heart.

This interpretation was made easier to accept by a heavy dose of guilt. A friend who has lived abroad told me once that the U.S. is a guilt/fear culture. Basically that means guilt and fear influence more of our worldview than we realize. I also happened to grow up in small, fundamentalist churches that communicated an unhealthy degree of guilt and shame. For whatever reason, I was hardwired to translate "guarding my heart" as "waiting for my heart to try to attack me."

So last night as I was working through a couple of verses in Proverbs (part of my bedtime routine this year), I came across Proverbs 4:23. I saw right away that the speaker - communicating as a parent to a child - exhorts the listener to pay close attention to his words which will result in life and health. Then the speaker gives the first specific advice of the section: "Above all else, guard your heart". More than anything else - the top of the list - for life and health, guard our hearts. Why? "For it is the wellspring of life." I decided to dig deeper.

What I found has been nothing short of profound for me. I've been eager all day to share this new understanding. Let me unfold it with a couple of definitions:

"Guard" (or "keep" in some translations) is a word meaning guard, protect, maintain, watch, inspect. It's a word used in the context of guarding or maintaining a vineyard or a fortification as part of the city wall.

"Heart" is the "totality of man's immaterial nature" (Zodhiates), or the "middle of something". Think of the phrase, "the heart of the matter", for understanding.

"Diligence" is really another form of "keep" - it really means "above all keeping". 

So here is where I began to see the pieces fall into place. I summarized these definitions in the following paraphrase of the verse:

"Vigilantly watch over your inner being - inspecting it, protecting it, maintaining it preventively - because it is the source of life itself. (my paraphrase)" 

How do I "vigilantly watch"? Not in the sense of a prison guard, watching so the prisoner doesn't escape. Instead, I "vigilantly watch" as a vineyard keeper or watchman would - watching for cracks in the wall, blight on the plant; protecting by warding off attackers and providing nourishment; maintaining by daily attention to detail. Here's the key to my new look at this verse: You don't look for your wall or vineyard to do something wrong ... you take care of them.

Guarding my heart is a lot more about protecting it from attack than protecting me from my heart. As Jeremiah 17:9 notes, the heart is deceitful -- the old heart. Ezekiel 36:26 tells us that God gives us a new heart in the New Covenant: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26, NIV). My new heart is a wellspring of LIFE. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament, used by Jesus and the early church and the source of over half of our New Testament quotes of the Old Testament), the word "life" in Proverbs 4:23 is translated "zoe" - the life of the spirit or soul. It's the same word used for our new life in Christ. When God gave me a new heart, He didn't give me a deceitful one. He gave me one filled with life. With Him.

Can my flesh still deceive me? Absolutely. Do I need to make sure that I'm not being deceived and guard myself from walking in the flesh. Of course. Walking in the Spirit will always be a choice I have to make, a choice empowered by the Holy Spirit and the freedom He gives. However, this new insight has given me a new appreciation for God's transformative work in my life. My heart has been under attack lately, and I had wrongly thought that my heart was attacking me. Yet God showed me this new angle, this new prism for Proverbs 4:23 and I realized that I have a new heart, which I am to guard and protect. It won't attack me (though the old one might) - but it can be attacked.

1 John 3:19-20 says that God is greater than our heart. Whenever our heart condemns us, we can set it to rest in His presence by knowing we are of the truth as we see evidence of love in our actions and in our truth. So when the accuser comes in like a flood with thoughts that attack my life-filled heart, I have to protect it. I have to raise up the only banner that works - the cross of Christ - and quiet my heart in His presence with the truth of who He's made me to be, evidenced by the life He lives through me, flowing out of that new heart.

I've learned to see guarding my heart from multiple angles now. Sure, I don't want to be deceived. But I also don't want to sit in fear of my heart when God has so thoroughly redeemed and transformed it. I'm learning to see guarding my heart as watching over something valuable. We guard what we treasure. We protect it. We don't wait for it to attack us. We just make sure nothing attacks it.

