Getting into the Bible

"The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord." 

Pro. 21: 31

Today I wish to speak of an important topic: how do we use the bible to grow in grace?  I know that the bible can be a confusing and huge book for those not familiar with its contents.  Many folks pick up the bible and starting reading in Genesis.  By the time they get to the middle of Exodus (if they make it that far), they are bored, confused, and ready to give up the whole book!  I do not blame them.  These OT stories without their redemptive content make little sense.

I suggest that a new believer or a not quite yet believer start somewhere other than Genesis when they begin to learn about the bible.  All of the scriptures are useful, but some of them require some background knowledge before their true message can be understood.  Do not let this discourage you!  Start by getting some of that background knowledge!

First and foremost, start reading in the gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John at the beginning of the NT.  In these books, an honest reader will encounter the person of Jesus.  Read a chapter.  Take your time and ask the Lord to give you wisdom as to what the message means.  The bible is not a novel to be finished, but a message from God to be listen to and transformed by.  Read and think of your life. Ask God for wisdom.

After reading in the gospels, I encourage folks to take some time to pray.  I remember the first time I engaged in this pattern.  I closed by eyes and began to tell God all about my concerns.  I prayed for everyone and everything I could think of.  When I finished, I had prayed for only 5 minutes!  I have heard stories of folks praying for hours.  How is this possible?!

I have since learned that prayer is not just me telling God about my concerns, but also learning how to listen!  Here is where scripture actively works.  As I read the gospels, I ask God for wisdom.  When thoughts come to mind, I pray about them.  I ask for wisdom with people and situations.  I also find that ideas and thoughts come to mind from the scripture that help me get perspective.  Often this perspective concerns my heart and attitude!

Here is where the gospel informs my reading.  As I encounter Jesus, He often uses the Word of God to drive me to repentance.  I see my failings.  I repent of these failings, and I look to Him for mercy.  Praise be to God, He gives it!  This love poured out to me, which is the gospel promise, then allows me to see other differently.  It gives me new perspective.  It gives me love to give to others.

I also find that God will use the scriptures to encourage me as I have made good choices.  He uses His word to give me an insight before I encounter something unexpected in a day.  In other words, God's word is active in the life of those who seek Him and His wisdom!  Please seek Him and His wisdom!

This post is growing long, so I will offer some more encouragement and insight about the bible in tomorrow's post.  I will conclude by stating that God's word is life-changing.  I implore you to pick it up and read it reflectively!  It will change your life as you read it asking the Lord for wisdom!  As the writer of Hebrews states, 

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Heb 4:12)

Stress, Heart Disease, Community, and Friendship

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

On this Monday morning, I just do not feel like coming up with something new!  I hope to post a new addition tomorrow.  The following is a post from June.  It does contain themes I have mentioned in the past couple of weeks as I have looked at Balance in life and our need for community.  I hope you enjoy it, and it provides good food for thought as we start a new week.

I have been reading an interesting book on the consequences of stress on the human body.  In particular, the author was commenting on the relationship between bad stress, which raised various "flight or fight" hormones in the body, and heart disease.  He argued that feeling trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless leads to increased stress chemicals in the body, which eventually lead to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).   To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listen to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make!

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves with our families from others.  I believe we do so to our own harm!  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the feel of many friends and fellow travelers without making any of them engage.  It is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.  We need real friends!

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard!  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?  This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship!

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.  Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease!

With that in mind, I am thankful after a busy Sunday for several hours with friends sitting around a bonfire, talking, laughing, and swatting bugs.  On this Monday, I ask that the Lord help my soul to be at rest once more!  God is truly good to me.  May each of us take time to reflect so we can say the same thing!

Self-Reliance and Prayer

From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency.  Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values.  It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living.  To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption.

Prayer is alien to our proud human nature.  And yet somewhere, someplace, probably all of us reach the point of falling to our knees, bowing our heads, fixing our attention on God and praying.  We may look both ways to be sure no one is watching; we may blush; but in spite of the foreignness of the activity, we pray.

Bill Hybels, To Busy Not to Pray, 9

Yesterday I picked up this book from my shelves.  It was time to re-read it, to re-focus, and to re-start an emphasis on prayer!  I have read many books on prayer.  I have had many seasons of great prayer and fellowship with my Father.  Yet, I often work in self-reliance, claiming busyness, to avoid the easy/hard work of prayer.

Why is prayer easy?  Prayer allows God to work!  He does such a better job than I do.  He really knows how to run the universe.  Believe it or not, He also knows how best to run my little universe, and He knows how best to run your little universe.  I am amazed how often I forget this truth!

Why is prayer so hard?  Hybels in completely correct when he states that prayer runs contrary to my proud human nature.  It is easier to talk of prayer, to even ask for prayer, than it is to take time in silence and stillness to actually pray.  I think in my case, it is often hard to find silence and stillness!

As someone once said (perhaps Hudson Taylor?), "When we work, we work; when we pray, God works."  As I conclude a week, I want God to work!  I need God to work.  How about you?

May each of us engage in the easy/hard work of prayer today and this weekend!  May we enjoy the Lord's presence and may He answer our prayers in wonderful ways.

Gifting, Calling, and the Ministry

"For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power."

