Have you ever heard your own heartbeat? Chances are you have. You exert yourself and you can hear your heart beating as you try to catch your breath. Or maybe you lay in just a certain way and you can hear your pulse beat in your head, the gentle throbbing just at the edge of your awareness.
What does your heartbeat say? Sounds like a stupid question, I know. My heartbeat isn’t very eloquent – the best I can translate it, it says something like “Thump-thump, thump-thump.” Our hearts don’t say much except to a doctor who knows what an irregular or unruly beat means – for us, it is just a steady beating of a drum that means we are alive.
We celebrate Thanksgiving this week, and I will spend time thanking God for a good number of things. Included will be gratitude for my family and friends, for good health, and for the privilege of serving such a great and gracious God. I will let you in on a little secret – I will also spend time listening to God’s heartbeat and thanking Him for that as well.
God’s heartbeat – I am speaking in images now, but I think you can get the point pretty easily. You hear God’s heartbeat in an amazing Scriptural passage known as Psalm 136. The Psalm starts out with a triple plea to give thanks to God, and then there are statements that direct our attention to God as the One who created us, redeemed us, and sustains us. Pretty standard stuff for the Bible. What sets this Psalm off from all the rest is the refrain, the steady, recurring, ever beating, never stopping, always pulsing “thump-thump” of God’s heart. Only, God is more eloquent – twenty-six times the refrain sounds in Psalm 136, “His love endures forever.”
Writer Peter Wallace says this refrain continually and repeatedly reminds us that God loves us. Despite our weaknesses and failures, our circumstances and struggles, even our doubts and fears, God’s love for us is unswerving. “His love endures forever.”
The Apostle John reminds us of God’s tremendous love for us as manifested in Jesus’ determination to go to the cross for our sins. John 13:1 says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” What was the “full extent” of His love? He let His heartbeat stop on the cross so that when our heartbeats stopped in death, we would awaken in eternity with Him. Now, that is a love that endures forever.
Take some time this week and try to listen to your own heartbeat – and then listen to God’s heartbeat as reflected in Psalm 136 and in all the experiences of life as you follow Jesus. Sing a song of gratitude for the God who made us, saved us through Christ, walks with us through life.
Thump-thump, thump-thump – “His love endures forever.”
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Falling From Grace
Periodically I spend time praying and planning for future sermons. This has been a week for doing that, and I am spending time with the theme of grace. I recognize why grace is so important to me – before I came to Christ I felt I was completely unacceptable. I had this mental image of God as stern, unloving, and lacking compassion. Becoming acceptable was something I had to achieve, and it didn’t take me long to recognize that wasn’t going to happen. Imagine my surprise when I was blindsided by the tremendous grace of God found in Jesus (sounds like a good sermon title, “Blindsided By Grace”). Jesus did for me what I could not possibly do for myself, and I love Him for it.
I love Him for it, I say – and I imagine many Christ-followers would say the same. But something often happens, and I am trying to get a handle on it. Those who are touched by grace and immersed in the love of God often become ungracious and unlovely – in short, unChrist-like. There are many relationships this affects, but it especially affects our relationship with those who are watching us. Sheldon Van Auken wrote, “The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness.” And what is the best argument against Christianity? Van Auken continues, “When Christians are somber, joyless, self-righteous, smug, narrow, repressive – Christianity dies a thousand deaths.”
What’s up? How can those who enter the kingdom of God through the gracefulness of God come to the place where they do not reflect that gracefulness in their day-to-day living? To put it in Luke 15 terms, how can young prodigals greeted by the tremendous love of the Father become elder brothers who look in judgment at those around? How can we fall so far from grace? How does the drift occur – and what can we do about it?
I love Him for it, I say – and I imagine many Christ-followers would say the same. But something often happens, and I am trying to get a handle on it. Those who are touched by grace and immersed in the love of God often become ungracious and unlovely – in short, unChrist-like. There are many relationships this affects, but it especially affects our relationship with those who are watching us. Sheldon Van Auken wrote, “The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness.” And what is the best argument against Christianity? Van Auken continues, “When Christians are somber, joyless, self-righteous, smug, narrow, repressive – Christianity dies a thousand deaths.”