Maybe you haven't had the struggle with interpreting this verse that I have. And I'm sure that I'll be learning more about this for the rest of my life. But I'm rejoicing tonight in a freedom, a lifting of a condemnation. I'm singing one of my favorite Keith Green songs - "River of Life". Share it with me as part of this worship medley below. And enjoy the life flowing from your new heart.

Waiting on the Ice Storm

All week our region has been distracted by anticipating an ice storm. I'm sure part of the reason is that it was a year ago this week that we were hit by "the storm of the century"; almost everyone I know has a story about the 2009 Ice Storm. Being without power and unable to go anywhere brought neighbors closer, revealed the hearts of co-workers, allowed us to learn to laugh and grow through challenges, and made us appreciate simply surviving.

So, as the forecasters predicted a near-repeat, we all watched carefully. The empty store shelves at WalMart made national news. I half-joked that the way out of a recession is bad weather. As the week progressed, the storm slowed and increased in power. The arrival time was pushed back, and back, and back. Ice totals decreased, snow totals increased. By Thursday everyone was on pins and needles, ready for ... something.

As it turned out, so far it hasn't been nearly as bad as anticipated. Where I live we had enough ice to make driving dangerous, but we still have power. I watched it sleet all morning and am watching it snow all afternoon. Some areas still face a lot of ice, and I'll be praying for them. But the storm has allowed me time for reflection - something I always appreciate. What has surfaced is how much waiting on the ice storm parallels the waiting we do in the Christian life.

We do a lot of waiting. Waiting on answered prayers. Waiting on direction. Waiting on a word from the Lord. Waiting on transformation in our hearts. All the waiting, shadows of the ultimate waiting - waiting on His return. What have I learned from waiting on the ice storm that can help me in the spiritual discipline of waiting?

• Prepare. A season of waiting is not a season of inactivity. We can prepare in many ways. We prepare for answered prayer by moving forward with things we'll need to do if the prayer is answered. One of my favorite examples of this is from a book I read. A character was trying to purchase a bookstore. She decided to spend the days waiting on the response preparing by doing things she would have to do if the prayer was answered, things that would need to be done regardless of whether God said yes or no. She packed her apartment (she would have to move whether the answer was yes or no); she cleared out the bookstore's storage room (which would have to be cleared regardless); she decided to be ready with her business plan. When the yes came, she was able to move forward quickly. When we're waiting on direction, it's a similar type of preparation. If we are asking God which job to take, we can still prepare by learning about both companies. Sometimes God guides through the process itself. If we're waiting on a word from the Lord we can spend extra time in the Word. And of course, Scripture teaches us the best way to prepare for return of the Lord is by living holy lives and being about our Father's business. 
• Maintain a sense of anticipation. We can enjoy a season of waiting by enjoying the anticipation. I don't enjoy surprises because I feel I've lost the opportunity to look forward to something. Currently my husband and I are planning a mini-vacation. I anticipate that trip every day. We talk about it, research it, think about it. That's what we can do in a season of waiting on God. We can anticipate the answer; we can get excited about what He might reveal; we can eagerly look forward to spending eternity with Him. Have you heard the song "Fingerprints and Noses"? It talks about a group of developmentally challenged kids who, when they are taught about the return of Christ, run to the window and press their fingerprints and noses against the pane, looking for Him to come. We can maintain that sense through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
• Involve others. Our time of waiting on the ice storm hasn't been kept to ourselves. All week people have shared what they've seen and heard. Our city started a Twitter feed to keep people informed if the power went out. When something like this is coming, we want others to know about it. So I asked myself - why not let others know when I'm anticipating answered prayers, needing direction, hoping for a word from God? Why not tell those who have never heard about the joys of anticipating Christ's return? This week has been a good reminder to get outside myself. 
• Function as a community. Closely related is the importance of being a community. Last year's ice storm brought neighbors together who rarely communicated. People relied on each other because we had too. Fayetteville is extremely eclectic, and full of opinionated people (guilty!). But during the ice storm, differences didn't matter. We were one community with one problem and one goal - to survive! In a season of waiting, we can bond with the body of Christ like no other time. We can help each other and pray for each other and move forward with God-honoring plans together. Waiting is a great time to remind ourselves that we were created to be in community. 
• Don't let down your guard. It's so easy when something doesn't happen quickly, or in the way we anticipated, to let down our guard. Prior to last year's storm, we had a lot of "false alarms" in Fayetteville. We have this "bubble" of Ozark Mountains that often deflects the worst of weather. So people didn't take the warnings as seriously as they should have, and many were unprepared. This year, that didn't happen. Although it wasn't as bad as anticipated, people learned not to let down their guard. When we are in a time of waiting, God may not answer as we anticipate, guide as soon as we hoped, speak the word we preferred. Don't give up. He is still there, and knows what is best for all involved and that timing that is perfect. Throughout the centuries Christians have wondered about His coming, since it hasn't happened yet. 1 Peter reminds us that His waiting is not because He's slow about His promises. He waits because all have not had the opportunity to believe in Him. One of the best ways to stay excited about His return is to be on mission with Him. Every people group that is reached with the Gospel takes us one step closer to His promised return. Whatever you're waiting on - don't let down your guard if it doesn't happen. 

