Let the Scriptures Pray with You

         Calvary Baptist Church is where I have my earliest memories of going to church.  This little fundamentalist church in southern Iowa was like many other churches of its kind.  The order of worship was chiseled in the same stone, seemingly, that the Almighty had quarried for Moses' stone tablets.  Each weekly service was precisely the same, world without end. For all that scripted repetition, it was curious that all prayers were expected to be ad-libbed.  Anything that smacked of "high-church" was viewed with open hostility, and high-church folks read their prayers from the same book.  Great reverence, therefore, was given to those men who could extemporize the most solemn and eloquent prayers, and extra points were given for generous use of King James pronouns.

         I am eternally grateful for the foundations this church gave me, the abiding respect for the authority of Scripture, and the value of relating to God in a personal way.  Letting prayers spring up from one's own heart made sense to me; after all, no one else could be a Christian on my behalf, nor could anyone else pray in my stead.  These foundations have stayed with me, molding my strong belief in an immanent God who longs to speak to me directly through His Word, and who wants me to communicate with Him as freely as a child with a loving and attentive father.  The church folks from back then would probably think I went all haywire with this--I would probably seem a rabid charismatic to some of them.  Their view of the Thrice-Holy God was much more that of a distant and inscrutable Judge who keeps a firm distinction between Himself and wretched, sinful humanity.  In other words, they emphasized God's transcendence more.  He is above, wholly Other.  Now, I affirm God's transcendence at the same time as His immanence, but I find it strange today that this tradition--which so insists on a God who wants to share Himself with us through Scripture, and wants us to speak with Him in purely heartfelt and unscripted ways--would also visualize God in such aloof terms.

         We moved from that little, southern Iowa town, when I finished fourth grade, to a little, northern Iowa town--big change, right?  Bigger than you would think, actually, as we began attending an American Baptist Church in the absence of fundamentalist options.  That change altered the course of my family's history, culminating in my father coming to the Lord and entering the ministry.  My own thoughts about relating to God began to evolve at the same time, even though it would take some time.  Some of our most ingrained habits of thinking are hard to change!

         Take, for example, this pre-programmed distaste for prayers read from a book.  That was still with me.  It had not yet struck me as odd, the discontinuity between a strictly-scripted worship service and the insistence on a completely-unscripted prayer life as taught to me at Calvary Baptist.  I needed to be stretched, to examine why I believed the things I did, and the opportunity came for this when I went off to college. 

I joined Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, a multi-denominational group of evangelical Christians that has chapters at campuses around the world.  There I was exposed for the first time to the worship cultures of churches much different than mine.  This was also the time when I was seeking how I might engage in a much deeper prayer life.  I picked up one of Inter-Varsity Press' books called Jesus, Man of Prayer, by a Sister Margaret Magdalen.  This lady used to be a Baptist missionary in Zaire, but she had gone on to become an Anglican nun.  How interesting, I thought!  At the time I thought it was akin to an apple becoming an orange.  At any rate, her book examines the spiritual disciplines practiced by our Lord Jesus, and this was the first time I was confronted with the fact that Jesus did pray from a book--the book of Psalms.

Those of us who have an evangelical, free church background (we might call it low-church) have often assumed that our way of prayer and worship is the biblical way to do it.  Before we get carried away, however, we need to remember that our Christian faith is the flowering of the Jewish faith. The New Testament is not the replacement for the Old Testament; it is the consummation of it.  Therefore, any truly biblical worship practice should be the legacy of God's worshipping people from the very beginning, not just from 1 A.D. onward.  We Gentiles have been grafted into the olive tree that God planted when He first called Abraham and promised to bless all peoples of the world through His descendants (Romans 11:17-21).

Keeping in mind the Jewish roots of our faith, we are prepared to understand the significance of Jesus’' life of prayer.  It is no coincidence that when Jesus hung upon the cross, he was quoting from Psalm 22, the "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"” Psalm.  It is important that we understand that in reciting those lines, Jesus was not simply quoting them for the purpose of demonstrating that prophecy was being fulfilled right before their eyes, although that was certainly happening.  But we miss out on what Jesus was doing if we assume that Jesus was teaching in this instance--He was actually praying.  The entire Psalm perfectly expressed the pain, rejection and desolation that Jesus felt, as well as the hope He had, even in the midst of His darkest hours. Pay attention to the text following verse 22, and you will begin to see the faith in His Father, and hope for His deliverance and exaltation, that He was expressing in prayer even as His body's life ebbed away!

