The Joy of Being Destitute

How would you describe yourself emotionally right now? I am not talking about publishing it in USA Today; I am talking about you to yourself, right now.

Choose from the following, or add on: fine, afraid, I don’t know, empty, happy, confused, afloat, desperate, sad, mad, maintaining, hopeful, at the and of my rope, I don’t have time to think about it, I don’t want to think about it, stable, iffy, low, high, nuts, bitter, sullen, dug in, joyful, hopeful.

Here’s me: destitute. I am a real mess. Most days you could knock me over with a feather. I live on Tums. I feel destitute’s siblings, too: fear, a lack of confidence, despair. Yet, the Bible says “blessed are the destitute” (my loose paraphrase). The Greek work means “reduced to beggary,” “powerless to accomplish an end.”

That’s me. Mind you, however, I try not to come across as destitute. I try even harder to accomplish certain ends. That is the madness of it, isn’t it?

I really would like to come to a point where I cherish being destitute, because it is there that I find God, there that I am nearest to Him. It is in destitution that I find rest. But, I don’t like feeling destitute! I try everything possible to mask it, avoid it, make it go away, be adequate on my own.

The destitute are at the bottom. They are at the bottom, but do not feel anything below them. It is one thing to be on the ocean floor, firm on some kind of rock or something. But, to be down there with nothing under foot…!

God invites us all there! It is there that God can be found! When I run out of self, God is there. I am now out of self!

Paul is my hero – he got it! He called all worldly scaffolding “dung.” Not just dung outright, it was in comparison to “knowing Christ” (Philippians 3). He also said, “I am determined to know nothing … except Christ Jesus and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul had reached the bottom and discovered the bottom was Jesus!

That is what I pray for; not in an intellectual sense, but in an existential sense. I want to feel it; I want my emotions to be consistent with it. I want others to notice and be drawn to it.

If Jesus is not the answer, I am to be most pitied. I gotta believe that regardless of my life station and circumstances, Jesus is still there, He is good and is my only source of hope. As the disciples asked, “Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else (Matthew 11:3)?” Either I place all I am and have on Jesus as The Source or I live totally as a practical agnostic!

Where are you emotionally? Emotions tell you where you are. If you are fearful, then fear drives you and you have nothing on which to trust and allay those fears, right? And, add to that, you do not have enough personal resources to stop the fear.

May you and I find Jesus. He is near and can be found. Sit, listen, read the Bible, pray, anticipate, hope, resist the word of Evil.

Do something today that reflects your desire to know Jesus.

Near The Cross

Recently I began carrying again my old worn Bible I had retired to the bookcase - it was falling apart. It is the one made of bonded leather full of napkin parts, envelop corners… anything on which I could scrawl my latest thoughts.

Here is one I wrote as I studied through the book of Hosea:

Why do we pursue harlotry?
Because we’ve abandoned God?
Why have we abandoned God?
The sin that separates us from the Love of God.
Not because we “misbehave.”
So, where do we start?
(Hos 6:1) Convincing people that they are LOVED by God.
Not by beating them over the head with their sin.

I want to repent and replace the first person plural with the first person singular. I am the one who pursues harlotry. I am the one who needs to stop beating my own self over the head with my sin.

I am the one who needs to be convinced I am loved by God.

I now dare to give myself some direction in the matter:

Be still. Be alone. Listen. No matter what it feels like; no matter what else you “want to” do. See “I love you” in Jesus’ gaze.

Listen to the voice of God in others… above your own voice. You would never speak to others the way you speak to yourself. Let your friends speak to you, think for you, be Christ for you.

Ponder the Cross. He did that for YOU. Go there, be there. Hear the pain, smell the blood. Let Jesus’ blood-curdling shrieks penetrate your own heart. You were His motive. Jesus’ own Daddy abandoned Him… imagine that pain.

He’d do it again…just for you.

Jesus, keep me near the cross,

There a precious fountain

Free to all, a healing stream

Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Refrain

In the cross, in the cross,

Be my glory ever;

Till my raptured soul shall find

Rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,

Love and mercy found me;

There the bright and morning star

Sheds its beams around me.

Refrain

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,

Bring its scenes before me;

Help me walk from day to day,

With its shadows o’er me.

Refrain

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait

Hoping, trusting ever,

Till I reach the golden strand,

Just beyond the river.

Refrain

(Near The Cross by Fanny Crosby)

This is the Essence of My Prayers

God, I want what you want for me.

God, I want to know you better. I want a real experience of Your Presence.

Lord, You are ….

Please forgive me.

Please let this cup pass; yet not my will but Yours.

Regardless of what happens, may your Kingdom be advanced.

Lord, I ask for ….

(Silence)

(Listening)

(Waiting)

(Groaning)

(Wishing)

Lord, this is Your time – do with it what you will.

JOY... yet again!