Personally, I'm glad things weren't as bad, and I'm enjoying a day to just watch it snow. It's fun to have a day off and have a house that's already cleaned because I didn't want to have to clean without electricity. I'm going to enjoy today greatly. But I'm glad for the week we've had, because I had a lot to learn while waiting on the ice storm.

Surrender

(<a href='https://www.freepik.com/photos/background'>Background photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com</a>)

 

Tell them, ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says to give your masters this message. 27:5 “I made the earth and the people and animals on it by my mighty power and great strength, and I give it to whomever I see fit. 27:6 I have at this time placed all these nations of yours under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made all the wild animals subject to him. 27:7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon. 27:8 But suppose a nation or a kingdom will not be subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suppose it will not submit to the yoke of servitude to him. I, the Lord, affirm that I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it with war, starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. 27:9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination, by dreams, by consulting the dead, or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be subject to the king of Babylon.’ 27:10 Do not listen to them, because their prophecies are lies. Listening to them will only cause you to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. 27:11 Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” (Jeremiah 27:4b-11)

Forgive me for not sounding very spiritual, but I think I would have had a problem with this word if I lived in Zedekiah's day. I'm not sure whether it's my American independent spirit, my opinionated personality, or human instinct - or a combination of all three - but I would have seriously questioned the source of any prophecy that required me to surrender.

And I think that's the point.

As I reflected on that tendency this morning in my quiet time - sincerely asking God about my reaction - I realized that while the circumstances of this story are about Israel's judgment for sins by the captivity of Babylon, the transferable principle to my own life is that surrender is always going to be against my natural instincts. It's never going to feel warm and fuzzy. And it will more than likely involve a struggle.

Nature reflects the truth that growth and transformation often require struggle. The caterpillar that struggles out of the cocoon, the infant that struggles through the birth canal, even the "growing pains" children experience, and the sore muscles that come with exercise, all testify that it isn't easy to go to the next level. At some point in the process, it's necessary to surrender to the struggle in order to see the benefits on the other side. If I constantly fight against the struggles I face in my daily workouts, I'll never advance beyond 10 minutes at level one. If I yield to the struggle, press in and endure, then I reap the benefits and find myself chugging along for a half hour.

The same is true in the things of the Spirit. When we commit to allowing God to develop and sanctify us, we encounter struggles. Those struggles may be internal, or they may involve external sources. It's especially hard to surrender to a growth opportunity that involves emotional hurt, challenges to our comfort level, or disrupted dreams. But if the struggle is truly God's instrument in our lives, we don't grow by going over, around, or under it, nor by fighting against it. We only grow by going through it. We only grow through surrender.