It is absolutely perfect that Jesus was praying with the Psalms at various points in His life, and letting those Psalms pray with Him.  For we must understand, the book of Psalms is not just a book of historic poetry; this was in every sense Israel's Book of Prayer.  It was used constantly when the congregation of Israel gathered in worship.  The Psalms covered every situation, good and bad, that Israel faced throughout her history.  Furthermore, they gave voice to every feeling: faith, victory, fear, grief, sorrow, defeat, desolation, depression, righteous and unrighteous anger--that the people of Israel could be experiencing at the time.  They prayed and sung the Psalms together, because the Psalms gave beautiful and powerful expression for the words they could not quite find themselves in the depths of their feelings.

I have a few trusted friends who worship in more liturgical traditions than ours, and through the years I have often sounded them out to understand the great riches they find in their liturgy.  One of the most powerful expressions came from my friend, Eric.  What I said about Israel's use of the Psalms in prayer is a paraphrase of what he told me--that there are times in life when one's feelings run so deep as to be inexpressible.  The emotions are too raw, and the words dry up and blow away while they are still on the tongue.  But through the Anglican Book of Prayer, he finds the Scriptures and the words that perfectly capture where he is at that moment.  They give him words to pray when he can conjure no words of his own. I thought that this explanation had great insight.

It has been many years that I have used the Book of Psalms to come alongside and empower my own private prayers.  In fact, through my brush with cancer, and the operation and recovery I recently went through, I prayed the 40^th Psalm over and over, sometimes with tears.  If you would do me a favor and read through it, maybe you'll be able to spot some of the things I was feeling and hoping, and offering before the Lord as an expression of my trust in Him.

Romans 8:26-27 tells us that:

"“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.”"  

It is wonderful that the Lord stands by to help us pray, to fortify our faith even when in our weakness we cannot find the words ourselves.  One of the ways He does this is through His Spirit-Breathed Word, where right there on the page before us, we find the words written that can give expression to our deepest emotions, and wings to our faith.  I heartily encourage you to start by opening the book of Psalms, and letting the Scriptures pray with you!

Fifteen Years Later: Why? How?

When I pastored a church in southern Illinois, fifteen years ago, I had a monthly column in the local newspaper.  Shortly on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attack, I submitted this.

Why? …How?  The recent, unprecedented assault on American soil, an assault on our very freedoms and way of life,— has been a rude awakening to say the least.  We find we are not as invulnerable as we thought, and this has changed the way we view life.  Even more, the magnitude of human loss in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania overwhelmed us with sorrow.  How could such evil have taken place?  Why does such tragedy and pain pierce the human race?  And there is always the question: How could a loving God allow evil people to inflict such pain on us?

 My shelves are stocked with very large books, many of which deal with this question.  The problems of evil and pain have been studied through the centuries by people far more intelligent than I.  I could walk you through their arguments if you wish.  Some very good explanations have been proposed.

Unfortunately, many of those explanations are technical and dry.  And to be perfectly frank, I am not sure it helps all that much to be able to explain it.  When we experience pain, an intellectual treatise on the cause of our sorrow rubs salt in the wound rather than giving comfort.  If we are able to explain away a person's pain, the subliminal message is that the person should stop feeling so badly.  For example, I’ am a quintessential husband. —I love to fix things.  When my wife is having a bad or an emotional day, my first thought is to come up with some way to explain everything.  All too often I've constructed a water-tight argument to objectify the problem, and I have failed my wife.  For she was not seeking philosophy from me; —she was seeking comfort.

I'm slowly getting better about this, and so I won't clutter your mind with erudite rationalizations of the pain and sorrow we have faced.  What I will offer is a little comfort.  And I would like to do that by sharing a story.  In the Bible, John chapter eleven tells of a man named Lazarus.  He, and his sisters Mary and Martha were cherished friends of Jesus.  Pain struck Mary and Martha when Lazarus became terminally ill, and they sent for Jesus to come and heal him.  By the time Jesus arrived, however, Lazarus had been dead four days.  He found Mary and Martha in bitter grief.  If only Jesus had come sooner, they cried, Lazarus wouldn't have died.

Our media has stereotyped Jesus as being quite unemotional, sort of like Mr. Spock from Star Trek.  So, we might expect that Jesus would have launched into a huge explanation of why death is inevitable and so we should not be so upset by it, blah blah blah.  Or that we are a sinful race, and so we should not be surprised by pain, blah blah blah.  These things might have some kernels of theoretical truth, but they do not help much.  Thank goodness, Jesus is nothing like Mr. Spock.  He didn't explain.  He cried.  He saw the hurt of Mary and Martha.  He felt the loss of such a dear friend as Lazarus, and He was overcome with grief.  He went right on to raise Lazarus from the grave, so you might think Jesus would have said, "Don't cry.  I'm going to fix this problem.  I'll make it go away."  That isn't what He did.  He brought Lazarus back to life, but first He took the time to grieve.  So here we have the Son of God, not standing above our pain and problems, but entering into them and hurting with us.