The liberal devises liberal things, and seeks objects of charity. It must be with piety and devotion: The joy of the Lord is your strength. Let it not be a carnal sensual joy, but holy and spiritual, the joy of the Lord, joy in the goodness of God, under the direction and government of the grace of God, joy arising from our interest in the love and favour of God and the tokens of his favour (From Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Nehemiah 8).

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

I don’t feel it. I wish to, though.

I feel like Job when he says: “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy” (Job 9:25).

Willing it won’t make it happen… or at least it hasn’t yet.

How do I survive, function as a Christ-follower in this condition? It is the condition in which I DO NOT feel strengthened by the joy of the Lord. Would somebody PLEEEASE answer that question!

In this context, the existential joy of being under God’s goodness and grace is that which motivates charity. I don’t generally live there.

I want to. How do I get there?

Sometimes I think if I just position myself and ponder God’s joy a lot, I will get it. I admit I feel much like Linus must have felt on the morning after Halloween. He had waited all night, expectantly, optimistically, regularly for the Great Pumpkin only to be once again disappointed.

Nothing happens many times.

God, in Christ, asks parabolically (Mt 20:16): “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?”

(Here is where I try to self-preach) God is good; He is a generous God of grace. He has given me Himself (“the keys to the Kingdom”); I cannot possess any more than I possess right this moment! Never mind that I live on this side of the full consummation of this inheritance, I have it – rather, it has me! – and “nothing can snatch me out of His Hand” (from Jn 10:28f)!

So, what am I complaining about?

Is it wrong to want the experience of joy?

No.

I guess my prayer is for patience. I will still be Linus and pray for the gift of joy.

(Psalm 51:8) “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.”

(Psalm 86:4) “Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”

(Psalm 45:7) “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

Connecting With God's Heart ?

I was talking with my spiritual director yesterday - about a men’s retreat - and the subject of "connecting with God" in a way that, when it happens, I know that it happened. I told him how we had snippets of time to go off and reflect, and how I really longed to have some experience of God - one in which I sensed His Presence, His Arms around me, His encouragement, SOMETHING.

He said something like this: Isn't it interesting that you have a deep sense of longing (for something like what Adam had with God in the Garden prior to the Fall) as well as a deep sense that it isn't happening in a way you (legitimately) desire. This points to our being between the "already" and the "not yet" of the Kingdom. Longing for God is the "already" and the "it ain't happening the way I want" reflects the fallen world in which we live, the "not yet."

So, I wrote this while waiting for God to “do something.”

To connect with the Heart of God...
The silliest of all notions!
Yet, somehow we can...
And somehow we have to.

To connect with the Heart of God.
Is that like to connect with you?
God is the Giver of Life,
The blood that comes from His ... Heart.

To connect with the Heart of God
Is the only way we can live.
All other is merely device.
All other is ignorant fantasy.

The world needs you and me
To connect with the Heart of God.
No other way will they see
God as He really can be.

To connect with the Heart of God.
Is as easy as 1-2-3.
Why look anywhere else
To To truly ... be free.

So, where is the Heart of God?
How does it taste, how does it feel?
Please let it be real
For me to connect with Your Heart.

DO NOT BECOME A CHRISTIAN

Do not become a Christian if you have the idea that Thing Number One is your happy life. A fork is only happy when it is of some utility in a person’s hands. A fork was not made for itself! First Corinthians 6:19 tells me: “You are not your own.”

Churches, yes CHURCHES!, do not get this one! “Send for this prayer cloth, send in tons of money and receive abundant blessings!” Huh? I send you money and God, in turn, sends me money? Why don’t I just keep my money and we’ll call it even!

The prevailing IDEA is that the Number One Thing God is here for is to make my life work.

Sorry, bad idea!

Cutting to the chase, refer to Romans 8:29 and read: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." YOU AND I ARE HERE TO BECOME LIKE JESUS! We’re forks in the Hand of God!

What was He like? For one, He was a sufferer. Here are His own words: “… The Son of Man [that would be … Jesus, Himself] is going to suffer” (Mt 17:12).

Paul commends the Thessalonian believers (1 Thess. 1,2) for responding to the Gospel, becoming like Jesus and enduring suffering!

For those whose idea it is to be honored by being among those chosen by God to be among His eternally safe children, to bask forever in the very Presence of their Creator Abba, to belly-up to a Banquet Table whose fares never end, to see Him face-to-face, suffering is but a “momentary light affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17).

You and I will suffer. When we do, and as we persevere and refuse to curse God by making personal comfort The First Thing, others will see Him in us.

And, we will be honored to participate in cosmic history as ones who have been used (God’s forks!) to build God’s Kingdom here on earth!

Personal comforts (blessings) do not satisfy – in the Biblical sense. Hear the words of Isaiah (in 55:2,3a)

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live….”