1 Corinthians 4:20

I love meeting Church planters and Church re-vitalizers!   I believe that in every generation, God raises up folks with a passion and calling to "bring about the Kingdom" through the Church.  I think of these church planters and church re-vitalizers (I am one of these) are the "special-forces" of the kingdom.  These are the folks that God has gifted and called to bring people to faith, to grow churches and ministries, and advance the Kingdom of God.  They often have vision and purpose that is both contagious and invigorating. 

How do these folks achieve these purposes?  God has granted them both the natural personality and temperament for leadership, as well as the spiritual gifts needed for the task.  He them calls them to a specific place where they use these gifts to build the Kingdom.

God does not give these gifts or callings to all people.  Why not?  I have no idea.  I do know that when God gives the call to a specific ministry, He also gifts us for the task.

So what does this mean?  Even as I thoroughly enjoy working with these special forces of the Kingdom, I am completely aware that all types of people are needed to pastor and to lead the Church and other ministries.  In fact, the special forces would have no chance of survival if there was not a complete support system behind their operations.  All types of people are needed in the process of building the Kingdom!  

Even though it is not my primary gifting and calling, I also thoroughly enjoy and appreciate those who have the calling and gifting to lovingly nurture and grow God's people.  Some of these folks do not have the gifting and calling to see people come to faith through their stirring preaching or bold leadership, but they are vitally needed in the Kingdom!   

In other words, when called to a ministry you need to know who you are and what the ministry opportunity needs in a leader or participant so you can determine with wisdom if you are good fit!  As Paul describes,

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Cor. 12: 4-7

For today's post, I want to focus on the phrase in the middle of Paul's statement on spiritual gifts, "There are varieties of service and activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all."  In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul writes to a church where jealousy, envy, and ignorance have brought about division within the body.  It appears that this church has a variety of gifted folks.  In fact, Paul describes more and different types of gifts in writing the Corinthian church than he mentions in writing to any other church in the NT.

The problem is that this church wants to see some gifts and callings as greater than others.  From the context, we can see Paul argues such thinking is ridiculous!  Everyone and every gifting/skill set is needed!  All the different types of gifts are needed in ministry, and in the varieties of service in which we find ourselves.  The key is to serve where we are gifted and called while also affirming and encouraging others to service in different areas according to their gifting and calling.

So how do I know my gifting and calling?  How do I know when I fit into a certain ministry?  First and foremost, we need to know who God has made us to be.  We need to understand how we relate with people.  We need to understand how we process and view the world.  We need to be self-aware!

The problem is that too many of us have no idea how to answer these questions!  Instead, we wish we could be like (...whoever...) because we love how they do what they do.  We admire them, so we wish to be like them.

I had a good friend in seminary who came to school from North Carolina with his wife who was studying to be a psychologist.  He had loved his pastor in college and he wanted to be like him.  He wanted so much to be a pastor who could impact people's lives like he had witnessed.

He began in the M.Div. program, which is a degree to train for ordained ministry.  After a year, he was miserable!  His grades were very good, because he was bright.  Yet, he had no peace and joy in the work.  Before coming to seminary, he was an accountant.  After months of forcing himself to study theology, Greek, and such, he found himself nightly in the library studying tax law.  He found it fascinating (I cannot even imagine!).  Finally, he called his old firm and asked if they had a position in Boston.  He shared that he needed to get back to work in something he loved.  That was a Thursday afternoon.  The next Monday, he began to work at the Boston office of his accounting firm for $80,000 a year (remember this was the mid 1990s)!

What can we learn from this?  First, it pays to be an accountant!  Second, he was trying to force his way into a life and ministry to which he was not called and gifted.  The result was misery and a lack of success.  When he finally came to his senses, the Lord opened other doors and blessed his work.  In fact, he later applied for law school, did extremely well, passed the bar, and became a tax lawyer.  Last I heard, he was also working toward a political career.

If you are not good at understanding yourself, I encourage you to find a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor to help you gain some self-understanding.  Take some personality tests.  Take some tests to help you discover your spiritual gifts.  Get out in a variety of ministries and environments to see what brings you life, joy, and success.  

God is the one who prepares us for life and ministry.  His Spirit leads us to fruitful fields of labor.  We should strive to discover where and how God is leading us while at the same time be encouraging and acknowledging that others are called to different tasks.  

May the Lord lead us and guide us to use our gifts and personality to pursue His calling for us!

Trash Day Mercies

The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3: 22-23

Yesterday was one of the high points of my week.  It was trash day!  I love the feeling of gathering all my trash for the week, putting it into containers, and taking it to the curb.  I know it sounds crazy, but I do love it!

Yesterday was a special blessing because the trash truck arrived across the street as I was bringing out my last bag.  Typically, across the street is the first stop of the day, and my house is the last stop of the day after they complete the entire town.  When they saw me, they crossed the street, took all my garbage, and I could return my now empty garbage cans to the barn.  It felt so good!

Why do I like trash day so much?  I love getting rid of all the mess, all the excess, all the left-overs, and all that I need to get rid of.  To me it feels cleansing.  It gives me a renewal on life!

I am sure to some this sounds crazy.  Even as I share my joy in trash day, I wonder how some will understand it.  Let me try to explain why I get such joy.  To do so I will use what could be taken as a sexist description I heard from a marriage seminar somewhere.  Please give me the grace to hang with me until I explain.

I have heard it said that men are like filing cabinets and women are like white boards.  What is meant by this is that men can deal with an issue or problem.  When we are done, we file it away and it does not bother us any more.  We open the next file and put the stress of the last one behind us.  