I would like to propose an image of Jesus that maybe hasn't occurred to you before.  It is an image of the Son of God who knows our pain.  He knows our weakness and sorrow.  He is not aloof from it, because He has experienced it Himself.  This is the amazing truth of the Scriptures, that God the Son became a human being to live among us and to experience our wretched weakness for Himself.  He suffered just as we do, even suffering a cruel death in spite of His innocence.  He has been hurt, rejected, betrayed, grief-stricken, and killed.  Yet He raised from the dead physically, and He was taken into heaven where now He cares for us and hears our heartfelt prayers.  So many times while on earth, our pain and brokenness filled Him with compassion.  It is the same even now.  When pain cuts our hearts, when death or loss reduce us to emotional rubble, I believe that Jesus hurts and weeps with us.

The comfort I offer is more amazing than this, however.  Not only does Jesus grieve with our hurts, He heals us.  Jesus didn't just stand and cry with Mary and Martha.  He called Lazarus out of the grave.  The blind, the lame, the deaf, and the demon-possessed came to Him.  He was overwhelmed with compassion for them, but He didn't just weep.  He healed them.  The most powerful healing comes from He who has also been stricken with pain.  Jesus doesn't just heal the problem; He heals the heart and soul.

In this time of sorrow and uncertainty, please remember that Jesus is not aloof from our suffering.  Just as our hearts were pierced when over three thousand innocents lost their lives, Jesus' heart was dealt a huge blow of pain, too.  He knows what it's like for an innocent person to be killed, and He doesn't want that for anyone.  So He grieves with us, but He is also hard at work healing us.  I pray you'll open yourself to His comfort and healing today.

Learning to Wait

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—--this is the gift of God. –-- Ecclesiates 3:11-13 (NIV)

Waiting.  This seems to be the mode of my life for this short period of time.  It is something that few of us enjoy.  Consider your experiences at the DMV, or waiting for checkout at the grocery store.  Perhaps you can remember a recent time when you were stuck in traffic.  When waiting, we become like tigers caged in our own minds, convinced that we should be doing something else.  Certainly, we could find something more productive to do than this.  Waiting feels like falling through the cracks between those times when "real life" happens.

Many of you know what has brought this time of waiting in my own life.  A 10-centimeter growth was recently found in my right kidney, confirmed by CT and MRI scans.  The specialist, nearly three weeks ago, told me that this was almost certainly cancer, and that the kidney needed to come out very soon.  Any of us would interpret "very soon" as, well, very soon.  For something like cancer, I would prefer the "right away" interpretation of "very soon."  And so, at least at first, my adrenaline was cranked up, and I was raring to go.  By all means, let's get this thing out, the sooner the better.  But then I found out that the specialist's definition of "very soon" was September 12--certainly a far cry from the way I'd define it.  At the time of this writing, I'm still looking at nearly two and a half weeks until the surgery happens.

During these intervening days, the caged tiger snarls a great deal.  I am limited from even some of my normal activities, because too much moving around causes bleeding, and an ever-abiding tiredness that frustrates me to no end.  The "take charge and get things handled" part of me has his hands tied, as there is really very little I can do until this surgery gets done.  Don't even get me started about what happens after the surgery is completed--I'm looking at a couple of weeks of being in bed, and a couple more weeks after that of doing very little.  I won't even be able to drive for who knows how long!

We think of waiting as nothing but a nuisance, but God's counsel is for us to learn to see it differently: as a reminder of important truths.  Think with me a moment.  We are aggravated during times of waiting, because there is nothing that we can do about it.  So, what might our Father be trying to teach us during such times?  How about this: ultimately, God's plans do not depend on what we can accomplish.  I will admit this: I think about our church, during those weeks when I will be laid up, and I'm tempted to fret a little.  I think of our Tuesday evening Bible studies, the high school Sunday School class that I teach, our Sunday morning services, and all of the other busy things that happen in the fall season.  I wonder how all of this will go, with me stuck at home in bed. 

When that little hint of fretting rises up, the Holy Spirit gently corrects me.  He reminds me that this church existed for well over a century before I got here.  Generations of Christians have worshiped the Lord, and been discipled to live for Him, without any involvement from me whatever.  And the Lord can see to this perfectly well without me, for a month or so, while I am laid up. Still, these delusions of grandeur keep popping to the surface. We say that we believe in letting God be in charge, but we keep getting this idea that He needs a little help from us.  Where does this crazy thought come from, that things won't work out well without our contribution?  I think it's the same thing that's been following us around since the Garden: our pride.  Pride is our most ancient, most tenacious enemy.  It is exceedingly hard to shake.  You might think of it like the barnacles that encrust the bottom of ships over time.  They damage vessels, slowing them down and making them less effective.  One of the most powerful tools the Lord uses to pry loose pride is a time of forced waiting, of feeling helpless...useless.  During such times, we thrash about impatiently.  We resist the idea of the Lord getting on with His plans without us.  Inevitably, our striving calms and we begin to accept that our world, our work, and our relationships are well within His capable hands.  Paradoxically, it is when we find rest in our unimportance that we become truly useful to the Lord.  We learn that anything of worth, even when we are involved, is being done by God, not us.  We discover that, like the Apostle Paul, we have been crucified with Christ, and that we no longer live, but Christ lives through us. (Galatians 2:20)