It is no wonder the church is anemic these days. She is telling her people that suffering is a must to avoid, when in fact it is part and parcel of becoming Christ-like!

I wouldn’t become a Christian either if those words were being drummed into my head every week. I SUFFER! I’VE TRIED TO AVOID IT! I CAN’T.

The church follows: “OH! What have you done wrong?! Better get on your knees and confess, better try another recipe to avoid the pain.” Is it any wonder that those suffering through, marriage problems for example, have to LEAVE the church because of all the extra grief they get saddled with?

Get your ideas straight … and live! Read Paul.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

What is suffering to the self-absorbed? Out of the question.

What is suffering to the one who knows Christ?

Poop!

On IDEAS . . .

A new idea dawns on me: I am not, after all, a “Christian performer” here on Earth to do Christian acts. I am here to become holy, to become like Jesus and minister like Jesus so that God’s kingdom is extended.

A crisis immediately ensues. Do I want to be holy? And, if I do, how do I become holy?

Another new idea: Becoming holy is not something I effect upon myself; I simply give myself over to God who, in turn, makes me holy.

(I am here, by the way, to become holy, not to become happy. This idea-shift is revolutionary and freeing in that pain, for example, becomes something to embrace rather than avoid! Pain is God’s way of … making me holy!)

Another crisis: Hmmm! Do I really want to do that? Do I know Him well enough to give myself totally and unconditionally to Him? Am I willing to trust that my current “happiness” is worth the sacrifice?

Part of the answer lies in what I see in other people, namely those who are a few cobblestones further down the path to holiness. Am I so attracted to what I see in them that I want it for myself – will their holiness lead me to trust?

Community (deep and trusting friendships) is therefore a necessary ingredient in making you and me holy and, therefore, to the building of God’s kingdom.

Good news (another new idea): I do not give myself over to God, a God I barely know, alone. I go there with those with whom I travel right now, some who are “further along” than I.

Add the idea which says, “I will take you there. My power will sustain, enable and lead you.” This power comes from the Spirit of God working both in you and your traveling partners.

What choices do I make – what ultimately depends upon me? Answer: nothing and, yet, just a little bit. It is entirely a work of God’s grace. But, somehow, mysteriously, God has designed this thing called choice. He tells us to “… work out your salvation,” in Philippians 2. My decisions matter.

I think it is a bit like canoeing. I buy the boat, take it to the river, get in, give a semblance of paddling, and the river, the Mighty River, takes me! This is great news for the Christian! To discipline myself is better described as “positioning myself” for a work of God! All I have to do is show up! Piece-of-cake! The hard part is turning off the TV, putting on those running shoes, pushing away that Twinkie, talking to that person you work with about meaningful things, sitting with your Bible for 15 minutes.

We are still at a crisis point: Do I want this? Another pitch for community. We can admit our fears to our friends and still be accepted. We can wrestle with our confusions and reluctances in a safe environment. If I am not becoming holy (and only you can answer that), it is because you do not want to.

How do I come to want to? A couple of operatives here. One is the holiness of our friends. We see others becoming holy and want that for ourselves. Two, we, as Paul said to Timothy, “discipline ourselves for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). It is precisely what we do when we do things – like exercise or diet – that hurt for the moment, but payoff in good ways. We do something because we “know it is good for us.”

What comes before the “want to”? The want to “want to.”

Try this. Take 15 minutes and be alone. Make every attempt to stop thinking. When you get as close as you can, ask God to do something. Ask Him for the gift of becoming holy. If you don’t want to become holy, admit it. “God, right now, I like to run my own life.” Ask Him for the desire to become holy.

Then, sit there for the remainder of the time and keep on not thinking. When the time is up, go on to the next thing. And, be assured that your prayer is being answered!

AN ADMONITION

Make doggone sure you do exactly what you want to do. I mean, after all, everything you do is because you want to do it.

Don't fool yourself otherwise.

The world is out to get you to want to do the stuff you don't want to do right now.

The world is a liar.

Bud Light won't make you happy... it's that simple.

Happiness is becoming yourself. Who is "yourself"? You don't determine that,... any more than you determined that you would be born.

God determines who you are - He defines you. (Oh yeah, the "you" you think you are right now is probably skewed to one extent or another. I mean, look, for cryin' out loud, at who has been telling you who you are for all this time! TV and other incomplete, hurting people.)

And the extent to which you live into who He designed you to be, you'll be happy.

And that's the truth.

Therefore, happiness is deciding to become yourself... because you want to.

The Bible has much more to say about this. Read it! Read St. John.

To Joy

It's all about ideas - beliefs that we have accumulated like barnacles from the open sea. And, for the life of us, we have no real idea how and from where we got them.

Slim young ladies think they are fat. Most of us think we're "ugly." Barney Fife thinks he can sing. You and I can think that we have no value or that no one really likes us. And, just like barnacles, wrong beliefs can be our undoing!

