Out of the Silence

Last week I started reading God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer, by Pete Greig. I didn’t realize it was going to be timely reading, because he uses the Easter timeline as the structure for his chapters. Did you ever stop to wonder what happened on that silent Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday? What were the disciples thinking? What did they do? Did they pray, or were they too shell-shocked to even think? It must have seemed like all hope was lost. Greig writes:

“No one really talks about Holy Saturday yet if we stop and think about it, it’s where most of us live our lives. Holy Saturday is the no-man’s land between questions and answers, prayers and miracles. It’s where we wait—with a peculiar mixture of faith and despair—whenever God is silent or life doesn’t make sense.”

Sometimes it can feel like we are still stuck in that silent Saturday. God isn’t answering our prayers as we’d like, and we wonder if He really does hear or care. The challenge for us is how to hold onto hope and endure with patience until the day when every question is either answered or no longer relevant.

 “The Bible leaves us in no doubt at all that when God is silent, He is not absent from His people—even if that’s the way it feels. He is with us now as much as He ever was. He’s no less involved in our lives than He was when we could hear His voice so clearly and could sense the joy of His smile…

“Why can’t we wait with the mess and pain of Holy Saturday unresolved? …In our fear of unknowing, we leapfrog Holy Saturday and rush the resurrection. We race disconcerted to make meaning and find beauty where there simply is none. Yet.”

We try to comprehend things that don’t make sense because we simply don’t have all the facts. God has not given us all the details or explained His master plan for our lives. We don’t want to wait patiently. In Christ’s resurrection is our reason for hope. Because He was raised, we can trust the promises of Scripture that God hears and answers prayer in His perfect way and time.

In his book Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday, Alan. E. Lewis writes:

“But such is the world we live in, no different now from the first Easter Saturday, the day of divine abandonment and absence. Yet is not all prayer designed for Easter Saturday, the product of confusion, emptiness, and grief? Prayer is desperation translated into daring — the risk of letting go of confidence, eloquence, and that ‘spirituality,’ so fashionable now but so seductive. To pray is to confess not the abundance but the exhaustion of one’s verbal, intellectual, and spiritual resources. It is surrender to one who prays for us when we have no prayers left… Prayer then, the sound of silence upon Easter Saturday and every day which reenacts it, is the last breath of our self-relinquishment, the freedom we give God at last to be God, gracious, holy, and creative” (464).

May we not rush ahead in the church calendar, but dwell in the truths of Easter: Jesus is alive; God is still sovereign; He knows our weakness and hears our prayers; we can trust Him to do what He deems best even if it doesn’t always make sense to us.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27 ESV).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Fix Your Eyes

I’m in the midst of reading a couple books on prayer. In Pray Big: Learn to Pray Like an Apostle, Alistair Begg writes,

“All that matters may be brought before God, but what we bring before God is not always what matters most. When the eyes of our hearts are opened to our future, it changes our lives now—it reorders our priorities and our prayers. We pray less about the practical details of this life, and first and foremost about the spiritual realities of our eternal life” (29).

All too often we pray anemic prayers because we are distracted by the things of this world and we miss the things of eternity. That led me to think about what is most needed as churches gather together this Easter Sunday, perhaps with many visitors. The prayer I wrote in my journal included this: I pray that You will work in each of us to fix our eyes upon You as the author and perfecter of our faith... Let us not be distracted by words or music or flowers or people, but let us be captivated by Your glory.

After writing that down, I had to go back to Scripture to read the context of Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB):

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

When I’ve read those verses in the past, I’ve always had this mental image of a marathon runner nearing the finish line, with crowds of people on both sides. In fact, the “cloud of witnesses” has dominated the picture. But the whole point is that we would fix our eyes on Jesus as our motivation for endurance. While the crowd can be encouraging, our eternal security depends on Christ alone. Don’t get me wrong—our relationships within the Body of Christ are important and will continue throughout eternity, but people can also distract us from what God wants to do in our lives and in others at any given time.