When we think we have fallen through the cracks of "real life," we may also find that we have much to learn about what that life is really about.  Be honest now: as an adult, where do your thoughts mostly dwell?  I'll go first.  Rarely do my thoughts center on this moment, on what is happening right now.  Instead, I think a great deal about what is coming up next.  Even as I perform one task, or engage in one conversation, I find myself casting forward to my next obligation, or where I need to be and what I need to do tomorrow.  Even though I must still wait over two weeks for this stupid kidney to come out, my mind wants to picture the time when it's done and I'm fully recovered.  But I'm finding it hard to envision that time, because I have all this time of waiting--waiting for the operation and waiting to recover--that gets in my way.  A gradual shift is happening in my thinking.  Since I have so much waiting to do, without any shortcuts to rush it along, I might as well settle down and wait.  Don't let me fool you, I'm not completely settled yet.  I still kick and fuss a little.  But I am noticing that fewer of my thoughts reach to tomorrows and future weeks that were never guaranteed to me in the first place.  My adrenaline is pumping less, my blood pressure drops, and I think more about the current day, the present moment.  Realizing that cancer can be life-threatening (even a slow-growing one like this), I begin to appreciate more that every day of my life, every chance to cherish my family, every opportunity to enjoy the fellowship of my church, is a great gift that ought not to be missed while I stew about what tomorrow may hold.

And when I dwell less on my earthly future, I increasingly think about how foolish it is to keep a death grip on this mortal life.  The Bible teaches us that our life is an insubstantial mist that vanishes in the full sunlight of eternity.  Why, then, do we invest so much time, effort, and passion into this order of things that will quickly pass away?  It's like throwing our prize possessions into a bottomless hole--wasted!  Each day of our life is exactly like that, when we do not spend that day investing in things of eternal worth.  Do I realize...do you realize...how short is our time on this fallen world, and how critical it is that we seize each day on that world to prepare ourselves for life on the new and eternal one?  Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that God has set eternity in our hearts.  There is a homing beacon in each of our souls, sounding out that we were meant for a different world.  While there is still time, we must learn to number our days so that we can apply our hearts to the wise use of each one.  We must worry about the tomorrows less and live more fully in the today that God has gifted us by His grace.  In the final analysis, absolutely nothing matters except how much you love God today, and how you love those precious family and friends that He has given you as a sacred trust.

Learning to wait is really the same thing as learning to dwell: to dwell on the here and the now, to dwell on the relationships you've been given, and to dwell fully in Christ, each moment.  Have you learned to dwell?  Perhaps, if not, the Lord will soon be teaching you how to wait.

Will God Give You More than You Can Handle?

     "God never gives us more than we can handle."  I'm sure you've heard this one, a bunch of times.  Usually, you hear it given out as sage advice when a church member, friend, or neighbor experiences a devastating loss.  Now, it sounds like a true thing, and even a Biblical thing.  It also gives people something to say when they are desperately trying to come up with something that is comforting.  They want to encourage their friend or loved one, and to bolster their faith in God.

     Those who utter this maxim do so with good intent--we must give them credit for what they are trying to do. On the other hand, have you ever stood in a circle of caring around a grieving person (maybe at a funeral visitation) and someone has tried to comfort the aggrieved by the famous saying, "God never gives us more than we can handle?"  Have you experienced the instant increase in awkwardness and tension right afterward? If your experience matches mine, the hurting individual has not appeared to be even slightly comforted by these magic words.  In fact, they've often gotten quiet, and looked even more wounded than before.  You can see it in their eyes: "Whatever you may think about that, this is more than I can handle.  Does that make me a poor Christian? On top of all this hurt, is God also disappointed in me because my faith isn't strong enough?"

     So, I thought we could spend a few minutes examining the truth of this time-worn saying.  Is it Biblical? And if it is Biblical, is that what the verse really means?

     People have extrapolated this famous saying from 1 Corinthians 10:13, which in the NIV says, "No temptation  has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

     Now, having given you the verse, I need to point out a couple of features that most folks miss, and so fail to understand the verse fully.

1) Take a look at the context.  What is the theme of the whole chapter?  It's about how Israel caved into the temptation to sin and idolatry.  Paul wrote this  to the church in Corinth as a warning not to fall down the same slide that had brought on Israel's destruction.  So the chief meaning of "temptation" in this verse is "temptation to sin," which Paul says all of us face.