We're in good company. Two of our traveling partners had their stories plastered on the pages of the New Testament.

One is in John 5 at the pool of Bethesda. A poor fellow had been abandoned for 38 years. He had contracted a belief like so much gossip that God was holding some sort of contest so that the “first one in” wins the healing prize. How lame an idea (no pun intended)! Certainly the place was rife with blind and cripple… those whose infirmity made sure they weren’t the first ones in.

Interestingly, the belief did not start as a boldface lie. How many of our ideas about church, the spiritual life and God are merely truths one degree off center? Hmmm! How many beliefs do we hold tightly and tenaciously about ourselves that are like the ones of the fellow at the pool?

The embarrassment comes as he lives out his idea. Verse 7 tells us that he is so misshapen in his beliefs that he deigns to teach, to correct God! Read it!

How misshapen are you and I? And, how hard are we willing to fight for wrong ideas about ourselves knowing that, although the ideas “protect us” from harm, they are infantile at the very best.

Great news: God is both aware of our ignorance, patient with our self-protection, and yet eager for us to learn the freeing truth! Read the rest of John 5:1-9!

The second story is in John 4. I tell this one second because there is a hopeful admonition right in it that gives you and me great hope.

The story is not unlike the Bethesda one. A lonely young lady encounters Jesus and talk about wrong ideas…! He promises her eternal and consummate joy, and she thinks He is about to drill an artesian well! (I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that we are “far too easily pleased.”). Sad thing: She believes that if she were to have more water and a better well, things would be alright.

What about you and me? If I only had ______, if only _______ would happen, then all would be well. Would it?

Here is the key – the hopeful admonition! Read John 4:10. “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” Again, “If you and I knew Him (the antidote for bad ideas and beliefs), we would ask (our behavior would change; prayer would be paramount) and He would give (us Himself, first and foremost!).

We get Jesus! Love Incarnate! I read this on a grave marker written by Thomas Merton: LOVE IS OUR TRUE IDENTITY. WE DO NOT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE BY OURSELVES ALONE – WE FIND IT WITH ANOTHER.

I close with a prayer I wrote a dozen years ago.

Dear Father,

Indeed, we don’t know what to do. Becoming like a child involves much un-learning. Being humble means I must forsake those structures I worked so hard to erect, and on which I so desperately depend. Ironically, those are the very structures I built in order to avoid the very fears that will inevitably flood my soul upon their destruction. But, I must realize that there is nothing to fear in nakedness – and that only in You will I find my rest (Your rest given by grace).

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28,29.

I am not somebody because of my own merit and possessions – be they mental, physical, or spiritual. I am somebody because You are my Daddy!

Lord, I must come to You, abide in You, be with You, grow to know You more, bask in Your immense love for me… rest in You.

On Knowing God

I have said:

Men will wrangle 100 hours planning, organizing, marketing, promoting, and gathering the refreshments for one program to assemble a group of heart-guarded believers before they will invest 5 minutes heart-sharing with one friend ... the true and redemptive work of the church.

Charles Caleb Colton said:

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.

Why? WHY is that? WHY do you think that is true? Does it not bother you that the world, the Christ-following world, is like that? Does it alarm us that WE – you and I - are like that?

And what can be done?

A few years ago, I hammered out my ecclesiology. Take a look.

We live to bring glory to God
by building His Kingdom
by becoming like His Son Jesus
by abiding in Him (in other words, “knowing God.”).
All the while we
Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength;
Love “one another” (the Body of Christ, His church); and
Love “outsiders” (those outside His Body) by fulfilling the Great Commission.

The Church is the Body of Christ, those individuals – Christians – who have been saved by the finished work of Christ on the Cross and have been adopted as children of God, and whose purpose, again, is to bring glory to God by building His Kingdom …;
The collective nature of the church is, in sum, to incarnate God
by bringing the knowledge of God to an un-knowing world
through Encounters with God in
Worship (anything that directly makes much of God),
Community (the fabric of relationships on which life is sewn), and
Service (expressing the love of God by meeting the needs of others).

It is the responsibility of the church to reproduce itself – indeed, it is the nature of survival (analogous to the physical world of plants, animals and humans), making plain the place of for Discipleship (which includes the fundamental ministry of Evangelism) in the building of God’s Kingdom.
The greatest gift that can be offered an un-believer is the gift of eternal life (Evangelism) and to bring that individual to maturity in Christ (Discipleship) through investing Relationships. Thus, that individual becomes a reproduce-er him- or herself, thereby building God’s Kingdom.

Bottom line: You and I, we, do not live for God, do not do the hard work of the gospel, because we don’t want to. And, the reason we don’t want to is because we have a weak, diminished, incomplete and maybe even false knowledge of God. Note: I am not speaking simply of intellectual or cognitive knowledge of God. I am speaking of a “knowledge” that is of the heart and reflects a deep intimacy one with another.