Meanwhile, women are like a white board with all the issues and problem visible.  A woman may focus on one issue, but all are present so as the white board fills up so does their stress level.  Furthermore, when a problem is continuing or weekly it becomes an issue that never gets erased.  It becomes a never ending burden.

I must admit that I have met men who are like whiteboards and women who are like filing cabinets.   Yet, I think there is at least a measure of truth in the general personality description given in the marriage seminar.  At least it works in my household!  Also notice that it means that women are much better multi-taskers while men can compartmentalize so much that they miss important details.  This is another trait of my household!

So with the image of trash day and filing cabinets in place, let me explain yesterday's joy.  For me, trash day is representative of all the junk in my life.  Over the course of a day or a week, I have many different problems, issues, and stresses in which I must process.  What I try to do is deal with the issue and move on.  I also try to put the stress into one file and put it away.  

The problem is that sometimes the stress file just stays open on my desk!  How do I deal with it?  I must ask for God's help.  There have been times in my life when my stress file was so big that I cannot close it or even take it over to the filing cabinet!  Thankfully, after while, I cried out to God for mercy and He helped me.

I have learned that it is best never to allow the junk of life to build up.  As I age, I also call upon the Lord quicker.  Every Monday is trash day.  As I take out the trash, I think of all the junk from the past week: the bad decisions, the hurtful words, the financial questions, the illness, and all the rest.  I take the garbage to the end of the drive, and I ask God to take the trash out of my life.  The sight of the empty cans confirms the Lord's promises!

Today's passage affirms that I do not need to wait until Monday to do this.  The mercies of the Lord are new every morning.  As I come into His presence, I hold fast to this promise!  I confess my needs.   I confess my mistakes.  I ask for cleansing.  I receive His mercy and His aid in putting the past behind me.

I encourage you to look for symbolic examples of the Father's love.  Find little reminders of His grace.  As fallen people, we so easily forget the love and mercy of the Lord!  Confess this tendencies and ask for grace to be reminded.  God loves us and He wants to help clear our whiteboards and empty our filing cabinets!

A Blessing in Society

Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward,

and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person 

will receive a righteous person's reward.

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of water because he is a disciple, 

truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

Matt. 10: 40-42

This passage has puzzled me for years.  What does it mean?  It is tucked into a chapter of Matthew where Jesus sends out his Apostles to learn ministry.  In the context, Jesus gives them a mission with instructions (vss. 5-15).  He then tells them they will face persecution (vss. 16-25), but they should not worry because whoever acknowledges him before men He will acknowledge before the Father (vss. 26-33).  Then he concludes with the promise that He came to bring not peace, but a sword (vss. 34-39).  (This is another tough passage!)  His final instructions are included in our passage.  They are a promise that whoever does receive the disciples will get a reward.

In this passage, the controlling verse is 10:40 "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."  After affirming that His person and message would cause divisions even within families, Jesus promises that those to receive the truth of His person and message will share in the blessings of God.  In other words, receiving the disciples illustrates folks received their message.

Here is where I find the passage extremely interesting.  Why would Jesus say such a thing?  The obvious answer is that His disciples will be telling about and performing miracles to prove the Kingdom of God is here in the person and message of Jesus.  Thus, to receive them means to believe them.  At the very least it means to affirm an openness to listen.  To such openness, Jesus promises blessing and reward.

How does this square with a statistic I heard several years ago that the average Presbyterian USA member invites someone to church every 17.5 years?  This statistic is rather old now, but I doubt the gist of it has changed!  

Let me put it another way, is there enough evidence in your life to convict you of being a sincere and dedicated follower of Jesus if such faith became illegal?  You might be a great person, but what sets you apart from your co-workers and friends who are also often great people?

We are a blessing in society when we live and declare the reality of the Kingdom as we found it in Christ.  Some will be shocked and dismayed by this testimony.  Jesus says fear not for I am with you!  Such a testimony might cause division.  Jesus tells us that such division is part of the game if you wish to be part of the growth of the Kingdom!  He tells us,

"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." 

Matt. 10:38-39.

In other words, why are you protecting your reputation with others and not concerned with your faithfulness to Jesus?  He is worth some division and persecution!  In fact, as we testify to the reality of His Kingdom, we will find true life as we take our reputation from His love for us.

When we declare who Jesus is with love and integrity, most people respond favorably.  Some do not, but most will listen.  Particularly those who know you!  As they listen with openness, God will call some to faith.  The promise of this passage is that you will be a blessing.  You will be salt and light.  

Do you wish your life to count for something in building the Kingdom of God?  Be open to declaring what God has done in Christ!  Fear not for He will go with you!

Rest Assured: God can use you!

"I wish God could you me like he uses pastors and missionaries."  

"I mess up so much that I doubt God could use me."  

"When I get it all together, then I will be able to serve God."

In my years in the ministry, I have heard all these statements expressed in different terms but uttered many times.  Many people believe such nonsense!  I am writing today to encourage us that God can use anyone and everyone who is open to His leading.  Yes, God can use you to advance His Kingdom.

You don't believe me?  Let me give an example from Church History of Jesus' most famous foolish, ignorant, and unbelieving followers.  These unbelieving fools were called the Disciples.  In Matthew 28:17, the writer gives us a glimpse into their unbelieving and doubting hearts and minds.  

