Wednesday, July 23, 2014

This is only a test…


Have you ever felt that your life is like an ongoing sound check?  You know: Testing, testing… Just when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you discover it’s an oncoming train. Or you face yet another obstacle or are forced to endure one more hardship.  I recently read a humorous spin on this, called “you know it’s going to be a bad day when…” Perhaps some of you can relate.                                                                                                            
  •   You see a 20/20 news team in your office
  •   You call suicide prevention hotline, and they put you on hold.
  •   You turn on the news, and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city.
  •   Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway.
  •   Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat.
  •   Your income tax check bounces.
  •   The timer on your coffee maker is set to brew at 8:00 a.m. and you forgot to put the coffee pot in the dispenser.
  •   You put both contact lenses in the same eye.
  •   You spend ten minutes looking for something you’re already wearing.
  •   Your twin sister forgot your birthday.

OK, so chances are that none of those things is in your immediate future, but what about others, such as

  •   You are 23, and despite a commitment to Christ, the earnest prayers of hundreds for your healing, and the love and support of a wonderful family, you succumb to cancer (a young friend who recently lost the battle, but won the war)
  •   You remain unemployed after months, if not years, of seeking work
  •   Your home feels increasingly unsafe due to emotional or physical abuse
  •   Your childhood innocence was shattered by sexual abuse
  •   One of your parents abandoned you just when you needed them most
  •   You are drowning in debt and see no way of escape
  •   You are facing retirement with uncertainty and financial instability

Whatever it is, we sometimes conclude that God is testing us.  And that’s if we’re even willing to believe there might be a redemptive purpose in what we’re going through.  But if we’re honest, the thoughts that occupy our minds during such times often sound more like this: Where are you, God? Are you on a break? What about all your promises?  (We may even defiantly quote scriptures.) You know, like those listed in Psalm 27:

For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.

Essentially, we the created ones, put God on trial. We demand answers.  Like Jerry McGuire, we may say we want the truth, to which God often replies, “Your 3½ lbs of brain can’t handle the truth. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”

So why did the Psalmist write “when trouble comes…he will keep you safe”?  Sounds pretty straight-forward to me. I don’t pretend to understand God in all of these circumstances, but he has clearly stated in His word that my ways are not His ways, my thoughts His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8,9).  And He pointedly doesn’t just declare His thoughts and ways to be different…He says that they are HIGHER.  Like, exponentially higher. They ultimately lift us up!  That is encouraging!

In the same way, the writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 11 that faith is ‘the conviction of things not seen.’  Not clear.  It is not faith if God can be figured out by using our mind and senses alone.  It involves a trust leap. Continuing in Psalm 27, David reminds us of the need for tenacity in our faith.

My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"  Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

I find myself as I write this in just one of these places.  It may be a “wait and see” moment…or a “trust and obey” time.  The jury is still out.  As a worship leader, singer and teacher, much of what I do comes from the ability to use my voice properly.  Five days ago, I had a polyp removed from one of my vocal cords. I have not been able to talk, sing, or even whisper since then.  The doc says if I behave and don’t abuse it, I should be back to good as new soon.  But since then, I’ve heard horror stories from other singers who claim their voice was never the same after similar surgery.  (Reminds me of the old joke about the guy who asks his doctor, “Hey Doc, after my shoulder surgery, will I be able to play the violin?” to which the doctor replies, “I don’t see why not.”  The patient exclaims, “That’s amazing, ‘cause I never could before.”)

For me, just going several days with limited ability to communicate has caused me to ask God questions.  What are you trying to teach me here?  Do I depend too much on what I say to others and not enough on what I do for them.  How many other precious gifts do I possess which I take completely for granted?  And, how much must you love me to put up with such childish whining (in my spirit, remember—I can’t talk!)?
Ultimately, where I want to live is not only trusting in the God of the Happy Endings.  Rather, I want the assurance and conviction of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, who concluded:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

Indeed, his ways are higher than mine. For whatever I am facing right now, I can trust Him. After all, it is never His intention to let us drag Him down to where we are, limited by our finite bodies and brains.  Rather, He would use His limitless resources and bountiful grace to lift us up to where He is, enabling us to tread on the heights where angels attend Him. Believe me, friends, there are worse things to hear from one’s God than “testing, testing.” In just such times, may our response be “trusting, trusting.”

tad

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Grace that fits 'just right'

(Author’s Note: Portions of this article are reprinted from a previous blog, but it addresses a topic which I believe cannot be belabored. A key to looking for God’s activity in even the hard places of life is in knowing that his custom-fitted grace is always available to us…just for the asking.)