Sometimes the challenge of surrender involves God allowing us to be part of someone else's growth. When we're committed to being on mission with God, we are going to be in relationship with other believers. That means that misunderstandings, conflicts, and disappointments can easily arise. When they do, we have to surrender to allowing God to develop and sanctify us as well as the other person (or people) involved. None of us are asked to fully "arrive" before God uses us. That means there are a lot of imperfect people on the field, in our pulpits, on prayer teams and support teams and kitchen committees. And God is up to something in every single life. When we walk in humility and love, we will have many opportunities to surrender to His work. That might mean forgiving an oversight that the offender never realizes enough to ask forgiveness about. It might mean choosing to forge a different path and lead by example rather than lash out when someone acts immaturely. Sometimes it might require a forthright conversation that is challenging to those who dislike confrontation. Other times it might require biting our tongue - an even more challenging proposition for some of us. Through it all, we have to remember that we're all growing together - our growth and that of others is at stake.

That's doesn't make surrender any easier. I fear my first reaction to a Jeremiah 27-type experience will always be to fight back. Sometimes that's necessary - spiritual warfare is a very real part of being on mission with God. That's why walking in the Spirit, staying in God's Word, and having a strong network of prayer partners who can give us wisdom and help us discern the spirits is so important. I want to always be willing to fight the battles God asks me to fight ... and to drop my weapons and surrender when He makes it clear that the struggle is His instrument for growth in my life.

The lyrics of this song by Lincoln Brewster express well the process and pain of surrender. I hope they bless you as much as they bless me. The bottom line of what God has been showing me today is that He made me the way I am, and He uses my very willingness to fight for His purposes. What I have to learn is that sometimes the battle He calls me to is surrender.

I'm giving you my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my King
I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you

I'm singing You this song, I'm waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain
© 2005 Integrity Music

Fame, Honor, and Praise - and Haiti

"...I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise...." (Jer. 13:11b, NET)

For a couple of weeks now, it's been on my heart to blog about this verse. Its words ring in my ears and challenge my heart. Yet the morning I read it, the news began to unfold out of Haiti that the earthquake the night before had been more than powerful and severe - it had been devastating. Like many of you, I've spent the last 11 days with one word hovering over all my interactions, thoughts, and prayers: Haiti. I didn't take time to blog, partly because my computer was being updated (a special gift from my dear husband) but partly because my mind was 200 miles off the coast of the US with a people I've never met.

Over the past couple of days I felt the familiar tug growing stronger. I knew I needed to write - had to write - and intended to write two blogs ... the original one about the Jeremiah verse and a second one about Haiti. However, as I prayed and carved out the time to write God does what He is so good at doing in my life: He interrupted my intentions with a lesson:

God's fame, honor, and praise are not threatened by the situation in Haiti. He is being glorified and will be glorified through this undeniably hard-to-explain disaster. The question for each of us - and each believer in Haiti - is whether we will respond as His "special people" should and be a part of bringing Him the fame, honor, and praise that He deserves as much today as on Jan. 11.

I don't claim to be the most mature or experienced Christian on the block. But I have lived enough to know that God is not glorified apart from the circumstances of our lives. God's glory isn't an abstract concept. It's what happens when our theology meets our reality. The Greek for "glory" comes from a word referring to an accurate weight or measure. It's an accurate reflection of what we know something to be. When we glorify God, we reflect who He is in our lives. We reflect the image of Christ in the "stuff" of life.

Sometimes that "stuff" can be pretty challenging. Sometimes it can be downright hard. And occasionally, as in Haiti, it can be humanly impossible. Ah, that qualifier is so important. Humanly. For all things are possible with God.

What's the difference between fame, honor, and praise, and how have we seen each these past 11 days?  

•  "Fame" refers to God's reputation, His "name". When we make God famous, we are glorifying who He says He is to others. "Fame" can't happen when we are in isolation. To make God famous, someone has to see Him at work in our lives. This is what God said would happen as Israel obeyed His commands - people would say "what other nation has a god so near to them like the LORD" (see Deuteronomy 4:1-8). How has God been made famous in Haiti? I have seen so many news reports referencing how resilient the people are as they rely on God, how they are happy to have escaped with their Bibles, how their faith is their bulwark these days. God is all over the place on CNN and other networks, and I'll bet that wasn't on their agenda a month ago. 