As a group, they go to Galilee in response to Jesus' request.  He appears to them and "When they saw him, they worshiped him."  Obviously, they believed he was the Messiah.  A good Jew of that day would never have worshiped anything but God.  They believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Obviously they did not understand all that this means (who has!), but they knew Jesus was the Messiah.

Yet, notice the next phrase, "But some doubted."  This is the next part of versus 17.  What did they doubt?  Obviously from the context they did not doubt that Jesus was the Messiah.  Instead, Matthew's context might give a glimpse into the cause of their doubts when he records the Great Commission.  "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples..."

These early Christ-followers doubted that God could use them.  Why?  They had rejected him.  Peter might have been one of the biggest doubters as he had sworn his fidelity to Jesus, and then denied him three times in an evening.  They had more questions than answers.  In the last week of Jesus' life, they had fought over who was the greatest.  They no longer had the assurance of Jesus' presence in a physical sense.  From the accounts, it is obvious the risen Jesus did not show up on command.  He had appeared, but when would be the next time?

They were living and believing just like we often do today!  How could Jesus use them?  They were so disappointing.  They were struggling.  They did not have all the answers.  They now did not have Jesus' physical presence.  How could God use them?

"Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age."  Jesus concludes with words of promise and hope.  Words of Grace into the midst of the disciples' fear and doubt.  He was not leaving them as orphans!  He would lead them!  He would work in, through, and even in spite of them.  He would use their strengths, their weaknesses, their sin, their doubt, and their times of faith.  He knew their past, but He did not condemn.  He gave a command to go and make disciples sandwiched between the promise of His power and authority (it is really about Him and not us), and his promise of abiding presence.

How can God use you?  How can He use me?  Real ministry is about trusting in His grace that He can use you even with your weaknesses.  In fact, Christ often uses us through our weaknesses, as Paul tells us that His power works through broken vessels (2 Cor. 4:7).  As I see it, there are three keys to being used by God:

1.) Recognize and confess that we are broken "jars of clay."  Don't put on airs or think your answers will change anything or anyone.  Confess your need for God to work!

2.) Ask God to work through you. Missionaries or pastors are not a special class of Christian.  We are all priests of the Great King!  Ask Jesus to use you at work, at home, or where ever you find yourself.  Walk in partnership with Him.  Talk with Him about people and situations.

3.) Be open to God's leading.  In other words, have your eyes open to opportunities to love God and neighbor.  Sometimes this means speaking.  Often it just means going out of your way to express love and concern.  As you do this, you will be amazed at the opportunities that will arise to speak about what God has done in your life.

Authentic grace means that God can use people like the disciples, like you, and like me!  I am so encouraged by this fact.  Do not fear for Jesus is the risen King!

Grace in Society

This has been a week of early meetings and distractions.  On Tuesday, I told my wife that my day just did not go anything like I planned.  She replied that I have so many of these days, that I should just accept it as normal.  She is right!

Today, I offer a brief post on the nature of grace.  I have been re-reading devotionally a book my Paul Zahl called Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life.  As a book, I find it to be overly detailed and fairly repetitive.  I also find it something I keep coming back to for more thought!  It is one of those books that after reading it (and struggling through it), I have found it remained attractive because there were so many ideas in the book that I need to think through in deeper and more sustained ways.

I do not know if this is a ringing endorsement, but I do give it an endorsement.  In particular, I like Zahl's idea and definition of grace as one-way love.  I believe he is quite correct that such love runs counter to the normal human condition.  It also runs counter to what our flesh, in its fallen state, would judge as "fair" and right.  

What does one-way love mean and look like in the real world?  This is the primary point of Zahl's book.  After defining grace, he then works through how grace is played out in the real world.  The following is a quote from a section detailing how grace works in society.  Zahl argues that grace is almost incomprehensible in society.  As he states,

Grace is one-way love.  Society demands two-way love.  Society requires quantity and value and "evidence" of the pound of flesh.  In human society grace has a bad day every day.  This was first expressed conceptually when the philosopher Aristotle composed his Nicomachean Ethics in the fourth century B.C.  Aristotle aught that a man is defined by his deeds: a good man is good because he does good deeds.  This is the only way to gauge moral worth.  Measurement becomes everything.  Progress becomes everything.  Amelioration becomes the law of life.  I would say that Aristotle is the safe harbor of absolute worldliness in the world of thought.

Grace is the opposite of Aristotle.  Grace takes a different approach to criminal justice.  Grace takes a different line on what forms human identity.  Grace rewrites the meaning of achievement and career.  Grace is not utopian: in fact, it is dystopian.  What I mean is that utopian ideas of society call on hard work and human dedication to create a new society of fairness and equity- the same old story.  Grace, on the other hand, recognizes the wholly dystopian and hellish character of life in the world under the law and posits an alternative view of reality.

Zahl, Grace in Practice, 70.

Do you agree with me?  What I mean is this is tough stuff to grasp!  Personally, I just do not talk or think in the manner of Zahl.  He is much smarter than I am.  Yet, as I think through his point I agree with it.  Grace does not work well in society.  

Why does grace does not work well in society?  I believe the answer to this corporate problem is the same as the answer to our individual problem: the fall has shaken and decimated the created good where Law worked.  We long to have the Law change people and keep them in line.  We long for utopia because that is where and how we were created to live.  