Conversely, were we to know God better, for Who He truly is, it would change the way we live our lives.

Read Paul and the way this principle bears out in his life!

DUH! Read the words of Jesus in His big-time prayer to His Father (John 17:3):

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

(ALL CAPS means I’m yellin’!) GET OVER THIS FALSE NOTION THAT “KNOWING GOD” IS THE SAME AS “GETTING SAVED.” A WOMAN DOES NOT KNOW HER HUSBAND FULLY JUST BY GOING THROUGH A 40-MINUTE WEDDING CEREMONY!

I have written much about knowing God. Others have. For this moment I want to condense it into 2 words… COMPANY and COMMUNITY.

You and I have to do the counter-intuitive: We have to keep COMPANY with Jesus (Mt 11:28-30 in The Message). Not DO for Him, primarily. BEING with Him changes our beliefs about Him (Romans 12:2). When this happens, we will nearly automatically DO for Him. Keeping company with Jesus is tantamount to the ancient - and should be contemporary - disciplines of SILENCE and SOLITUDE. God get a copy of Ruth Haley Barton's book titled "Invitation to Solitude and Silence" and READ IT!

Secondly, we get to know Jesus better as we see and experience with Him relationally in the lives of our Christ-believing friends. In a word, COMMUNITY. As you and I INCARNATE Jesus (BE Jesus, in a sense) to and with our friends, we all will, as a result, know God better. It's called life sharing. It is deep, costly, vulnerable friendship.

Another DUH!

All this ain’t easy. Our “old” nature wants to BE God and to live in a little safe and manageable shell. By the way, this is why RELIGION works – you can go to heaven and stay in control at the same time! Another lie.

COMPANY and COMMUNITY is hard work. It will be painful. That is why Hebrews 12:3 says “Consider Jesus.” The Greek word is the word from which we get analogy. We are to analogize Jesus – compare ourselves to Him, the Supreme Sacrifice. Jesus gave His life so others could know the Father. It caused Him immeasurable pain. You and I have the same honor as Jesus.

We can KNOW the Father, become like the Son (know imcomparable JOY – John 15:11), in fact, we can become Son’s ourselves (John 1:12)!, inherit eternal life, and participate in the building of God’s kingdom here on earth.

DUH!

WHO SAID IT FIRST ? ? ?

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Men will wrangle 100 hours planning, organizing, marketing, promoting, and gathering the refreshments for one program to assemble a group of heart-guarded believers before they will invest 5 minutes heart-sharing with one friend ... the true and redemptive work of the church.
RICHARD GREGORY WHITESIDE

... I guess he did, since he died in 1832! Would you believe I said it totally unbeknownst to Colton's?

THE BASIS OF FIRM PEACE

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Thomas à Kempis
Book Three. Internal Consolation
The Twenty-Fifth Chapter
THE BASIS OF FIRM PEACE OF HEART AND TRUE PROGRESS
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, I have said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you."
All men desire peace but all do not care for the things that go to make true peace. My peace is with the humble and meek of heart: your peace will be in much patience. If you hear Me and follow My voice, you will be able to enjoy much peace.
THE DISCIPLE
What, then, shall I do, Lord?
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Watch yourself in all things, in what you do and what you say. Direct your every intention toward pleasing Me alone, and desire nothing outside of Me. Do not be rash in judging the deeds and words of others, and do not entangle yourself in affairs that are not your own. Thus, it will come about that you will be disturbed little and seldom.
Yet, never to experience any disturbance or to suffer any hurt in heart or body does not belong to this present life, but rather to the state of eternal rest. Do not think, therefore, that you have found true peace if you feel no depression, or that all is well because you suffer no opposition. Do not think that all is perfect if everything happens just as you wish. And do not imagine yourself great or consider yourself especially beloved if you are filled with great devotion and sweetness. For the true lover of virtue is not known by these things, nor do the progress and perfection of a man consist in them.
THE DISCIPLE
In what do they consist, Lord?
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
They consist in offering yourself with all your heart to the divine will, not seeking what is yours either in small matters or great ones, either in temporal or eternal things, so that you will preserve equanimity and give thanks in both prosperity and adversity, seeing all things in their proper light.
If you become so brave and long-suffering in hope that you can prepare your heart to suffer still more even when all inward consolation is withdrawn, and if you do not justify yourself as though you ought not be made to suffer such great things, but acknowledge Me to be just in all My works and praise My holy name -- then you will walk in the true and right path of peace, then you may have sure hope of seeing My face again in joy. If you attain to complete contempt of self, then know that you will enjoy an abundance of peace, as much as is possible in this earthly life.

To Rise Above this World of Pain Into Consummate Joy

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)).