Easter Sunday may be especially prone to that distraction. Most churches have extra decorations and special music, people tend to dress up more than usual, and there may be unusual events planned. The intent is (hopefully) good—we want people to engage with the message of the Gospel. But I wonder if sometimes our extra efforts actually distract people from focusing on God. It can appear that we are working to promote our church rather than fixing our eyes on Jesus.

Easter is justifiably a celebration of all that we have because of Jesus’ resurrection, both individually and corporately. Beautiful decorations and music are entirely appropriate. However, if I’m honest, I prefer the solemn simplicity of the Good Friday service at my church. There are fewer parts and, for me, fewer distractions from the One we are there to worship.

An Easter sermon by John Henry Newman comments,

“At Christmas we joy with the natural, unmixed joy of children, but at Easter our joy is highly wrought and refined in its character. It is not the spontaneous and inartificial outbreak which the news of Redemption might occasion, but it is thoughtful; it has a long history before it, and has run through a long course of feelings before it becomes what it is… Accordingly, Christmas Day is ushered in with a time of awful expectation only, but Easter Day with the long fast of Lent, and the rigours of the Holy Week just past: and it springs out and (as it were) is born of Good Friday.”

For those of us who come from church traditions that generally ignore Lent and may not think deeply about Holy Week, his comments may seem foreign to us. We can appear to jump into the celebration of Easter without experiencing the depths of Good Friday. The Easter Sundays that have meant the most to me were those that followed serious contemplation of the cross, Jesus’ death, and my sin that nailed Him there.

Let us not rush forward to Sunday’s celebration without living through the darkness of Friday and Saturday.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross... Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 2:13-24, 3:2-3 ESV).

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Listen to Dennis Jernigan’s song, “It Was My Sin.”

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Shalom

I’ve had a particular anxiety that has been plaguing me primarily on Saturdays for a few months. As I was tossing and turning last Friday night, the thought popped into my mind, “Shabbat shalom!” Not being Jewish, that’s not a thought that often comes to my mind. It is a traditional Jewish greeting meaning “Sabbath peace.” It did not escape my notice that the Sabbath begins at sundown Friday and continues through Saturday. It reminded me that the peace of God comes from the God who is Himself peace. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-9 (ESV):

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus… Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.”

This Friday as the Jewish Passover begins, Christians will be observing Good Friday and remembering the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The disciples, who had run from the garden of Gethsemane, likely did not think of this as a day of Sabbath peace. They were probably filled with both sorrow and anxiety as they mourned their Rabbi and wondered what the future held. Little did they know that the God of peace was doing a new thing.

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).

 “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:21-22).

Through the horrendous death of Jesus, whom we recognize as the true Messiah, shalom was made possible for all who will believe in Him. Biblical shalom doesn’t mean just a peaceful state of mind or a lack of conflict, but of wholeness and well-being. Only by being reconciled with God are we made both whole and holy. Our deepest need is fulfilled in Christ alone.

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:23-24).

As we move through this Easter week, may we find shalom from the God of peace, whose love surpasses understanding.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).

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Here is a short chorus that often comes to mind, “He Is Our Peace.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0dU5zcclRQ

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

A Change of Mind

I came across this quote in Sheila Walsh’s book It’s Okay Not to Be Okay. In regards to Romans 12:1-2 she says:

“You might be tempted to ask, ‘What’s wrong with my mind?’ You’re smart, well educated, and computer savvy, with endless information at your fingertips—quite different than the audience Paul wrote to. The problem is not a lack of information; it’s a lack of renewal. We live in a fallen world, which means our minds are fallen too. We were made to worship, but unless our minds have been renewed, we don’t worship God, we worship what we want. The question remains, How do you renew your mind? The word renewal found in Romans 12:2 occurs only one other place in the Greek New Testament [in Titus 3:5], and it gives me great hope that this process is not something you and I can do by ourselves. We can’t. We need the Holy Spirit.”

She’s right—we can’t renew our own minds. Another sermon, another Bible study, another Sunday school class won’t cause us to be “transformed by the renewal of [our] mind” apart from the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. As our pastor often reminds us, this is supernatural stuff we’re dealing with. We need to pray for ourselves and for our friends and family that God will do the work in our hearts and minds to make us receptive to His Word.