What’s up? How can those who enter the kingdom of God through the gracefulness of God come to the place where they do not reflect that gracefulness in their day-to-day living? To put it in Luke 15 terms, how can young prodigals greeted by the tremendous love of the Father become elder brothers who look in judgment at those around? How can we fall so far from grace? How does the drift occur – and what can we do about it?
Monday, November 9, 2009
Slightly Imperfect
Not long ago my wife and I stopped by a candy store. I have to be honest, we weren’t going to buy any candy – we were there for the freebies. You know the ones I'm talking about, the samples they promised in big letters, the “slightly imperfect” pieces they could not sell but which would taste just as good as the unblemished variety. I would like to say that we had a great time, but to our dismay, the only pieces of candy were the kind no one wanted – and they looked like it. Mold wasn’t exactly growing on the candy, but – what was that white, fuzzy, stuff?
Slightly imperfect - I guess that describes a lot of things. My wife married me almost thirty-five years ago – I wonder when she discovered that I was “slightly imperfect?”
I have two great children whom I love, and my wife and I probably counted their fingers and toes when they were born and declared them perfect. Of course, then we brought them home from the hospital and, well, you can guess the rest. At least we love them – imperfectly, of course.
I like the way The Message translation gets at God’s choice of us in 1 Corinthians 1:26f: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?... Everything that we have – right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, ‘If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.’”
You get the point – everyone of us is more than a bit “slightly imperfect.” You want something to thank God about? Here it is – knowing you and me as we are, He chose to love us, come to us through His Son, and offer us life. He came to us nobodies and made us somebody because of Jesus. Slightly imperfect, yes, of course. A bit moldy, tossed aside and neglected by others, perhaps. But God wasn’t looking for the unblemished variety that wouldn’t see their need for Jesus in the first place – He is content with the less than perfect that He might do His perfect work of grace in our lives. He knew what He was getting and chose us anyway. So go blow a trumpet for God and celebrate His tremendous grace.
Slightly imperfect - I guess that describes a lot of things. My wife married me almost thirty-five years ago – I wonder when she discovered that I was “slightly imperfect?”
I have two great children whom I love, and my wife and I probably counted their fingers and toes when they were born and declared them perfect. Of course, then we brought them home from the hospital and, well, you can guess the rest. At least we love them – imperfectly, of course.
I like the way The Message translation gets at God’s choice of us in 1 Corinthians 1:26f: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?... Everything that we have – right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, ‘If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.’”
You get the point – everyone of us is more than a bit “slightly imperfect.” You want something to thank God about? Here it is – knowing you and me as we are, He chose to love us, come to us through His Son, and offer us life. He came to us nobodies and made us somebody because of Jesus. Slightly imperfect, yes, of course. A bit moldy, tossed aside and neglected by others, perhaps. But God wasn’t looking for the unblemished variety that wouldn’t see their need for Jesus in the first place – He is content with the less than perfect that He might do His perfect work of grace in our lives. He knew what He was getting and chose us anyway. So go blow a trumpet for God and celebrate His tremendous grace.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Time Change
This was the weekend the time changed for those of us in Missouri. We “gained” an hour, meaning that when our clocks said 10:00 PM, it was really only 9:00 PM. You go to bed by the old time, and you get to sleep an extra hour. We like the time change in the Fall; the one in the Spring where we “lose” an hour is not so loved.
I’m not sure my children, and especially my daughter, has ever forgiven me for the time change. When they were young, we never told them about the time change in the Fall – we just put them to bed at the normal time, let them fall asleep, and then went around the house and changed the clocks. My wife and I enjoyed another hour of solitude and our kids knew nothing about it. However, come Spring, we told them for a week before that they would have to go to bed early. On Saturday we would start changing the clocks so they could get accustomed to the idea that bedtime at 7:30 PM was really bedtime at 8:30 PM.