The problem is sin had infected every dimension of this universe so we as individuals desire Law for others and society, but grace for ourselves.  Actually, some of us like the Law for ourselves too!

Well, enough for today.  Enjoying thinking through these difficult ideas!

Living with Stress

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading Richard Swenson's book, In Search of Balance: Keys to a Stable Life.  I find that his book is not one to quickly pour through because it is somewhat repetitive.  Still, I have enjoyed reading the book, and I recommend it as great food for thought.

Swenson's primary thesis is that our modern world has proliferated the amount of information and activity in which we can and seemingly must engage.  Such proliferation causes great stress because we as human individuals have not really changed in our ability to do or process more.  In other words, we have a limit!  

Meanwhile, the amount of  technology, information, options, and work has increased exponentially in the past fifty years and promises to continue to increase moving into the future.  Technology and our global society demand such proliferation.

So, how do we deal with this modern condition?  Most of us don't.  We just accept it.  Then we wonder why so many people are depressed, full of anxiety, and overwhelmed.  In my experience as a pastor, depression, anxiety, and overly full lives are epidemic!  

I have often been asked if I think we have more depression, anxiety and overload now than in the past.  I believe we have much more of these conditions now than people experienced fifty or one hundred years ago.  It is not because we are better at identifying the conditions, but because the proliferation of technology, information, and options have overload our systems.  It might be the new normal, but it is obviously not healthy.

So what should we do about it?  In answer to this, Swenson gives many helpful suggestions.  I know I have heard many of these suggestions before.  The real issue is implementing the suggestions!  

One of Swenson's best points is that each of us need to take an inventory of the stress in our life.  I think many of us keep purposely busy so we can avoid such an exercise!  I believe the following quote provides a good illustration of two different ways of dealing with stress.

A friend and I were discussing the pressures of life, and I asked how his stress was doing.  He has a national leadership role in a denomination and is required to make difficult decisions on a daily basis.  He said there are two quantitative ways of handling stress.  The first is when we keep stockpiling it in a warehouse.  The warehouse fills over time and finally the roof explodes and the walls fall down.

The other strategy involves a train station.  As the train moves down the tracks, the stress builds.  But when it comes into the station, we unload our accumulated pressures onto the platform.  Then we get back on the train as it pulls out of the station.  I asked which illustration described him.  He was a train-station guy.  Personally, I'm a recovering warehouser.

Balance, 148.

How do you deal with stress?  Is your warehouse almost full?  Do you build into your life a train station approach where you deal with emptying the stress out of your life?

Today, more and more people do not take vacations.  If they do, it is a weekend away, which actually adds to the stress of life!

Today, the idea of a Sabbath seems crazy.  My kids have to play hockey and Sunday is the best ice time for the little ones!  

Can you remember when your parents had complete weekends off?  When they would relax at home after work?  Why don't we have these weekly times of rest anymore?

I challenge you today to take an inventory of your life.  Come before the living God and ask the Spirit to give you some wisdom with the stress in your life.  I find the best way to do this is with a pen in hand so you can write down what you think about.  Maybe it is time to let some of "the new normal" go.  

A balanced life provides the emotional energy to love well.  It allows you to enjoy each day.  It gives you space to deal with unplanned events.  It also reflects a trust in the Living God to provide for you and take care of you.

Walking in Faith

"True faith, strictly speaking, does not do anything; it does not give, but receives.  So when one says that we do something by faith that is just another way of saying that we do nothing- at least that we do nothing of ourselves.  It is of the very nature of faith, strictly speaking, to do nothing.  So when it is said that faith works through love, that means that through faith, instead of doing something for ourselves we allow some one else to help us.  That force which enters our life at the beginning through faith, before we could do anything at all to please God, and which then strengthens and supports us in the battle that it has enabled us to begin, is the power of the Spirit of God."  

J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith?  Eerdmans, 216.  

Found in the Sonship manual, 133.

In our discipleship class this week, we discussed the two natures of the flesh and how they interact with each other.  The two sides of the flesh are sensuality and self-effort.  We discussed how the "Christian" community condemns and identifies sensuality as a sin, but we rarely see religious self-effort (or self-effort of any sort) as true sin.  Why?  The answer is too varied for one post!  Today I will share some thoughts concerning the flesh, self-effort, and the nature of true faith.

Have you noticed how the churches and individuals who speak out the strongest against sexual sin are often marked by sexual sin?  Have you ever wondered why those who build large ministries or "successful" Christian businesses are often undone by greed, embezzlement, sex scandals, or some strange deviant behavior that was kept hidden until it appeared and suddenly destroyed their lives and  testimony for Jesus?

I have often puzzled over these questions!  I know there are always many reasons for every event, but I believe one of the clearest issues is that many of us do not understand the gospel nor do we understand the way our religious self-effort cannot "kill" sensuality within us.

What do I mean?  Most of us have been taught that if you struggle with some outward sin, let's say over-eating, we must have the will power to overcome it.  If we are strong people, we can do this.  Some of us can keep our New Year's Resolutions for months on end.  Others give up quickly.  But the strong keep going.  Our churches are often full of "strong" people who can act the part demanded.  Through self-effort they can change their behavior- at least for awhile!