There are people who might be considered experts in the Scriptures. A recent book review on The Gospel Coalition raised the question of whether we can benefit from a non-Christian’s translation and commentary on the Old Testament. The answer is only to a limited extent. Without the work of God to connect us to the Messiah revealed throughout Scripture, all we are gaining is head knowledge. There are plenty of other people who struggle to read and understand the words in their Bibles, but they absorb all that they can because God has given them a thirst for Himself.

As we think about the programs and events we offer through our church, we need to bathe them in prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit to guide us to the right programs and the right message, but more importantly to work in the hearts of those who might attend. It is easy to get into a routine of doing the same things we’ve always done and not praying about it. We may wonder why people aren’t engaged in learning or why they seem so lackadaisical about their faith. But are we actually praying specifically for God to work in them? It doesn’t work to provide information without transformation by the Spirit. Certainly there are things we can do or not do that may facilitate learning, but the best teaching in the world will not change hearts or transform lives.

I’ve been convicted about this lately, because I can become judgmental about people who may not be at the same point in their walk with God. But as I look back over my own life, I remember the times when I was relatively disengaged from church and resistant toward where God was leading me. I had plenty of Bible knowledge, but it took a work of God to change my heart. Now I need to be reminded to pray for such a work in others’ lives.

So long as we are operating in our own strength and wisdom, we shouldn’t expect God to bless our efforts. I see an awful lot of churches that appear to be just going through the motions without really seeking God’s will and without praying for God’s work in individuals. Our fruitfulness is dependent on God’s power. Let us be diligent in praying for hearts and minds to be transformed and for lives that will abide in the Vine.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Dismembered

I’ve been reading an interesting fiction book Daughter of Time, by Sarah Woodbury, about a twentieth century woman who finds herself in thirteenth century Wales. At one point she is comparing social interactions between the two cultures, and she says of the twentieth century:

“As a rule, you’d never look at or talk to a person you didn’t already know—whether on the street, at a meal, or in a shop. Everybody behaves as if they are completely alone, even when—or especially when—surrounded by a crowd… Because chances are, you’ll never see any of those people again. It isn’t worth the time and effort invested… It’s because we don’t depend on each other anymore” (204).

That seems to me to be an apt description of our culture and, unfortunately, even many of our churches today. I was reminded of what we’ve been discussing in Sunday school about the Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land. Obviously they had to work together to conquer the land, but there was more to it than that. From the time of the Exodus and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, the people had to gather together regularly to hear the word of the Lord and hear the law explained. They didn’t have written copies of the Scriptures in every household. Worship and sacrifices had scheduled times and places. Their religious experience was communal, not individual.

Western culture today has made everything individualized. We all have access to multiple Bibles, commentaries, studies, sermons, podcasts, and other media that make it easy to “do religion” without ever interacting with another person. Yet that was never God’s intent for the Body of Christ. We can tend to resemble a bunch of scattered parts rather than an assembled body.

One of my jobs for the denomination is to compile the statistics submitted on church reports. It has long been the case that out of all the church members reported in our denomination, only about 64% are considered active members, and only about 60% are attending regularly. (However, I will say that we don’t have consistent definitions of member, active member, or attendance.) In some churches, only 20-30% of those listed as members are actually attending. Our denomination is not alone in this. An article on Christianity Today comments “Today, if ten people become church members, average attendance grows by five or six.” That article refers to an article by Thom Rainer that is both compelling and convicting. He offers five reasons church attendance is declining:

1) We are minimizing the importance of the local church.
2) We worship the idols of [personal and family] activities.
3) We take a lot of vacations from church.
4) We do not have high expectations of our members.
5) We make infrequent attendees leaders in our churches.

It can be depressing to see the trends and wonder what we can do to change them. It has become apparent to many leaders in many churches that our first responsibility is to pray. We must pray for God to work in the hearts of those who have walked away from the church (or even from the faith). We must pray about our own priorities and submit them to God’s will. We must pray about who we will put into leadership positions, and then continue to pray for them once they are there. We must pray for our church leadership to put God’s glory above all others things and to seek His will in all decisions. “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed” (John Bunyan).

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.