I am one of those crackpot idealists who believes that I can experience near ecstatic joy here on earth… before the second Advent! I don’t think the pains, challenges, and conflicts of this life will cease by any means; but I do believe I can joy far more than is my current experience – in fact, I have come to anticipate it. By joy, I do not mean some sense of giddiness in which I lope in slow motion through the field of daisies this life is. I mean a sense of peace and calm amid the storms of life because I live on another plane.

Did not Jesus promise us:
I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow (John 15:11 NLT)!

Look at Paul – the quintessential follower of Christ, the chiefest of sinners. Granted, I have done some reprehensible things in my day, but I would be hesitant to name myself the “chiefest of sinners.” This same Paul is chained in a rat-infested, stinking prison, and yet he reveled in the experience because otherwise his guards would not have heard the gospel! Read Philippians 1. Another plane!

He called the likes of shipwreck, scourges and stonings to be left for dead “momentary light affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Not me! I hit two red lights in a row and that’s an affliction neither momentary nor light! Another plane!

I must admit that I really envy Paul. I do not think Paul ever experienced acid reflux, ever contemplated taking Zoloft. He lived above the fray. I’m sure he was still human. I am sure he still cried and complained to God for relief. But, there was something exceptional in this man that I want for myself.

Oh, and by the way, whatever Paul possessed, I do not think it materialized simply as a function of his will. I don’t think Paul woke up one day and said, “Y’know, life is pretty much getting to me. I think I will just opt not to worry any more!” Pardon me for showing my anger right here, but so much of modern preaching is of the ilk: JUST TRUST JESUS, isn’t it? Preachers think that by their simple admonition, you and I will just – at the nod of our wills – trust Someone we (and the preacher, too, for that matter) hardly know!

Back to Paul. Much more could be said about this saint-cum-sinner, but let’s get right to the heart of the man and this plane on which he lives – the same one I want for myself.

Here it is:

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it (Philippians 3:7ff, The Message).

Paul so knew Christ and His love for him that it totally revolutionized his heart. (For you “Bible-Belters”: knowing Christ is not equivalent to “getting saved.” That’s the problem: Our faith experience means we “get saved” (come to “know Christ”) and then begin to conform our outward behavior to what the preacher says. Ugh!)

There are a few people in my life I would die for. I am not speaking here of my family, although I would certainly die for each of them. I am talking about the few people who have come to like me so well that they value me simply for who I am. I love to be around them, they make me feel … valuable. I like that. It warms my heart. I want to do for them as well.

This is a function of relationship, of community. It cannot happen suddenly. It is a journey. It is a friendship. It is both costly and risky.

I have a friend named Paul. He likes me. We have been friends for over 10 years. He likes me for who I am, not for what I can do for him. I am drawn to this “like” like a magnet. I would do anything for Paul. I hurt when he hurts. I pray for him. I love it when he calls me on the phone just to “hear my voice.” I like him, too. He says he appreciates me “liking” him, too.

Our like for each other transcends the pains we encounter together. If we disagree or get into a fight, our like for each other is not violated – it is the very thing that helps us endure the pain. Our like has become very other-centered – it has taken us to another plane. We consider other things (reputation, pasts, the risk and cost involved) “rubbish” in order that we might enjoy one another.

Because I know he likes me, I can like others.

This change, this revolution we are talking about is not, as I have said, simply an intellectual endeavor. Telling someone that God loves them is good, but not enough. Love is caught relationally from someone incarnating Christ. Essentially, we do not love the other person, we love the Jesus in them. My friend Paul does not have the capacity to like me in a way that transforms me. But, because he has experienced the love of God in Christ (meditatively, cognitively and … incarnationally in the live of those who have loved him), he has what it takes to love me.

Wouldn’t you like to rise above the pains of this world? Wouldn’t you like to be a part of the transformation of the hearts of your friends? Wouldn’t you like to have deep infecting JOY? Me, too.

How?

You might have come to think that the will has nothing to do with this revolution of the heart. Well, it does, but you cannot force it simply by willing it. Read (again) Paul’s words to the Philippians (2:12f The Message)

Dear friends … Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

You and I choose (“Work hard”) to position ourselves for change to occur. Yet, the timing and the events of change are under God’s Sovereign Providence (“For God is working in you”).

This is the definition of discipline: Position yourself for God to work. This is the essence of Psalm 46:10: “Be still (cease striving) and know that He is God.”

I would say do these things:

… Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance (Paul to his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7ff).