• "Honor" is adoration and praise related to God's deeds and attributes. To honor someone means to give them a preferred place. For example, a man will often honor a woman by holding a door open for her, giving her the preferred place of walking through the doorway first. In many cultures elders are honored by being provided the best room in the house, the best seat at the table, and the best piece of meat. When we honor God, we use our praise to give Him a preferred place in our lives. Honor can happen one-on-one with Him, as we quietly whisper "Oh God, I wouldn't have made it through that meeting without You". It can also take place when we deflect praise given to us heavenward. Corrie Ten Boom used to lift any flowers she received at a speaking engagement toward the ceiling, honoring the One whose message she proclaimed. How has God been honored in Haiti? Survivor after survivor has said, "God rescued me" or "It doesn't matter, I still have God." He is being given the preferred place of preeminance based on His deeds and attributes.
  

• "Praise" refers to "beauty, splendor, glory, excellence." It's what happens when God shines through. Like fame, praise can't take place in isolation. Someone has to see Him shining for praise to occur. Certainly we as individuals can praise God, but the context of this passage refers to God's people's obedience bringing Him praise from those who watch. Deuteronomy 4 makes it clear that God had the onlookers in mind - He wanted the nations to worship Him as well as Israel. When you see someone handle a situation with such grace and beauty that you can say, "I see Jesus in you", then He is being praised in the sense intended by this passage. How has God been praised in Haiti? One of the best examples I have seen is the impromptu establishment of interdenominational, open-air churches. Pastors, church members, and others report that unity has come through this - a beautiful unity they had prayed for but had been unable to achieve. Today's National Day of Repentance brought many of these mini-churches together for a larger-scale worship and prayer service. That's beautiful - and that's God. 

No, God's fame, honor, and praise are not challenged in the least by Haiti. Instead that tragedy is simply a path over which His people walk to glorify Him even more. I'm not wasting any energy trying to figure out "why". Sometimes things happen just because we live in a fallen world. I'll let God assign cause. I'm just going to enjoy watching Him receive all the fame, honor, and praise. And I'll look away from Haiti to my own life, and focus on the fame, honor, and praise He wants to bring from my life - whatever the circumstances.

Wow what a month

Wow, what a start to January! I posted here Jan. 1, entered a fun season of rest, turned my computer over to my husband for repair, and looked up and it was Jan. 20! Wow. The good news is that I have my computer back and will be blogging again soon. My computer is faster than ever and I'm enjoying that. The bad news is I'm too tired to write tonight! Just wanted you all to know I haven't fallen off the map!

Active Rest

I'm in week 3 of an exercise program and have learned a lot about a concept called "Active Rest". Basically, Active Rest means that you do something other than lay on the couch like a slug, but you don't have to engage in strenuous activity, raise your heart rate, or otherwise do anything that appears like a workout. A nice walk in the neighborhood, cleaning house, taking the stairs instead of the elevator - all these count as "Active Rest" in my exercise plan.

I've found more than one analogy to my spiritual life in my renewed effort to lose weight and pursue total body health. You'll probably hear more on that to come ... but maybe not. Because after a very full, intense year which capped off a solidly busy decade, God is calling me to a season of Active Rest. And I'm so grateful.

As I began to pray near the end of my major project and to wonder what God had for me next, I pulled out my list of ministry dreams and things on my heart. I wondered if now would be the time to pursue one of those items. I even had a very specific plan for one particular interest. As I prayed over it all, I sensed God whisper something very different to me.

Rest.

At first it was just a thought ... something I could easily have shrugged off as one too many late nights talking. After learning so much about the unfinished work of missions, it would have been so easy to think that was the voice of the enemy or my flesh, and to justify a continued full court press.

Rest.

As I continued to dialogue with God, I found myself drawn to the idea. I began wondering, then hoping He was calling me to rest. I wondered how long it would be. A weekend? A week? Maybe even a month?

A season of rest, restoration, reflection, refreshment, and relationship.


