Thoughts from Family Camp

In Bible study at Family Camp we're discussing Max Lucado's book Before Amen, and Tuesday we were on the phrase of the pocket prayer, "I need help." Part of the discussion centered around the times when Jesus stopped to help someone because they asked. I was reminded of one of my prior blogs in which I stated that Jesus never saw people as an interruption to His ministry, because they were His ministry. 

Thinking about it later, I realized that two thoughts frequently run through my mind. The first comes when I am feeling weak and needy and wanting to talk to someone, but I think, "I don't want to interrupt them when they have so many other people to help and tasks to complete, so I'll keep it to myself." That's probably not always the wisest of decisions. 

The second recurring thought comes when someone wants to chitchat when I'm busy: "Why is this person interrupting me when I am clearly in the middle of something?" I know that's not a terribly loving response either. (An interruption came as I wrote that sentence.) 

I guess it is pretty selfish to want others to meet my needs while I don't want to do the same. A refresher course on Jesus's perspective of people is in order. All people have value, and all people have needs. We all need someone to talk to, but we also need to be listeners for others. We all need wise counsel at times, and we can provide counsel for others in different areas of life. We all need to be loved, and we all need to give love. We shouldn't downplay our own needs out of some sense of being a burden to others. But neither should we refuse those who inconvenience us. Interruptions may be divine appointments. 

One of the cultural difficulties that seems to be increasing over time is the specialization of professions. The more we learn about the human body, the harder it is to find the correct doctor to deal with a problem. You can be sent to five different specialists and never get an answer. 

The same seems to be happening in the church. First came the clergy-laity divide, and now we have a different minister for every age group or area of need. A person can know they need help but not know where to turn to find answers or even to find someone willing to listen to them and pray for them. I don't think that's how God intended His Body to function. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again--we all have roles to play and we all need each other. I'm certain that pastors would not be so over-scheduled if the members of the Body were all doing their part. 

Humility is the key. It takes humility to admit that I need help myself, but it also takes humility to remember that my agenda is not more important than someone else's. That's just lesson out of many during this week of camp. 

1 Peter 5:6 (ESV)- "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you."

Simply Trusting

Once again God has conspired with several writers to remind me of His truth. My pastor and his wife were both involved in different ways. Meredith posted on Facebook, “Trusting in Jesus does not seem to me to be a one time declaration, but a moment by moment choice to remember and rest in what I know to be true, thereby relinquishing my control in the current situation.”

Right after that I read this article by a couple who lost their two young sons in a tragic accident: “God has a plan. The situation is a frustrating one. We don’t want to be here. We don’t like it. This is not a fun situation. We’re mad at the loss. But we know God is good and has a plan and we believe that” (http://www.wbtv.com/story/29592649/couple-relies-on-faith-forgiveness-after-losing-sons ). I can’t imagine what this couple is going through, but they have chosen to trust God when nothing makes much sense.

Another author writes of the lessons learned through losing her brother to cancer:

“Not until I was at the very end of my frayed rope… that I decided to relinquish my counterfeit control and earnestly desire for God’s perfect rule to manifest His glory in the most powerful way possible… I lost my small vision, but I gained His big one. I saw my selfishness exposed, and it was ugly. I lost my control, but I came under His, which is where I lost panicked fear and found peaceful assurance.” (Desperate Hope, by Candi Pearson-Shelton, pp. 35, 38)

There are days when I wonder what God is up to and why He can’t accomplish His purposes through less painful means. Some days it seems like nothing good comes out of the trying circumstances of life. Some days it feels like the middle of a 40-year journey in the wilderness. On one of those days last week I found this article by Jon Bloom, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/dont-give-up, and I have reread it each day since. He comments:

“…in embracing the gospel, we find ourselves also drafted into a war — a war to keep believing the gospel and a war to keep spreading it to others. In this age we ‘strive to enter that [complete] rest’ of the age to come (Hebrews 4:11). Wars are exhausting — especially long ones. That’s why you are often tired. Many soldiers, who experience the fierceness of combat, want to get out of it. That’s why you’re tempted to escape. That’s why you’re tempted to give up.”