My daughter never got it. Since she was never told about the Fall change, she didn’t realize the Spring change just completed the cycle. It didn't make sense to her as she got older. It seemed like we were always losing time but never getting it back. She went through a long phase in her life where she lived in her own time zone, refusing to change her watch and even refusing to wear one.
She now lives in Arizona where the time doesn’t change.
The writer of Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” All the things you would expect are listed – a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh. There is something of a balance to life, a rhythm, and we are called to make the most of what life throws at us. Ephesians 5:16 even tells us to make the most of time because the days are evil. We don’t know what the day may bring, but we know every day brings opportunities to live life well under the Lordship of Christ. We can love God with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves, a good response to the evil that may come our way.
My daughter would point out that Ecclesiastes 3 says nothing about a time to change our clocks. She’s right, of course. It also doesn’t say there is a time to forgive her father for not telling her about the time change, but maybe she will do it anyway.
I’m not sure my children, and especially my daughter, has ever forgiven me for the time change. When they were young, we never told them about the time change in the Fall – we just put them to bed at the normal time, let them fall asleep, and then went around the house and changed the clocks. My wife and I enjoyed another hour of solitude and our kids knew nothing about it. However, come Spring, we told them for a week before that they would have to go to bed early. On Saturday we would start changing the clocks so they could get accustomed to the idea that bedtime at 7:30 PM was really bedtime at 8:30 PM.
My daughter never got it. Since she was never told about the Fall change, she didn’t realize the Spring change just completed the cycle. It didn't make sense to her as she got older. It seemed like we were always losing time but never getting it back. She went through a long phase in her life where she lived in her own time zone, refusing to change her watch and even refusing to wear one.
She now lives in Arizona where the time doesn’t change.
The writer of Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” All the things you would expect are listed – a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh. There is something of a balance to life, a rhythm, and we are called to make the most of what life throws at us. Ephesians 5:16 even tells us to make the most of time because the days are evil. We don’t know what the day may bring, but we know every day brings opportunities to live life well under the Lordship of Christ. We can love God with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves, a good response to the evil that may come our way.
My daughter would point out that Ecclesiastes 3 says nothing about a time to change our clocks. She’s right, of course. It also doesn’t say there is a time to forgive her father for not telling her about the time change, but maybe she will do it anyway.
Monday, October 26, 2009
A Long Ways Away
A year ago today (October 26) I had the privilege of preaching in the Bethel Baptist Church of Chisinau, Moldova. I spent some time looking at the pictures I took and watched a little video clip of my preaching in this historic Baptist Church with my translator. I will always be grateful for that moving experience.
For those who do not know, Moldova is a small country located next to Romania. An organization called the Future Leadership Foundation asked me to be a part of a three person team to provide a training retreat for leaders of the Moldovan Baptist Union. It was a tremendous experience and I appreciate the work of the Future Leadership Foundation as they partner with Christian leaders in former Soviet Union countries to encourage those leaders in their growth and service. I was honored and humbled by the experience – I don’t know how much those leaders were encouraged by me, but I know I was by them.
One of the leaders in Moldova is named Peter. The church I pastor, First Baptist Church of Rolla, Missouri, not only paid my way but helped fund the retreat for Peter. We have kept up with each other from time to time through email, and recently I received an email from Peter stating he was in the United States in a place called Georgia, and he wondered if Rolla was close enough to drive over to see him. I wish it was – when Peter writes about God’s work in the church he pastors, I am in awe. The challenges are great, the country’s opposition fierce, and yet Peter and his church family remain focused on sharing Jesus with all they meet. I realize how complicated things can get for me at times, how comfortable and convenient things are for American Christians, and how easy it is for American churches to lose sight of what really matters. Peter’s emails always help me regain my focus.
Rolla is a long way from the state of Georgia, and even farther from the country of Moldova. But Peter and I always promise each other we will do something that the distance can not stop – we promise to pray for each other. God’s unlimited reach, that is how I once heard prayer defined – I am so glad God is not hindered by the distance.