One of my favorite stories from childhood was about Goldilocks and the three bears. You remember… the one where the little blonde girl happens upon a house in the woods and ends up sitting in someone else’s chair, sampling someone else’s soup, and sleeping in someone else’s bed.  If memory serves (and lately, I confess, it seems a tad overworked), the catch phrase in each of those situations was something like “this one is JUST RIGHT.” There was always something very satisfying about that statement, since to me it validated that little people, like big people, are individuals with different needs and different tastes.  Never mind that blondie was breaking and entering.  I identified with her curiosity, and, as a high J on the Meyers-Briggs personality inventory, I understood her need for closure before moving on to the next task. 

As a child I was labeled a worrier, particularly by my mom.  She often commented in my grade school years that I would have an ulcer at 15.  What did I have to worry about?  Well, for one thing, I was going to be getting this ulcer in a few years according to my mother.  And then there were the monthly checkups to see if I had bitten my finger nails.  If I was guilty (and, obviously, there was no hiding the evidence), I promptly received a spanking.  (Not sure which was the cause and which was the effect in that case!) 

But part of my anxiety was the result of being blessed with a creative imagination.  Upon viewing virtually any situation, I could easily project myself into those circumstances—good or bad.  This was a plus if I imagined myself a lifeguard saving a drowning victim or a firemen rescuing a cat from a burning building.  But on the flip side, it caused great dread or fear if I witnessed sad, tragic or frightful things, either in real life or just watching TV.  Once, I got physically sick following a trip to the junk yard, where my father took me to view the wrecked remains of a car driven by a member of our church.  Just seeing the steering wheel imbedded in the driver’s seat traumatized me, so vivid was my imagination. 

And then there was the time, while in the back seat of my parents’ car, we happened past the local hospital, and I saw a poor man who had no arms or legs sitting upright in a wheelchair.  At first horrified, my shock quickly moved to fear that someday I would be so handicapped…then to worry that I would be utterly helpless and totally dependent on others…and finally to despair that I would not be able to handle it and probably die.  The mental and emotional progression which seems almost humorous to me now was very real then, and I will never forget the comfort my mom brought me at that moment.  She quietly reminded me that the man I saw in the wheel chair had just the grace he needed for that situation.  The reason I couldn’t imagine handling the challenges he faced was because God wasn’t asking me to.  And, I concluded that day, that whatever God allowed into my life would be accompanied by a custom-made grace that fit my particular circumstances “just right.”

 One of Webster’s definitions of grace is simply “help given man by God.”  Since I have concluded, like Goldilocks, that I am unique and that my life circumstances are similar to and yet unlike anyone else’s at any given moment, a “one size fits all” grace simply will not do.  Rather, my loving Father tailor-makes the particular faith, comfort, spiritual resources and supportive relationships I need to endure with joy whatever comes my way. 

Perhaps you have found yourself looking at someone in grief or misery and saying to yourself, “I could never handle that,” “I would never survive that much pain,” or worse yet, “I would lose my faith.”  In the Old Testament, Job’s wife took an inventory of his list of tragedies and concluded “curse God and die.”  In the HISTORY’S WORST ADVICE category, we have a winner!  I believe that reaction might come from an assumption that God is not very discriminating or particular in the type of care we need for life’s challenges.  We might see this type of divine oversight as little more than fatalism, a kind of que sera, sera existence.  Whatever will be, will be.  After all, isn’t this life just a ‘vale of tears’?  Well, yes and no.  In John’s gospel, Jesus promised us:  “In this world you will have suffering,” and “I will not leave you comfortless.  I will come to you.”

Think about it: would any thinking, feeling person ever offer the same counsel and comfort to a person who had just become paralyzed as one would to a child who had just lost a fish?  Both involve sensitivity, wisdom, and a grace that “just fits.” So it is with our heavenly Father, who offers us precisely what we need when we need it to handle everything that life throws at us.  The grace He offers that covers all our sins is universally applied. But the grace available to support and tend to us in our daily struggles is always a custom-fit.  

So until God redeems the life experiences which we wish had never happened, we have two choices:
 
·         Push Him away, clench our fists, and feel sorry for ourselves—in a sense, curse God and die OR

·         Draw near to Him, open our hands, and receive His amazing, personalized grace for every situation. 

Take a moment right now, in whatever circumstances you find yourself, and receive God’s custom-fitted grace!  Coming from Him, I guarantee you it will be ‘just right.’ 