The battle to hold on to faith and to keep trusting Jesus day after day is one we all face at times—when loved ones face serious illness or are lost to death; when jobs are scarce and bills pile up; when it seems like prayers are not being answered; when God doesn’t do what we think He should… We have to ask ourselves whether we believe He is in control and whether we trust that His way is best. And if the answer is yes, we need to wait on Him and rest in Him even though the days may be long. Obviously He knows something that we don’t, and for that we can give thanks.

I’m reminded of the old hymn by Edgar Stites (public domain):

Simply trusting every day;
Trusting through a stormy way;
Even when my faith is small,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Chorus:
Trusting as the moments fly,
Trusting as the days go by,
Trusting Him, whate’er befall,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Brightly doth His Spirit shine
Into this poor heart of mine;
While He leads I cannot fall,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Singing if my way be clear,
Praying if the path be drear;
If in danger, for Him call,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Trusting Him while life shall last,
Trusting Him till earth is past,
Till His gracious advent call,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Just Rest

I recently finished the Bible study based on John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life. It’s a good book and worthwhile study, but I came away with a vague feeling that I should be doing more. I don’t think that was Piper’s intent as he says “Enjoying God supremely is one way to glorify him. Enjoying God makes him look supremely valuable” (p. 28). Somewhere between the beginning of the book and the end, I lost sight of the fact that the reason we serve God is because we enjoy Him, not just because we “should” do it.

At the same time, I started reading Addicted to Busy: Recovery for the Rushed Soul, by Brady Boyd. He shares a great example from his own life of the recurring tendency to do more and more and thus lose the joy in Christ that should be the center of our purpose and motivation. I think that is the enemy’s intent to keep us distracted from what really matters. Although I don’t consider myself as a workaholic, some of his comments hit home for me, especially in light of Piper’s book. Some of us are easily guilted into doing things we don’t really want to do just because we think we should. That little word “No” keeps morphing into “No problem” for some reason. We overschedule ourselves and society is teaching our children to do the same.

The crazy thing is that God even commanded us to take a Sabbath rest, and yet that’s the one thing we repeatedly fail to do. The prophet Isaiah said: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth…” (58:13-14). The order of this passage is interesting—if you enjoy the Sabbath, then you will delight in the Lord. That’s counterintuitive. I’m sure there is a cyclical pattern, but it starts with observing the Sabbath.

Boyd says, “The more rested you are, the less you are driven by what others think of you. The more rested you are, the more you are driven by what God, alone, believes to be true. This is a magnificent place to be, because Scripture is clear that God’s thoughts toward us are good” (74). Rest not only refreshes and strengthens the physical body, but it clears the mind of distractions. The discipline of scheduling necessary rest forces us to prioritize what really needs to be done and what can wait or be dropped altogether. That’s where it gets difficult, particularly in the church context. Many of us think, “If I don’t do this, then who will?” But maybe there’s someone else who can do it but doesn’t realize there is a need. Or maybe it just doesn’t need to be done.

As we started a sermon series from 1 Corinthians recently, I took particular note of 1:7, “so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift,” and I realized that Paul was talking to the church, not just to individuals. No single person has every spiritual gift, but working together we are equipped with whatever we need to do what God has called us to do. So that means that every person has a role, and some of the overly responsible people need to step back and let others do what they are gifted to do. Some people need more rest than others, but every one of us needs to be adequately rested to fulfill our roles to the best of our ability.