For those who do not know, Moldova is a small country located next to Romania. An organization called the Future Leadership Foundation asked me to be a part of a three person team to provide a training retreat for leaders of the Moldovan Baptist Union. It was a tremendous experience and I appreciate the work of the Future Leadership Foundation as they partner with Christian leaders in former Soviet Union countries to encourage those leaders in their growth and service. I was honored and humbled by the experience – I don’t know how much those leaders were encouraged by me, but I know I was by them.
One of the leaders in Moldova is named Peter. The church I pastor, First Baptist Church of Rolla, Missouri, not only paid my way but helped fund the retreat for Peter. We have kept up with each other from time to time through email, and recently I received an email from Peter stating he was in the United States in a place called Georgia, and he wondered if Rolla was close enough to drive over to see him. I wish it was – when Peter writes about God’s work in the church he pastors, I am in awe. The challenges are great, the country’s opposition fierce, and yet Peter and his church family remain focused on sharing Jesus with all they meet. I realize how complicated things can get for me at times, how comfortable and convenient things are for American Christians, and how easy it is for American churches to lose sight of what really matters. Peter’s emails always help me regain my focus.
Rolla is a long way from the state of Georgia, and even farther from the country of Moldova. But Peter and I always promise each other we will do something that the distance can not stop – we promise to pray for each other. God’s unlimited reach, that is how I once heard prayer defined – I am so glad God is not hindered by the distance.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tent of Meeting
We have been studying the book of Exodus on Wednesday nights, and we spent last Wednesday talking about Moses’ intercession for the rebellious children of Israel in Exodus 32 and 33. His prayer was filled with boldness and drenched with intimacy. He spoke His heart to God, and God listened. Three times Moses prayed – three times God responded in a wonderful way.
Of course, all of us would like to be able to pray prayers of intercession like Moses did. We often miss the fact that Moses’ intercession put God’s people even before himself. At one point he ties his own fate with that of the people – God, if You are going to blot their names out, blot mine as well (Exodus 32:31). Such selfless, sacrificial praying was effective as Moses interceded for God’s people.
In our study I asked those present why Moses was so effective in praying. Many things were offered – his honesty, his self-sacrifice, his willingness to persevere. I focused on a brief interlude between the second and third intercessions, found in Exodus 33:7-11. I see this as a parenthetical section, helping us to understand that the strength of Moses’ intercession comes from his intimacy with God. The verses speak of a “tent of meeting” where Moses would go regularly to spend time with God. His habit was so well known that the Hebrew people would see him go to the tent and they would worship at their own tents as the cloud representing God’s presence rested on the tent of meeting. Obviously Moses was able to be bold, authentic, intimate, and effective because of the time he spent with God in that tent.
I have thought a lot of the tent of meeting and have tried to figure out where mine needs to be. I recognize how easy it is to come to God with a list of requests but shortchange things when it comes to just being in God’s presence. Purposely and intentionally pushing away from everything else that gnaws at us or demands out attention can be difficult. Just spending time in God’s presence, praying His Word, listening and stilling oneself in His presence, can be a challenge. Even so, we all need a tent of meeting.
I suppose I have several places where my tent of meeting might be, but I find myself sitting on the floor in my office behind some short file cabinets near the preaching and pastoral care section of my library. If my secretary came in and saw me there, she probably would think I was just checking a book out, but God knows that this place seems to be a place I can still my mind and listen to His voice. Maybe there is some symbolism in it all – if I am to effectively proclaim God’s Word and minster/intercede for the people God has placed in my care, I need to spend time in the tent of meeting.
What about you – where is your tent of meeting?
Of course, all of us would like to be able to pray prayers of intercession like Moses did. We often miss the fact that Moses’ intercession put God’s people even before himself. At one point he ties his own fate with that of the people – God, if You are going to blot their names out, blot mine as well (Exodus 32:31). Such selfless, sacrificial praying was effective as Moses interceded for God’s people.