2) The word study books I have suggest that the Greek work for "temptation" (I won't bore you with the word) also includes "trials" in general.  This could mean adverse circumstance, hardship, etc. that puts our faith and character to the test.  Although that's not really the context of this passage, let's say for the sake of argument that Paul also meant "hard times" by this verse.  Even if that's so, (which I don't really buy because of the clear context of the chapter) there are a few other features that we need to notice to get the correct understanding:

3) These temptations are "common to mankind."  In other words, none of us ever face a temptation or hardship that is unique.  So God doesn't make  unique bad things happen to us to see if we sink or swim--whenever we face hard circumstances, they're the very same hard circumstances that thousands or millions are going through, right now.  It's just part of being a mortal human being.  Part of the package.

4) Remember the caution we're given in James 1:13-14...."13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed."  God isn't in the "tempting business", with the hard times that tempt us to abandon our faith.  He's in the "victory OVER temptation" business, as we see here:

5) Look at those words in verse 13 again: "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."  This shows us that God does keep a limit on the temptations He will allow us to endure, mindful of where we are in our walk with Him.  We see that acted out in the Book of Job, when God placed outer limits on Satan's activity in Job's life.  God does shepherd our experiences in this way.  He's a good and loving Father, and He keeps our souls safe if we'll trust Him.

6) The last point is this: God doesn't allow experiences based on what WE can handle; we can't actually handle anything.  When we think of things realistically,  our individual strength and faith will break down in the presence of trials.  Humans just don't have it in them.  The real meaning, balanced by the rest of what God teaches us in the Bible, is that any temptation (or trial) needs more than human strength--we absolutely need God's strength as He walks alongside of us and provides the resources we need for each challenge.  He doesn't sit back and watch to see if we sink or swim.  He gets right down with us in the midst of trials and gives us the strength and victory we could never experience on our own. As it says in John 15:5, apart from God (on our own), we can do NOTHING.  But when we abide constantly with Him, never going off on our own, but walking right by His side, we experience the truth of the promise that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

     So the next time you're hurting, take it with a little grain of salt if someone tells you, "God never gives us anything we can't handle."  Be patient with them.  They mean well. They can see you're hurting, and they really want to encourage you.  However, give yourself permission to admit that you actually can't handle the situation.  Also, realize that God doesn't expect you to handle it--not on your own.  That is why He is right by your side, and if you'll let Him, He'll take you by the hand and lead you through that dark valley.  He will supply His strength where yours is lacking.  And one day you'll realize you see a little light at the end of the tunnel.  You won't know how you've made it that far--and that will be because your Father was carrying you.

     And if you're at the side of a grieving friend, I'd encourage you to remain there, quietly, and let that feeling of loss be what it is.  You don't have to come up with anything to make it go away--God will see to that, with time.  Your mere, caring presence will be an unspoken sign to the hurting that God is right there with them as well.  As you grieve with them, it's a sign that God is grieving with them, too.  And really, that's the most powerful thing you can say to a person who feels lost and alone.

Building Bridges Pays Dividends

     With this post, I'm bringing you greetings from the Midwest! As of today (June 22), I'm sitting in the living room of my parents-in-law in Ottawa, Kansas.  We just came here yesterday from visiting my side of the family.  We attended church with my parents yesterday in St. Joseph, Missouri.  It was the first time my whole family had been together in church for many years.  Of course, all three of us kids have our own churches and schedules, so we can't be together on Sundays very often.  Yesterday, however, things came together for all of us, and we were there, on Father's Day, to hear my father deliver a sermon.  My sister and I both sang.  My father was rather touched to have us all together--I think we gave him a pretty good Father's Day present.

     The whole week was a good one for strengthening relationships.  We three siblings stayed up a few very late nights, just talking about what has been happening in our lives, and how our perspectives on life and faith have adapted as we have gained experience.  We were intrigued, I think, to see how we have come to some of the same perspectives even though we are separated by space, time, and circumstances. Even as our insights have come into greater agreement, it also seems that we are increasingly appreciating the importance of humility--we are realizing how much we have yet to learn.  God is always seeking to impart greater wisdom to us through His Word, our experiences, and through the perspectives of others.  It would be a shame to close ourselves off to that wisdom, thinking we already understand things well enough.  That openness is so important, both for our own growth in Christ and our relationships.

     All of this causes me to reflect, once again, on the great benefits we may gain from Christian fellowship if we just invest the time and effort to reach across our differences, and with a teachable spirit, open ourselves to the stories and perspectives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It's important to be honest with ourselves, understanding that it takes constant effort to bridge the gaps caused by differing backgrounds, personalities, and styles.  We love to take the path of least resistance; it involves little effort when we spend time with those who are like-minded and kindred spirits.  However, if we associate only with those who are like us, we are probably not going to learn very much.  