So, we exercise and eat right.  We read books about diet.  We do well.  Then the Little Debbie snack cake appears in the middle of the afternoon when we are hungry.  We take a bite.  We eat the rest.  It is so good!  The sugar does great things for our attitude.  We now start thinking about food and sweets again.  We might talk the talk with our friends and family, but we are secret eaters!  Then at a barbecue, a vacation, or a buffet we finally throw off the act and eat like we wanted to.  We keep it up.  Eventually we have regained our weight.  We envy those with the strength to keep it up.  

What happened?  When it comes to over-eating, we never dealt with our heart issues.  Why do we over-eat?  Does it give us comfort?  Do we really hate ourselves?  Do we believe we deserve to be unattractive and fat?  Or do we just like food?  Is our eating a good good and balanced desire for God's good gifts?  In other words, we rarely ask why we have these desires?

Deep within us is a very real need to find our core affirmation and love in our relationship with God.  John Calvin tells us that faith was one of the items completely lost in the fall.  I have often found this observation intriguing.  Don't we not all know that God exists and call upon Him in need?  Yes, we do.  The problem is really believing and resting in His love for us.  Such a faith is radically different than calling upon Him in a time of trial.  It is not momentary and fleeting but abiding.  It is based upon repentance of self-effort and trust in the completed work of Christ.  

Ultimately, faith is life-changing because it is heart-changing.  With the flesh, we cannot defeat the flesh.  It will always work behind the scenes to undo us.  The only way to defeat the flesh is to allow the Spirit to deal with our heart.  We cannot deal with our heart on our own!  When our internal desires change, our behavior changes in healthy and good ways.  It truly changes.  We do not have to "keep up  appearances" but we truly want holiness and God's presence.  We find our deepest needs met in the Lord and the sensual sins are no longer attractive because they do not satisfy!

Such a faith is receiving Christ's finished work and His love.  It is actively passive before the Lord.  May true faith and trust mark each of our lives today and this week!

Living Before the Consuming Fire

"I am always worried by groups that want to talk about God but do not make much effort to talk to him.  I felt that they were using dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them.  The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God.  But for rigid dogma, this is unacceptable, God must approach them through the channels they have chosen or he will be unrecognized.  We all live with the danger of a selective egotism that would censor the world, the preacher, the Church, the Bible, and even God.  We make our belief, our prayers and our God act like a sedative, preventing us from full engagement with the world.  It would be better to lose a God that we could grasp and a faith that hid us from our fears, and stand before him with whom we have to do.  At some stage we need to discover our God is a consuming fire and is not tameable by us." 

David Adam, The Road of Life, 110.

I have met many people in my journey of life who have no doctrinal or theological grasp of God.  In fact, most of us when we come to faith, have little understanding or appreciation of the character of God or how to think about the world in relation to God.  The one thing that we discovered was a holy and loving God revealed in Jesus Christ.  We knew, however shallow the understanding, that we were sinners in need of a savior and Jesus was that savior.

The real shame and crime of the faith is that many stay in this place.  Many church communities and many individual Christians shun those who desire to know God better, to think clearer, and to grow deeper.  They say it is about relationship instead of knowledge.  

In some ways this is true, but how can we be in relationship with someone we do not know!  In reality, these shallow churches and individuals encourage new believers to stay infants in the faith.

The problem is life.  We learn shallow platitudes, but life is way to hard to keep these platitudes in line with our experience.  So, many give up the faith of the "church" and make faith a private matter.  

Others fake their way through church and with others.  They know they do not live what they say, but they know what they believe is true.  Eventually, they find themselves living a dual life compartmentalized between times of faith and real life.  Eventually, they find themselves lukewarm.

In reaction to the shallow life of many believers, a different breed of Christian has arisen.  This breed is one that is academically and theologically rich.  It seeks to know God.  It investigates the avenues of faith throughout church history.  It plumbs the depths of scripture.  Eventually, it finds that systems of thought have walked these paths before them.  This brings joy because it means they are not alone!  This propels them into deeper study.  For those with this personality type, in a few years they know more about God than their friends and the pastors of many churches.  This is very satisfying!

Again, the problem is life.  This time it is not the life they experience outside of themselves.  These folks have the intellectual tools to understand creation, sin, and redemption.  Many of these folks excel in their professions.  They are insightful people!  The problem is that many cannot understand why they know so much, yet they personally struggle to live out what they believe.  

They struggle to love.  They struggle to feel and know the presence of God.  In the words of Adam, they have been using "dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them.  The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God."

How do we escape the trap of being either being shallow and not growing in knowledge of God or being academic and not growing in our relationship with God?  We believe the gospel!

If life is about repentance and faith (which it is in a fallen world!), we learn to live this life.  We do not fake our need.  We nurture and grow in our knowledge of this need.  We repent of our sin and learn to cling to Jesus.  We do not tolerate shallow knowledge because we want to know the lover of our soul.  We struggle to understand scripture and theology.  This should lead us to deeper repentance and faith, which is deeper relationship.  We keep an active eye out for our growing pride, and we develop a faith that recognizes that maturity means deeper dependence worked out in repentance and faith.

Authentic faith lives a life of growing knowledge and growing relationship.  To diminish either leads to error in life and practice.

Stop hiding behind your "faith" and come to know the consuming fire that is our God.

Community, Life, and Our Hurts

I recently had a sad discussion with a man about life in community.  He shared that he did not need community to grow in his relationship with God.  He was fine without others because he had his own opinions.