                                                                                                                              tad  

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Worship Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Lessons from the very first worshiping community:  One of my favorite teachers on the subject of worship is Pastor Jack Hayford, formerly the senior pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys, CA.  Jack has an uncanny ability to take a simple Biblical narrative and draw a ton of applications from it without violating the text in the process.  Check out this portion from “A Man’s Worship and Witness” where Jack gives his own unique spin on one the very first worshiping communities—Cain & Abel (found in Genesis 4).


Soiled hands placed vegetables in a tidy arrangement on the rock altar. Cain felt proud of his display. His brother, Abel, had begun assembling his own offering hours ago and still wasn’t done.

Cain was. All Cain did was walk into his garden and pull up the fine specimens out of the ground. They had grown all by themselves. And the garden was close by. It all seemed so easy.

A smug smile curled Cain’s lips. His brother- still searching out in the fields for an offering- was laboring for nothing, Cain mused. He looked again upon the grand, colorful altar. There it was. Vegetables. On the altar. Easy.

This being one of his first offerings, Cain wondered what exactly was to happen next. Pondering this, he sat on a nearby stone and waited. HE looked over at this brother’s altar just as Abel came through the bushes carrying several ewe lambs. It wasn’t long before the lambs were mounted on Abel’s altar and slain.

Cain noticed that Abel’s altar was smaller than his. Good. Having sacrificed the animals on the altar, Abel walked several paces back and knelt in prayer. Cain felt uneasy. He hadn’t done that. But comforted himself by observing that Abel’s altar was blood-stained and dirty, while his was neat, tidy and colorful: orange and red and yellow and green and – just then: Whoosh! Brilliant flames from out of nowhere- from another realm- licked up all of Abel’s sacrifice! All of it! Cain jumped to his feet. A few ashes drifted in the breeze. The colorful harvest on Cain’s altar remained defiantly the same-unchanged. Nothing happened to his.

Cain stormed off, angered and pouting. And it was later, as his tormented mind seethed with hatred and jealousy, that the Lord met him near a tall palm tree: “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:6,7).

Shortly, Cain’s competitive jealousy grew to such intolerable levels that he rose in fury to kill his brother, Abel. And thus, the record teaches us: the first murder was born in the heart of a man who resisted God’s ways of worship. The first victim of violence was a man who worshiped God physically, openly, and freely.

Conclusion: the world will violently persecute those who worship the Lord is childlike obedience, even while they themselves exalt their own pretense of religious piety.

Personally I am challenged by this story…not only from the original text, but also by the way Hayford has drawn applications for us as a worshiping community.  From this, I have come up with my own Top Ten List of takeaways:  

1. As we bring an offering to God (ourselves), He wants all of us, not what is comfortable or convenient.

2. Nothing less than our very best is really worthy of God.

3. He doesn't require what He does not provide.

4. Man looks at the outside - God looks at the heart.

5. No true act of worship can be separated from the need for the shedding of blood. Either we return to the old animal sacrificial system or we adopt God's new covenant offer of the life of His son. (Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. - Hebrews 9:22)

6. Uncontested spiritual warfare can be deadly. For the time being, Cain, an enemy of true worship, succeeded in quelling the sacrifice of praise offered by his brother. But unlike Abel, we are not left alone to be victimized by the Enemy in an effort to silence our praise. This is why we often pray that God would "blind the enemy" (Mark 3:27) prior to our worship experiences. We believe the One in us is greater than the one who is "in the world."

7. If we allow our worship to go public, it will impact others. Some might be blessed and encouraged. Others will begin to pull away from us or, worse, try to silence or even discredit us.

8. As Abel learned, worshiping freely with abandon in public places can be hazardous to your health! At the very least it can result in you being judged, ridiculed, less popular. Kind of like Jesus.

9. In the end, warring over whose worship is more Christian or appropriate or godly still misses the mark. As wrong as Cain was, he still was not beyond redemption. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us, "You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel."

10. Sincere and God-focused worship touches His very heart! ("The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering..." 4:4) What could be a loftier goal?

Bottom line?  May our ultimate goal be to bring pleasure to the One who alone is worthy, no matter what the cost. 

tad 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

True Freedom—Nothing but the Truth!

Without question, Americans are never more dialed into the subject of freedom than on the Fourth of July.  We talk about it, sing about it, consume mass quantities of food to commemorate it, and, as a nation, hit the collective pause button to celebrate one of our greatest attributes.  We are free…and we want the whole world to know it.  Accompanied with fireworks, parades, big concert events, and as much noise as we can generate, we pound our national chest, so to speak, and declare to the global community that we are different.