     The Apostle Paul wrote, "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:3, NIV).  I like that verse, because first, it recognizes the challenge of unity with those who are different from us. We can all testify to the difficulty of relationships with those we'd term "difficult people" -- though we often dismiss as difficult those who are simply very different.  The second thing I like about the verse, though, is that it gives the method for surmounting the difficulty: the "bond of peace."  What is this "bond of peace" which is supposed to give us the resources to have unity with those very different from us? The answer: Jesus Himself; His work on the Cross reconciles us both to God and to each other.  In Ephesians 2:14, Paul reminds us that "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..." (NIV)

     If we have truly made Christ's atonement a part of our lives, we should be living the full implications of the Gospel. One of those implications is that we can live in unity and mutual encouragement with any Christian brother or sister, regardless of our differences.  In the Father's wisdom, He has ordained that a good portion of the wisdom and guidance we need is sent to us by the fellowship of others in the Body of Christ.  We are stunted in our growth when we refuse to bridge the gaps of personal differences and humble ourselves enough to learn.  I pray that you and I will continually commit ourselves not to miss the riches of wisdom and caring that can be found in our Christian family.

Praying in the Big Leagues

     I'm sure you all know my opinion of politics by now.  Let's just say, I don't like politics.  Not a bit.  I have little faith in the American political system, and that includes both sides of the aisle.  The whole thing is rife with corruption, as legislators are owned by special interest groups.  Self-interest rules over the good of the country.  Our religious freedoms are being whittled away.  This latest intrusion by state government into the working of local churches is one example--the background checks and mandatory reporting, etc.  I growl a lot about new laws and regulations, and I sometimes wonder if certain politicians might be actively working to destroy the country.  I get angry...and I sometimes have a hard time thinking Christ-like thoughts or expressing His compassion for all people.  And that's precisely how I learn where I need to grow, when I find an area where I don't reflect the heart of Jesus.  Maybe you need to grow, too.

     Regardless how you vote, there's likely a bunch of times that you've been upset about laws and regulations that have been put in place by some legislative body.  Like I said, I sure have, plenty of times.  Let me ask you this--how many times have you prayed for our leaders? I know, I know--sometimes we get so angry at them that we just want them to get voted out and go away.  Some may even wish them harm!  Before we let our feelings carry us away, however, we ought to find out what Jesus would have us think, and do.

     In First Timothy, chapter 2, the Apostle Paul instructs his pastoral protégé in the methods by which he can cultivate the heart of Jesus within the Ephesian church.  Prayer heads the list, as it must.  He urges that the church pray for everyone--even those for whom they might not feel like praying: "I urge, then, first of all, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority..." (vv. 1-2a, NIV)  It's easy to pray for people we like, right?  Praying for people we don't care for, however...that's when we separate the pros from the amateurs.  Jesus reminded us in the Sermon on the Mount that even the "tax collectors" and "pagans" show love to those who love them. (Matt. 5:46, 47) Followers of Jesus must distinguish themselves from the world by wielding a love that is much higher than unbelievers can attain.  And so it follows naturally that if we truly follow Jesus, we should not balk at praying even for those in power.

     Paul gives two other reasons for such prayers.  The first directly benefits us: "...that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (2b)  I can't tell you how many times I've wished that the government would get out of our lives.  I'm sure you've done the same.  Rather than watching the news and seething in resentment, because we're powerless to change things, we should do the one thing that makes change possible--pray!  Yes, God's Word plainly says that praying for those in power can bring about an environment in which governmental leaders leave us alone, and free to pursue lives of godliness and holiness.  How does this work?  I haven't the foggiest notion.  But apparently something happens in the heavenlies when God's people pray for the knowledge and blessing of God to come upon those in authority.  Perhaps God softens their hearts toward us, causing them to look on us more favorably--I don't know.  I do know that whatever we're doing now isn't working.  I think it's time to quit working ourselves up into a froth, drop the angry slogans, and take our place on the battle-lines of prayer.  That's where we do have power.  And just perhaps, the Lord will give us the peace and quiet for which we've been searching.

     The second reason for praying for people in power is more important than our own comfort--it's for their very eternal souls: "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." (vv. 3-4, NIV)  Whatever we may think of presidents, or governors, or legislators, or judges, we must remember who they truly are.  They are, every last one of them, people lovingly created by God, in His image.  They are sinners, like you and I.  They wield a power that can spread the effects of their sin much farther that us, but their level of brokenness is quite equal to ours in the eyes of God.   The love God has for them, furthermore, is just as great as it is for us.  Out of His compassion, He sent His Son to die for them and hopefully to redeem their souls.  To this day, He sends His Holy Spirit to contend with their hearts, opening their eyes to their sin and need for a Savior.  He wants them to be with Him for all eternity.  That is who these people are.  We pigeonhole them, seeing them only in terms of their title, their power, their riches, and perhaps the damage and mischief they can accomplish.  But that is not who they are, whether they know it or not. They are children of the Living God, who wants to redeem them.  That is how we must see them.  We must see past the facade, see their souls, and pray for those souls.  If we do not, we cannot call ourselves followers of Jesus, or of the Father who wants all men to be saved.