1. Keep company with Christ (John 15:1-12). Think deeply on His Word (this is called meditation).
2. Remove impediments from the heart-to heart connection with God (Psalm 66:18; 1 John 1:9). This is called confession.
3. Position yourself for change. Show up and shut up. This is called the discipline of Solitude and Silence. LISTEN for that still small voice that says, “I really like you!” Read others who have experienced this discipline.
4. Pray for God to send you into relationships. Be willing to invest and to be invested in. This is hard – the world does not value community. It’s too busy valuing the death of real intimacy – BUSY-NESS. Ask God for mentors (mature individuals who can teach you and love you), peers (fellow travelers on the journey) and disciples (friends of yours to whom you can incarnate Christ!).
5. Do your best to worship both corporately and privately. Dwelling on the character of God brings about good change (and it keeps the focus of you). Accept nothing but true worship – it might be hard to find.
6. Seek healing from the past. From past beliefs that effect your thinking in the present, and from past wounds that impede relationships in the present. I cannot tell you how to do this. Counseling, spiritual direction and outright miraculous healing come to mind. Healing, though, for the most part, occurs in community.

Friend, there is more! Our God is that cool and He is that eager to bless you with a Joy that is beyond anything you or I could dream up or fabricate!

Avoiding Idle Talk

The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis

BOOK ONE

THOUGHTS HELPFUL IN THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

The Tenth Chapter

AVOIDING IDLE TALK

SHUN the gossip of men as much as possible, for discussion of worldly affairs, even though sincere, is a great distraction inasmuch as we are quickly ensnared and captivated by vanity.
Many a time I wish that I had held my peace and had not associated with men. Why, indeed, do we converse and gossip among ourselves when we so seldom part without a troubled conscience? We do so because we seek comfort from one another's conversation and wish to ease the mind wearied by diverse thoughts. Hence, we talk and think quite fondly of things we like very much or of things we dislike intensely. But, sad to say, we often talk vainly and to no purpose; for this external pleasure effectively bars inward and divine consolation.
Therefore we must watch and pray lest time pass idly.
When the right and opportune moment comes for speaking, say something that will edify.
Bad habits and indifference to spiritual progress do much to remove the guard from the tongue. Devout conversation on spiritual matters, on the contrary, is a great aid to spiritual progress, especially when persons of the same mind and spirit associate together in God.

What is Church Anyway?

What is Church Anyway?

I bet you think of a building, don’t ya? Or, maybe a congregation of people in that building? Think of it this way: If Jesus had in mind what you and I think church is, would it not make sense that He would have spent His time on earth doing things other than just hanging out with people???

Seriously folks! What about believers in other parts of the world, what about those in other centuries? Are they condemned because they didn’t dress up many times a week and go to a building for services and prayer meetings?

Might I posit the obvious: Our understanding of church needs work!

Church is Christ-followers living out their faith together (key word there!) which sometimes and occasionally includes corporate activities. Corporate activities are vital to church; they are not, however, most of what we do.

Neither, I might add, is small groups church… altogether. “Small groups,” in and of itself can be just a smaller corporate meeting. “Small groups” is “Community Lab.” I see it as a place where we learn to live out our faith and practice it safely in a hospitable environment (i.e., community).

Which idea of church are you living out? Is church a lifestyle – constantly relational for the purpose of building God’s Kingdom? (I know church staff people that are too busy with church work to do that!!!) Or is your idea of church something else? Something that is not congruent with the life of Christ we read about in the Gospels?

Improvement on our ideas is what I’m after here, not a change in behavior. That will come when our ideas change.

Read the Gospels.

Profundity in Simplicity

There is more wisdom in the simple than the profound and complex.

God is good.

Heaven is real and coming.

We will battle the tendency to reject God until the day we die.

Be still and know that He is God.

The one who listens to God hears Him.

Hearing God means that we spend time alone and silent.

If we don’t spend regular time alone and silent… we won’t hear God.

God want us to hear Him.

Hearing what He has to say is a good thing.

It seems we want to listen to any other voice besides the voice of God.

God ordains whatsoever comes to pass.

Precious little (in fact, nothing) depends on you.

God loves you whether you know it or not, whether you’re lovable or not, whether you have experienced any kind of love or not.

Jesus died to wipe out any penalty you owe for your wrong-doings.

Worry is a sin.

Alcohol in moderation is not.

Every prayer is heard by God.

Praying is the end of prayer (not answered prayer).

Joy is available. As you become the real you, joy will emerge.

The world stinks.

Hope motivates.

God’s gonna win!

Ever noticed that you CAN notice?

Oh, what a beautiful morning! As I drove out this morning, I thought this to myself as I noticed the crystal clearness of the haze-free and dry early fall morning.

Then I had a metaphysical, existential moment:

I noticed that I COULD notice!

I noticed a beautiful morning with the gift of notice-ability.

I not only noticed the beautiful day waking up, I noticed that I was given the gift, the ability to notice!

God let me see, let me notice, let me behold.

Do you notice… you can?

What do you see when you look?


(Jesus said:) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God (1 John 3:1).

How Do You Know If What You're Doin's God's Will?

I am currently tutoring a rising senior in high school – Algebra II, ugh! We begin our summer mornings on the porch where we “solve the world’s problems” before we solve the ones in the math book!