Unfortunately, the opinions he expressed were often strangely unorthodox in their understanding of God, Jesus, scripture, sin, love, life, and eternal life.  He also obviously lacked solid self-understanding.  

I am not trying to be judgmental!  Please understand that at heart I am a true libertarian.  I give plenty of room for each of us to believe and live as we see fit.  One reason why those outside the Christian faith like me so much is they know and experience this tendency within me.  Yet, by any measurement and even generous judgment of life and thought from a historic Christian perspective, this man's ideas did not match with or even come close to the mainstream.  As I reflect, it was a sad discussion!

I have found that those who refuse community, for whatever reason, often end up depressed and unorthodox in their thought.  I think this man was greatly disappointed with the Church because of a bad experience or a series of bad experiences.  Such experience are numerous in our society!  In fact, you might have had some of the same hurts by people within the Church.

I know in my life, I have had some horrible experiences with folks in the church.  The question I ask concerning these experiences was different than this man.  I asked, "Is this the church's problem or those people's problems?"  

Every time the answer has been individuals and not the glorious, universal Church!  Even if one local body goes strange and anti-Christian, this does not eliminate the importance of the Church and community.  I know I need others and the Church to experience true life.  Celebration needs community to be lasting, real, and life-changing.  I will end with a quote from David Adam.

"I have often found more joy and celebration among monks and nuns than I have among young people.  Maybe the religious have already struggled with their lives and come to terms with some of their own limitations and failings.  They have the benefit of affirming the love and presence of God each day within their community.  The lack of community for many of our young people, in not all of us, can make modern living very lonely.  In our journeying through life we need companions.  I often think upon some words from St John of the Cross: 'The soul that is alone is like a burning coal that is alone.  It will grow colder rather than hotter.'  To maintain enthusiasm, joy and love we need to be able to express them and share them in community.  To celebrate life we need to be with other 'burning coals'." David Adam, The Road of Life, 129.

May each of us seek out and find other burning coals that help us to grow deeper in repentance and faith!  May we find out way into true gospel- and grace-centered community.

The Measure of Success

Today I have the honor of preparing for a funeral.  I received a call from the funeral home on Monday.  The director began, "You probably have heard but ..."  I had not heard.  I was shocked!  I did not see this death coming!

The now deceased man had been coming to Grace for the past month or so after being invited to attend for years.  He was in his early 50s and rather energetic.  I had known him for over five years, and I had come to appreciate his love of life and of people.  We shared a love for the outdoors and life.  He was a care-giver at heart and in practice.

In the past month, we had several discussions about his life and the gospel.  On Sunday, he had heard that I was planning to move; and after congratulating me, he made a fist and told me that he had finally found a pastor he liked, how could I move!  He understood the reasons, but he was still shaken.  I told him we had five months together and Grace was a great church with a flaky pastor, so he would be fine if they found a good one!

On Sunday evening, without any previous symptoms that I knew of, he had a massive coronary event that immediately ended his life.  

We did not have the five months to grow in the gospel.  We did not have years ahead for him to develop roots at Grace.  He did not have a moment more to prepare to meet Jesus.  I do pray that in the past five weeks, he embraced a living faith in Jesus Christ.  

I also pray that all of us ponder the incredible shortness of life.  None of us know the day or moment of our end.  All to often we live like this life is all we have.  We live like it will go on forever.  The truth is that there is more to life than the here and now, and it does have an end!

The following is a good Hallmark card definition of a successful life.  I believe the man who just died would have agreed.   

“Success”
Inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

While I enjoy this poem and it gives me much to think about, I would add a line that to do all of these noble goals while enjoying a full and deep relationship with the living God make a life worth living!  It also makes a life that begins now, but continues throughout all of eternity getting better and better!

Healthy Living, The Sabbath, and Balance

Yesterday, I began a discussion on the Sabbath as a means of maintaining balance.  I shared the story of a fellow pastor who dismissed the need for a "day off" as Western.  His message was to "press on" like Paul.

As I shared, I found this conversation troubling for a number of reasons.  Today I wish to speak to the hermeneutical, or interpretative issue with the pastor's comments.  

I often hear people who claim that they could not find a word in the bible, therefore it must not be a biblical concept.  These folks have been taught that the way to discover what the bible says about a topic is to do a word search.  I must confess that I have found word searches helpful.  Yet, this is not the best and only means of understanding scripture!  

When it comes to proper interpretation, Context is King.  Word searches should get us to read the context of each passage.  People who use one verse proof texts from scripture can and easily do make the bible say whatever they want it to say.  This is dangerous and deadly!  

The Word of God is not a magic book which we look to for easy answers.  It is not the spiritual version of the child's game "Magic 8 Ball", which we flip through with the hope of finding something.  It is the revealed "will" of God.  If we wish to understand someone's will or desires, it takes time to hear them properly.  It takes knowledge of the person, knowledge of the context of what they are talking about, and knowledge of how to apply their desires.  The same goes for the will of God!

When discussing the need for balance and rest, scripture is clear that we humans need to rest from our labors weekly.  Why?  Because this is how we were created!  Thus, Jesus' affirmation, "The Sabbath was made for Man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)  I believe Paul, for all this work to build the Kingdom, would have understood this well!  The context of scripture demands such an interpretation.  Why?  Weekly rest is affirmed throughout the Old Testament as well as the New.