Going back to Piper’s book, a wasted life is one in which God’s gifts are hidden away and not used for His glory. That doesn’t mean that we have to accept every request that comes along or that we can’t take time to rest and enjoy God’s creation. If we take Isaiah’s words literally, failure to rest and observe the Sabbath will actually keep us from delighting in God. Busyness for God may actually dishonor Him if it’s not led by Him and is violating His Sabbath. “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I’ll probably need this reminder again before too long, but at least for now I’m not going to feel guilty about sleeping as long as I need to, declining invitations to events I don’t want to join, or saying no to tasks that don’t interest me or aren’t directly related to my job. Enjoying vacations and entertainment won’t bring the world crashing down around me.

Mark Buchanan writes in The Rest of God (as quoted by Boyd): “The rest of God… is not a reward for finishing. It’s not a bonus for work well done. It’s sheer gift.”

Renovated

As I’ve spent entirely too much time painting rooms this week, I find encouragement in the fact that when God makes us new creations, He doesn’t just patch a few holes and throw on a fresh coat of paint. His work won’t have to be redone in a few years, but at the same time He will continue renovating us throughout this life. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

It is encouraging to know that one day we will no longer have any cracks, blemishes, or weaknesses, but the process of getting there may not be quite what we expect. As Lewis says, it hurts to have our facade ripped off to reveal the structural damage underneath. We’d be content for awhile to just cover everything up with a nice paint job, but eventually the real problems have to be fixed. And often God sees problems that we don’t even know about. When He starts poking around in the shadows, it can make you question the decision to trust Him as Lord.

We’re just temporary tenants in this body, but He is the landlord. This is a frequent theme of the Apostle Paul:

• “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV).
• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
• “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).
• “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:1-1).

The more years that go by, the more anxious I am to be done with the groaning of this life (and manual labor adds a few groans!). The day is coming when all of God’s renovating work will be completed and we will get to enjoy His perfect creation for eternity. Until then, I hope and pray that I will be a willing participant in whatever renovations He wants to do in my heart, soul, and mind. He certainly knows what is needed far better than I do.

“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 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

You Are Loved

I got to thinking about how easy it is to generate misunderstandings and hurt feelings in our culture. We keep a mental list of slights against us—real or imagined, intentional or unintentional—and then we use those to justify mistreating others the way we think we’ve been mistreated. That’s now how the golden rule is supposed to work. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12 ESV).

The thing is, the human race is notoriously poor at communicating clearly because we all make assumptions about what other people are thinking or saying. We have no way of answering all the questions and objections that run through another person’s mind. Whether it has to do with political or social issues, church leadership, office communication, or family relationships, people are going to be hurt along the way. And the more people who are involved in our lives, the higher the likelihood of miscommunication. (Living in Siberia is starting to sound appealing.)

It’s nice to know that God never misunderstands us, even when we don’t understand ourselves. He knows every thought and intent of our heart, and He loves us unconditionally in spite of all that He knows (Psalm 139). That’s not to say that we always understand Him since His thoughts are far outside our own understanding (Isaiah 55:8-9).

• When loved ones disappoint us, God’s arms are always wide open to us.
• When we feel forgotten or overlooked, God is still paying attention.
• When someone cuts us out of their life or unfriends us, God keeps holding on to us.
• When others are offended by our viewpoint, God affirms everything that is true.
• When we make mistakes and hurt others, God still loves us and cares for us.

Micca Campbell comments in An Untroubled Heart, “You may feel like you’re lost for good, but God knows where you are. You have not escaped His attention. The Father knows His children and calls them by name. Those who follow Him will find their way home and be welcomed with open arms. With a Father’s heart, God is waiting and watching from the front porch of heaven for your return.”

There are days when those welcoming arms seem like the only bright spot in an otherwise frustrating and fruitless day. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3). “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Sometimes that’s all you need to know.

What Are You Seeking?