     It is time to stop grumbling and kick into action.  It's time to pray!  On May 7, Christians from our entire area will gather at the site of the new school in Kittanning for the National Day of Prayer.  It will be an hour in which we fervently pray for God's love and truth to come upon all of our leaders, national, state, county and local.  We will pray for the new school, for its administrators and teachers.  We will pray for the students who will join together in ways they never have before.  We will pray safety for our law enforcement officers, and all those firemen and EMT's who sacrifice to keep us safe and healthy.  We hope that you will come with us to pray that a knowledge of God and His truth will dawn upon our leaders.  We will pray that blessing will return to our people, and that we will be able to live our lives in peace and godliness.  If you really want things to change, you need to be there.  Our National Day of Prayer service begins at 6:30 pm, at the location mentioned above.  In the event of rain, we will meet instead at the pavilion of Vision Hill, the future site of the First Church of God.  I anticipate seeing you there.

A Long Look Within

   The Lenten season is already upon us. Can you believe it? Do you realize that just two months ago, we were celebrating Christmas? Something really strange has happened this year, with the way all those solstices and equinoxes fall, and Easter will be exceptionally early this year. April 5! I'm having a really tough time making the mental gears switch over--and all this crazy snow everywhere doesn't do much to help me come to terms with the fact that Lent is already here, and Easter is coming fast.

   But we should do everything we can in order to enter into the journey of Lent. The alternative is missing out on a truly precious opportunity: the opportunity to enter into the story of Christ's ministry, His passion, and His resurrection. It's your opportunity to enter into the drama--to make the Gospel story, your story. The result of doing this is wonderful and transformative.

   But before we jump in, headlong, we really ought to make sure that we are clear about what we are doing, and why. A good, first question would be: what is Lent? What does the word mean?

   The word, "Lent," is an Old English word that means "long," in observance of the fact that the days visibly lengthen in the spring. It and "spring" were used somewhat interchangeably. So the Old English term for spring would have been something like, "the lengthening." So originally, the term, "Lent," wasn't even a particularly religious word. However, given that it was in these days of "lengthening" that people also prepared themselves spiritually for entering into the story of Christ's Passion and Resurrection, the word Lent has morphed over the centuries to take on a spiritual connotation.

   A much older term for what we call "Lent" is how they referred to it in Latin: Quadragesima, meaning "fortieth." This is in reference to the fact that the Lenten observance is forty days in length. The forty days of Lent are meant to commemorate the 40 days that Christ spend fasting in the desert, after His baptism, and prior to the beginning of His public ministry. In preparation for celebrating the Passion week, believers have also entered a forty day period of fasting, symbolically participating with Jesus in His wilderness fast. Other foreign words for "Lent" recognize that it is all about entering into the story of Christ's preparatory fast. The German word for Lent is fastenzeit, simply meaning "fasting time." Other European languages, like Russian or Czech, use an expression which translates into "the great fast" (Czech is postni doba; Russian is vyeliki post.)

   So, there we have the meaning and origin of the term, "Lent." Having covered the what, however, we should talk about the why. For many Christians in this country, there is a serious question about whether Lent should be observed at all. Believe me, I understand. My first church memories were in a small, Independent Fundamental Baptist church, and the term Lent only conjured up people eating fish and carrying out mystical, Catholic rituals. I'm ashamed to tell you that anything liturgical like this stirred up suspicion in me and other members of my little group of "Fundies". I have grown a tremendous amount since those days. The denomination I now call home is far more hospitable and ecumenical, praise the Lord, and we understand that liturgy is not a sinister or wrong thing.

   Many strongly object to observing Lent because, they say, it's nowhere in the Bible. To that objection I would be quick to point out that an annual celebration of Christmas is also mentioned nowhere in the Bible, but that holiday is celebrated without anyone raising an eyebrow. To be clear, I'm glad about that. As far as I can tell, there is no biblical prescription for an annual celebration of Easter. Rather, each Sunday is supposed to be a celebration of Christ's resurrection. That's why Christian worship was moved from the true Sabbath, Saturday, to the first day of the week. The first day of the week is when Jesus arose from the tomb. Nevertheless, I hardly have a problem with a special, annual celebration of Easter--I rejoice in it, and so should you. Returning to the subject of Lent, granted, there is no commandment in the New Testament to celebrate it each year. But, are there good reasons to do so nonetheless?