Most of us can tick off rather quickly a laundry list of freedoms we enjoy, including speech, religion, assembly, the right to keep and bear arms, a free press, etc.  Not a bad starter kit for any nation. Ours is the land of opportunity, we say.  And once again we affirm our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  But what is it that makes us free, and more importantly, what will keep us free?  Many would argue that the foundational tenets that helped construct such a nation are no longer commonly shared. They would contend that the gap grows greater between the original vision of our forefathers and what we have become: an emerging society of individualists with an ever—increasing demand for personal rights. We the people has become Me the person.  

Many of the statesmen who were “in on the ground floor” believed freedom to be God-given and that an acknowledgement of this fact was critical to our nation’s survival. Those “voices” are now being drowned out by cries for personal liberty at any cost, devoid of any absolute moorings.

Listen to just a few of those early patriots:

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded 
not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.

Patrick Henry
________________________________________

God who gave us life gave us liberty.  And can the liberties of a nation
 be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,
 a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?
That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just;
 that His justice cannot sleep forever.

Thomas Jefferson
________________________________________

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, 
not upon the power of government, far from it. 
We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…
 to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” 

James Madison
__________________________________________

God governs in the affairs of man. 
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, 
is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? 
We have been assured in the Sacred Writings 
that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
 I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, 
we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.

Benjamin Franklin
__________________________________________

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards
 the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.

George Washington
________________________________________

We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient.
 He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.

 Samuel Adams (at the signing of the Declaration of Independence)
________________________________________

We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!

 John Adams and John Hancock, Founding Fathers
________________________________________

The laws of nature are the laws of God, 
whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.

 George Mason
________________________________________

The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion,
 never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world
 than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.

Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

For all their careful engineering of a lasting union, it is clear that these architects, at least, could not conceive of such liberty apart from that nation being under God.  For anyone wishing to challenge this, merely consider the inscriptions on many public buildings and government institutions dating back to the country’s beginnings.  References to the Bible—Old and New Testament—abound.  And yet some examples of such scripture usage are taken clearly out of context.  It reminds me of a church in the Midwest which had scriptures over the entrances to its many departments.  Strangely enough, over the doors of the nursery, they had chosen 1 Corinthians 15:51—“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” 

Years ago while attending college in Austin, Texas, I noticed a Bible quote from the gospel of John on the main building and clock tower of the University of Texas.  It said simply, “YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.”  My initial reaction was, “cool, a Bible passage on a state university building.”  But it only took me a moment to realize that it had been lifted significantly out of context to imply that knowledge, learning, education—that kind of truth—was the key to freedom.  In fact, the verse that was quoted was from John 8:32. 

The passage actually begins with the word thenThen ye shall know the truth…  Dropping the word then was not a small detail.  Usually, a phrase beginning with the word then is preceded by a condition, starting with a word like if or when.  And in this case the if is a biggie.  Verse 31 of John reads: “If you continue in my Word (or hold to my teaching), you are my disciples indeed.  It is followed by the famous [then] “you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”

Four verses later, Jesus makes another audacious statement. “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”  Free indeed?  This would suggest a type of freedom which isn’t real freedom. How can He make such a statement?  The answer is simple. He is not just a truth-talker. He is truth.  Later in John’s gospel, Jesus made this claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  What is He saying?  Jesus=Truth=True Freedom.  We have two choices:

Receive Him.  Trust Him.  Follow Him.  Know freedom. 
 Reject Him.  Trust yourself.  Follow anyone else.  No freedom.

Those responsible for inscribing a verse from John’s gospel over the entrance of a public university chose to omit other key verses which would make its meaning clear.  Maybe they had a limited budget and could only afford so many letters.  Maybe there wasn’t enough space for more verses. Or maybe they chose to take advantage of a respected holy book to add weight to their own ideology, and purposefully left out what the one being quoted really meant to say?  Think about it.  What is more audacious than to selectively choose what part of a particular quote we will use simply to perpetuate our own philosophy?  If we are to be a free people, free to think and free to choose, shouldn’t we at least start with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

This fourth of July, let us gratefully acknowledge once again the rare privileges and freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  Let us resolve to leave this great country a better place upon our departing. But let us resist any movement to rewrite our history to make it more closely resemble our current definition of freedom.  The Truth, indeed, will make us free.”  Nothing but the Truth.  And you know His name.    

                                                                                                                                tad