In our study I asked those present why Moses was so effective in praying. Many things were offered – his honesty, his self-sacrifice, his willingness to persevere. I focused on a brief interlude between the second and third intercessions, found in Exodus 33:7-11. I see this as a parenthetical section, helping us to understand that the strength of Moses’ intercession comes from his intimacy with God. The verses speak of a “tent of meeting” where Moses would go regularly to spend time with God. His habit was so well known that the Hebrew people would see him go to the tent and they would worship at their own tents as the cloud representing God’s presence rested on the tent of meeting. Obviously Moses was able to be bold, authentic, intimate, and effective because of the time he spent with God in that tent.
I have thought a lot of the tent of meeting and have tried to figure out where mine needs to be. I recognize how easy it is to come to God with a list of requests but shortchange things when it comes to just being in God’s presence. Purposely and intentionally pushing away from everything else that gnaws at us or demands out attention can be difficult. Just spending time in God’s presence, praying His Word, listening and stilling oneself in His presence, can be a challenge. Even so, we all need a tent of meeting.
I suppose I have several places where my tent of meeting might be, but I find myself sitting on the floor in my office behind some short file cabinets near the preaching and pastoral care section of my library. If my secretary came in and saw me there, she probably would think I was just checking a book out, but God knows that this place seems to be a place I can still my mind and listen to His voice. Maybe there is some symbolism in it all – if I am to effectively proclaim God’s Word and minster/intercede for the people God has placed in my care, I need to spend time in the tent of meeting.
What about you – where is your tent of meeting?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Just Quotes
My wife and I flew out to Phoenix this past week to visit our daughter and son-in-law. We had a great time eating ourselves into oblivion, walking their dog Sydney, watching movies, playing cards and the Wii, and even climbing a mountain (it was an easy trail, no big deal). On the trip out and back I did a little reading – John Ortberg’s book, Love Beyond Reason, and Dave Gibbons’ book, The Monkey and the Fish. Ortberg’s book is warm and encouraging, and Gibbons’ book is challenging – let me share a few quotes from each.
From Ortberg –
“As Lewis Smedes put it, it may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I’m worth dying for.”
“Love notices. Love listens. Love remembers.”
“The secret is to be so filled with the life of Jesus that in touching the world, instead of its infecting us, we infect it.”
“If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God’s love, it is perhaps in his loving longing to forgive.”
“The church is a place for people who need do-overs. That is what God does.”
From Gibbons –
“Jesus is the trickiest part of the Christian faith to understand and the most difficult part for churches to keep alive.”
“You can be a church and lose your perspective on what activities are truly valuable.”
“The issue is not just sharing our message but becoming the message... And since our message is Jesus’ message – the extravagant love of God for a needy world – the stakes could not be higher.”
In reaction to a church member’s acknowledgment that he had gone into enormous debt to get things, having a picture of a BMW on his desk that he wanted to buy – “I asked myself, ‘What is my BMW? What picture have I placed on my desk? What really motivates me to do the things I do?’”
Just quotes... but inasmuch as they continue to be on my mind, maybe they are far more.
From Ortberg –
“As Lewis Smedes put it, it may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I’m worth dying for.”
“Love notices. Love listens. Love remembers.”
“The secret is to be so filled with the life of Jesus that in touching the world, instead of its infecting us, we infect it.”
“If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God’s love, it is perhaps in his loving longing to forgive.”
“The church is a place for people who need do-overs. That is what God does.”
From Gibbons –
“Jesus is the trickiest part of the Christian faith to understand and the most difficult part for churches to keep alive.”
“You can be a church and lose your perspective on what activities are truly valuable.”
“The issue is not just sharing our message but becoming the message... And since our message is Jesus’ message – the extravagant love of God for a needy world – the stakes could not be higher.”
In reaction to a church member’s acknowledgment that he had gone into enormous debt to get things, having a picture of a BMW on his desk that he wanted to buy – “I asked myself, ‘What is my BMW? What picture have I placed on my desk? What really motivates me to do the things I do?’”
Just quotes... but inasmuch as they continue to be on my mind, maybe they are far more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)