The more I prayed, the more specific He became. And the more I sought confirmation, the more He brought to mind the past decade. Let me share a bit of my story because I want to encourage you in the reality that God takes us through seasons - and every year doesn't look like the one before it.



After I started walking with the Lord, He and I spent about 3-4 years getting a lot of things straight (that would be Him, straightening ME out, just for the record). Once I unlearned a lot of wrong things I'd thought all my life and developed some consistency in my relationship with Him, He began revealing spiritual gifts to me and opening doors of service. That season was capped off with a devotional that I wrote in 1999 which helped me process my journey to that point.


Then 10 years ago, during 2000, God first opened a door for me to teach weekly. First my husband and I together taught couples, then I taught a women's group. I loved every minute of it. In 2002 when my step-daughter came to live with us, God answered my prayer to give me a mother's love for her by making her the child of my heart. He also asked me to lay down the women's group, which I gladly did. Through those parenting years, I tried to answer His call to minister to the one with His love. He alone is the judge of that effort.


As that season ended in 2005 with her graduation from high school (though of course, parenting doesn't end as you all know very well), God opened a door for me to pursue a Master's degree in Global Civilization. I could hardly believe it at first ... that God would actually call me to study and read. Wow, a bookworm's dream. He did it in the way He knew I would receive it the best ... from my husband. And Bob went on to be my biggest cheerleader and strongest supporter. Without his encouragement when I wondered if I should continue, and without the prayer support from friends and family on my prayer team, I don't think I could have made it. This program has been an estimated 1600 hours of labor over 4 1/2 years ... with almost 20% of the entire program completed during the past 4 months. But it has been so worth it. I have learned so much about God and His kingdom purposes.


During the first part of my "school season" my husband and I were SO privileged to be caretakers for my mother-in-law in her last years. Such a blessing ... I learned so much during that time. I've written about her legacy on this blog previously, so I won't repeat the details here except to say that caretaking, while challenging, was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.


Over the past 8 years since I obeyed God and dropped the women's group from my plate, He has opened lots of ministry doors ... teaching, writing, helping ... in so many ways He has kept fanning into flames the gifts He's given me. But those "big 3" - parenting, caretaking, and school - have been near the top of my list of priorities all along during their respective seasons. They have been the things that I fit everything else around, after God and my husband and, of course, my job.


Now, though, for the first time since I was newly walking with Him, God is asking me not to be busy. That doesn't mean I'll do nothing, of course - that's where the Active Rest concept becomes helpful. Of course I'll continue to work, to fulfill my roles as a wife and parent and daughter and sister and friend, to care for the home God has given us, to be part of the community at church. There will be times we host and practice hospitality together; times when God gives me something to write and I blog; opportunities to encourage others; occasions when I substitute teach for Bible study. But I won't be going at a hectic pace. I won't be a slug on the couch, but I won't be trying to see how far I can pedal in half an hour either.

As I've sought God for clarification, He has spoken two additional words to my heart so far: healthy and balance. He wants me to be as healthy as possible physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally. He wants me to have some balance restored to life ... balance that was lost at times over the past decade. Most of all, He wants me to pursue HIM with a passion.

I'm so happy because He is being proactive in this ... calling me to this season before I drift away from my first love (that would be HIM). I've been around enough to know that it's easier to be healthy if you have a good starting place. While people become healthy all the time after cancer or a heart attack, it's much harder than if they had been healthy before the problem struck. Preventing weight gain is easier than losing weight. And so on...you get the point.

I don't know everything that this season will hold. I don't know how long it will last. I told God yesterday that I sure hope it lasts a while. I'm realizing more and more how much I need it. The first day of this season of rest, Dec. 30, I was anxious and tearful. I realized that I was putting pressure on myself to get everything done in one day that I'd put off during the most intense phase of my final project for school. I was trying to get every errand done AND clean house AND blog AND begin a season of rest. HA! What an irony ... but how much it showed this Martha that I really need a Mary season.

So, I enter it with gladness. I'll blog as God puts things on my heart, but don't worry if you don't hear from me for days or even weeks at a time. You'll know where to find me ... right over there by the chair, sitting at His feet.