Yesterday we looked at the Ten Commandments as they are written in Exodus 20.  Interestingly, the only commandment that is given a rationale is the keeping of the Sabbath.  Obviously, this command is one that is hard to keep, and has been hard to keep!  In Exodus, Moses writes that we should keep the Sabbath because God rested on the seventh day after creating all things in six.  In Deuteronomy 5, the Ten Commandments are stated again.  Notice, this commandment's rationale is different.

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, ...  You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.  Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 5: 12-15

Why would a different rationale be given here?  I think it is the same point, but it comes from a different perspective.  It could be argued that God can create in six days, but I am not God.  I need to labor to complete all my work constantly because I am so weak and human.

I have heard this perspective many times.  I would say from the context of the bible, such talk is false humility.  It reveals our lack of faith in God to provide and complete our work.  Why?

In Deuteronomy, Moses gives us the rationale of God's incredible provision for Israel in rescuing them from slavery.  These people had nothing.  They had to labor as slaves constantly.  They had no military and no power.  They were under the thumb of the greatest military power in the world.  In other words, they could not bring rescue, they could not provide for themselves, and they could not finish their tasks.

So what happened?  God miraculously rescued them, provided for them, and finished the call of bringing them back to the promised land.  If He can do that with such helpless people, could He provide for you?  Could He provide for me?  Could He establish the work of our hands (Moses' prayer in Ps. 90:17)?

Of course God can provide.  In fact, He can provide in six days what those who do not know Him are able to secure in seven.  He could provide more!  

When through constant labor we deny the promise of provision given in the command to keep the Sabbath , we affirm that we don't believe God is God.

This idea is maintained throughout the Old Testament.  In fact, the Sabbath is mentioned 74 times in the OT, with the vast majority of the usages reminders for people to keep the Sabbath because they are breaking it!  (Notice a word study must look at context!)  Paul knew this context.  Jesus came to fulfill the Law, not to nullify it (Matt. 5:17).  We were created to enjoy the Sabbath.  We need it.

How do we apply this teaching?  If you do not keep a Sabbath, repent and begin to use it to renew your relationship with God.  Make the Sabbath a regular time of refreshment!  Also, ask God why you do not keep the Sabbath.  What issues keep you from resting in His presence?  Is it control?  Fear?  Doubt?  Pride?  Ask the Spirit to lead you into deeper repentance and faith!

Most importantly, if you wish to live a healthy life, make the worship and enjoyment of God central to your weekly schedule!  We need the weekly reminder that God is God, I am not God, and His mercy and grace are constantly there for us.

Balance and the Sabbath

I have been troubled by a discussion I had last Thursday since last Thursday.  I was at a pastor's breakfast here in central Maine.  One of our well respected colleagues is from India, and he heads a mission to Asia.  We are truly blessed to have him in Maine.  He is probably the only internationally known pastor we have in our region!

It was his turn to lead us in our devotional time.  He was speaking of the "fact" that the word balance was not in the bible.  He was sharing, with a hint of pride, that in Asia, pastors don't take a day off.  They work until they burn out!  He was making the point that in the West, pastors are too concerned for taking care of themselves.  Instead, they should be fulfilling their calling and working.  They should "press on" in the ministry like Paul.

I must confess that I often work long hours.  I like to work.  I like "doing ministry" and I enjoy working with many types of people.  I could see in the breakfast my ministry colleagues who often do not take a day off feeling affirmed.  I know from talking to them that they feel guilty when not working!  I often share that feeling.  There is always so much to do.  There are always tasks that are yet to be completed. How can I just leave them undone?

Given this lack of finished product is the mark of ministry (and most other professions!), why should we not labor until we "burn out" and then take a break?  Since "balance" is not found in the bible, is it really important?

Here is where I was troubled at the meeting, and I remain troubled.  The word balance may not be found in scripture, but the idea of balance is built into the framework of creation.  Where?  How about the creation account and the Ten Commandments!  Look at Exodus 20: 8-11.

"For in six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; ... for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."  

Is this rational for the commandment arbitrary?  Of course not!  Here in Exodus, Moses tells us to rest because it illustrates our trust in God.  We can rest assured that the Lord will complete all the work, as He did in creation.  

He is the creator, and He will finish His work.

We follow His example because He is able to finish all his work and make the seventh day holy or set apart.  Why is it so hard for pastors and all work-a-holics to believe this?  

Here is the root of our sin.  We think God could not do without us.  Thus, we have to "help" people because without us, the Kingdom would fall!  Of course this is crazy, but our actions show us what we really believe.  Repent and rest in Christ as the one who builds the Kingdom.  As you find yourselves itching for work, repent and ask for mercy and grace to enjoy the Lord's complete control of the universe.  After all, He made it all!

So balance is built into the created order.  We need a rest weekly!  Not necessarily because we are "tired" but because we are sinners who deny the sovereign control and hand of the Lord.  The Sabbath rest allows us a space to seek repentance and rest from our control issues.  As Jesus tells us, "The Sabbath was made for Man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)  If you labor on Sunday, take another day and set it apart as holy unto the Lord.  Repent of your hard-heartedness which denies that God can and will work without you.  Learn to enjoy Him and rest in His strength.  

Again, as you find yourselves itching for work, repent and ask for mercy and grace to enjoy the Lord's complete control of the universe.  After all, He made it all and He is building His Kingdom!