   I submit that the answer is yes. I feel it important to note that motivation is everything. Why do we observe Lent? Is it with the hopes that, from performing "extra credit" religious rituals, we might gain extra favor from God? I fear that far too many people think this way. They treat God as a gum ball machine, and ritual as the coin. Insert religious ritual, turn crank, and out pops good fortune in life. My friend, God is not a divine dispenser of handouts, whom you may manipulate. He is a loving Heavenly Father, who wants to be present in, and to transform, every single area of your life. He wants you to share everything with Him, and He wants to share everything with you.

   The only detail is that you must let Him in. That takes time. And tragically, time is a commodity so precious to us that we begrudge sharing it with Him. Why are we so miserly of the time we are willing to share with God? We're just so BUSY all the time. The alarming thing is that we never stop to consider that all this busy-ness may be a tactic of Satan himself.

   In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster says the following:

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in 'muchness' and 'manyness,' he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, 'Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.' (p. 15)

   If you are too hurried, too busy, to invite God into all the moments and places of your daily living, then you are too busy, by far. But why does busy-ness have such a hold on us--why do we all feel bound by it? Perhaps part of the answer is something we dare not admit to ourselves. Perhaps it's because we are all too aware of what may happen if we take the time to walk with Jesus, and to share with Him all our goings and comings and doings and thoughts. Perhaps we KNOW what He will do if we open these things to Him--He might start changing things! And just perhaps, we're not sure we want Him to!

   Later in the book I just mentioned, Foster says this:

Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. We are content to have the message second-hand...In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. (p. 24)

Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. We keep up a constant stream of words even if they are inane. We buy radios that strap to our wrists or fit over our ears so that if no once else is around, at least we are not condemned to silence. (p. 98)

   Why are we so scared of being alone...being quiet...taking time to think? Perhaps (though we'd never admit it to ourselves), we fear what God may say to us, and do within us. If we hold Him at arm's length, we can keep the relationship nice and cordial. God may be less likely, that way, to ask anything of us that we would be uncomfortable doing. When we insist on keeping God at arm's length, relating to Him only through what we hear a preacher say on Sunday, however, that's not enough. We still aren't allowing God to share our lives and innermost thoughts. And that leads to temptation and sin.

   That leads me to another reason we are afraid to take time, alone, with the Lord. I hate vehicle inspection time, don't you? I watch the date on that sticker, and as it gets nearer, my dread grows. I just know that when the mechanic takes a look at my car, he will find something wrong. It's not that seeing the mechanic makes the car develop a problem--the problem is already there. But when the mechanic looks, he will see the problem. I hate that. That means money from my pocket, which I can't easily spare.

   I feel that is another part of the answer as to why we allow our busy-ness to have such a hold on our lives. Being obsessively busy keeps us from time alone, with God, in silence. And, if we don't allow God enough time to see into our hearts and lives, the very real problems we have will remain undiscovered, right? God won't see them? Well, that's foolish thinking, and that's where the whole analogy falls apart. God is not like a mechanic, who won't discover the problem if we don't let Him take a peek under the hood. Psalm 139 breaks the news to us in powerful and beautiful language. Consider the first six verses:

"You have searched me, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." (NIV)

   Christians have always held that God sees and knows absolutely everything. We learned this in Sunday School when we were very young. Still, we mortal humans have a difficult time processing that truth in real life. The reality we experience is that our private thoughts and deeds will remain that way unless we choose to reveal them. Despite the fact that we say we believe in the infinite and extensive knowledge of God, we instinctively fall back on the assumption that if we keep certain doors closed to God, He will never find out about the extent of our sinful tendencies.

   We really do need to get the truth to sink into our mortal skulls: there is no use trying to hide anything about ourselves from God. He already knows it—all of it--even better than we know it ourselves. To really blow our minds, He knew all of it before we were even born! Since He already knows it, we may as well be honest with Him, and ourselves, about it. That is because, once we open up to God about our profound brokenness, the way is opened for God to begin cleansing and purifying us. In the Bible, God makes clear His earnest desire to work with us so that we can be conformed to the character of Jesus and bring Him glory.

“'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'" -- Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." -- 1 John 1:8-9 (NIV)

   The type of transformation that can set us free and bring us to a life of true purpose awaits only our being totally open with God, and trusting His loving hand to purge all that stands in the way. King David was eager that the Heavenly Father would undertake this complete renovation of his life. This is why he made the following invitation in Psalm 139:23-24...

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (NIV)

   Just as the forty days of Christ's fasting in the desert marked His complete dedication to the Father's will in His life, the forty days of Lent give us the opportunity to symbolically join Him in a journey that strips away the false directions and securities that keep us from knowing the good He has in store for us. Lent is a long look within--one which helps us to consecrate ourselves to the higher and better purposes for which the Father has destined us.