As I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount this week, I noted Matthew 6:33 in particular: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). While we often hear sermons about seeking the kingdom first, I don’t recall ever hearing anyone explain what it means to seek His righteousness. The first Scripture that came to mind when I asked myself that question was Philippians 3:8b-9: “in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

It’s probably natural that when we hear an instruction to “pursue righteousness,” our first thought is how to avoid sin and be a better person. I can attest to the fact that that can only take us so far. We might clean up a few obvious sins, but that doesn’t really change who we are. The Apostle Paul points out that the righteousness that comes from obedience to the law doesn’t really save us. The righteousness that we need is Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is only received by faith. Paul reinforces Jesus’s statement that it is God’s righteousness we are to be seeking, not our own self-righteousness.

Looking at the context of both the Sermon on the Mount and Philippians 3, there are other notable parallels between Jesus’s words and Paul’s words. Jesus says:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matthew 6:19-21, 31-32).

Paul then elaborates:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

It seems that Paul took Jesus’s teachings quite literally. He not only gave up his possessions and status, but he counted them as rubbish. He didn’t spend time worrying about where his next meal was coming from (and indeed went hungry at times), but he willingly walked into dangerous situations in his pursuit of the kingdom. He suffered for Christ and died knowing that it was worth every minute of pain (see 1 Corinthians 11:24-28 and Philippians 1:21).

It’s tempting to take Matthew 6 out of context and say, “Okay, I’m going to try really hard not to be anxious but to seek God first in my life.” But that’s a pretty anemic response to the greater context of Scripture. Just a few verses later in Matthew 7 Jesus warns that many so-called Christians will be told in the end, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (7:23). Then in Matthew 10 Jesus says that persecution will come and “whoever does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (10:38). Paul’s life is a pretty good example of the commitment that’s required. (The A.D. television series has at the very least been a good reminder of what opposition really looks like.)

Christianity in 21^st century America may seem far removed from the experience of the early church, but I think we’re beginning to get a sense of the danger that could be in store for us when governments are actively promoting non-Christian values, when terrorists seek out Christian targets, and nominal Christians are leaving the church in droves. Those who remain faithful to the end will learn what it means to “seek first His kingdom” and “share in His sufferings.” Some day in the not-so-distant future, it won’t be about choosing not to worry about the fashion trends or saving for retirement, but about choosing to follow Jesus against every logical argument for taking the easy way out. It’s happened before and it will happen again.

“Choose this day whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Solid Promises

There is a verse that comes to mind frequently and it happened to be in my Bible reading this week: “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands” (Psalm 138:8 ESV and a similar verse in Psalm 57:2). This is both comforting and challenging at the same time. It’s comforting because:

• God will fulfill His purpose. It all depends on God, not me.
• His purpose is directly tied to His steadfast love, which never changes.
• It is His work and He will complete it. He will provide and enable all that is necessary for His purpose to be fulfilled.

But it’s challenging because God’s purpose is not always the same as my purpose. I don’t always know or trust what His purposes are. If my purpose doesn’t line up with His, I will keep being frustrated when it gets blocked or derailed. And when I don’t understand His purpose, it’s hard to make sense of the difficulties that come along.

One of the challenges I have is that I’m very much a black and white thinker. And while that serves me well as an accountant, it doesn’t work out so well in the rest of my world. Most situations have numerous shades of grey that depend on what other people are thinking, how they perceive a situation, and how things are communicated (among other things). So when any of those things don’t line up with my way of thinking, I get confused, frustrated, angry, and hurt, and it takes a long time to work it out and get over it. Many different decisions may be good options without being clearly the best.

I’m thankful that much of Scripture is black and white. (The only grey areas I can think of are directly related to modern interpretations of the original writers’ intentions.) The Old Testament Law says “Do this; don’t do that.” The New Testament says, “This road leads to life and blessing; that road leads to death.” And throughout Scripture are God’s ironclad promises: “I will never leave you or forsake you; I will fulfill My purposes; The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust shall be your strength; I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.”

While there is much in life that is disappointing, depressing, and discouraging, God’s plans, purposes, and promises can be counted on. Some things never change.

“This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life” (Psalm 119:50).