Today went like this: You see, the young man is a committed follower of Christ, mature and apparently committed to God’s plan for him. He is an excellent baseball player. His decision du jour revolves around which school to attend (he has been home schooled and plans to go either to a Christian school without baseball or the public school with baseball). It seems it comes down to this: Christian school portends the end of baseball – what the young mans calls “laying it down.” And, public school is place of ill-repute in which one’s faith is attacked regularly and without mercy. There is more to it than that, but this young man really wants to honor God and has a love for baseball as well.

This scenario and millions like it face believers daily. Some simply do their best to make a decision and others seem to hear God speak to them clearly and decisively saying, “This is what I want you to do.”

Interestingly, this particular morning I was sitting reading a book on solitude and silence when the conversation began. What follows is a record of my mind’s ruminations on the subject of pondering God’s will. I purposely will not fire off the customary Bible verses with the “And, there you have it!” at the end. I want to talk in a rational tone to a rational mind.

The first thing I want to note is that regardless of one’s theology of determining God’s will, personal beliefs seem to bear on the decision with invariable certainty. For example, one might have the belief that in order to follow God’s will, personal enjoyment is out of the question. So, in our case this morning, the prospect of God’s will including baseball seemed self-promoting and therefore very remote. Now, don’t scoff! I’ll bet that hits close to home for many of us. Point is, though, our ideas and beliefs we bring to the decision table bear strongly on the proceedings.

This young man went on to tell me that “everyone” has been quick and generous with their “advice.” This is where I really began to think. Paul in Colossians strongly warned against this. (I said I wasn’t going to do it, but I am). Go read chapter 2, a polemic against self-appointed arbiters!

What place does advice have then? Here is the biggest point I want to make: I want to heed the advice of those who have done well hearing from and heeding Jesus themselves. Would it not make perfect sense that the advice of greatest value comes from the ones most intimate with the Lord – the ones who have been with Him, the ones who have spent time listening to Him in silence and solitude?

I want those kind of loving relationships, don’t you? Think about this in a church context. Suppose you are in a town meeting or an elder meeting in which the future trajectory of the church needs to be addressed and strategized. Traditionally, the meeting happens, everyone gives their “opinion” (“I think we oughta ….”), a token prayer opens and closes the meeting and decisions are made right there on the spot – ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH!

For those of us even remotely interested in doing God’s will, would it not make practical and plain sense for us to spend time with God, quiet and in the listening mode? I mean, really! Think about decisions you and I have made – from the brand of deodorant to the choice of a spouse. Have these decisions (at least the key ones) been preceded by times of intentional, protracted and meaningful times of silence with the hope of HEARING GOD? Then why, for crying out loud, do we think we are following God’s will?

Jesus in John 10 says (as plainly as the nose on your face) “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (v. 27).”

I guess the best indicator that one has “heard the voice of God” is that person has been still and quiet long enough to have heard it. Only problem is: The church discourages stillness, does it not? Even the silent prayer time in the worship service has an organ playing in the background! We are to be do-ers of the Word, winning the world to Jesus, right? Activity and busy-ness is rewarded in the church. (Sorry for letting my cynic show.)

So, where and when are we taught and encouraged to “Be still and know” that He is God? My God, may the church take a practical clue and stop and listen!

Stupidity is Not Necessary

"For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25)

Neither of us, you and I, has to be stupid.

So, when the commercial comes on the TV and tells you that you can earn $10,000 a month in your spare time, laugh and ignore such a stupid and ignominious lie! In a more subtle, yet no less insulting, way, fall not prey to the promise that beer is the key to lasting happiness and fulfilling sex!

I do not mean to insult anyone, but we’re all stupid. Were it not for this fact, then TV would be refreshingly void of commercials! Is this not an accurate definition of a marketing expert: A person adept at taking full advantage of a person’s stupidity by using whatever spurious and manipulative means available to cause him or her to buy something he or she does not need by promising something the product cannot deliver?

Oh well, I am right in there, too! I am just as stupid as the next guy.

There is hope – in the Person of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible, I can gain something (or Someone) worth more than “the whole world.” Possessing Jesus (or better, being possessed by Him) is what it means to be me. This is up against the lie of the world that says in order to be “happy” I must have things and be “someone” in the eyes of the society.

Satan is a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44). Our mind is mostly convinced of that, but our other parts (body, emotions, etc.) will still covet that pair of Nike’s, receive that comment for the ego and make that ill-advised click on the computer.

Paul calls that doing the very thing we hate (Romans 7).

Don’t lose heart. We are in good company.

May we, on the other hand, seek the truth and the Father of all truth – the same truth that LIBERATES and opens our eyes to the unfailing truth in the statement: Gaining Christ is all that matters. What does it mean to “be my self”? Simply this: Knowing with all of me that I am loved and possessed by Love and am the beneficiary of eternal hope to the extent that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Go read John 15:1-11 in a readable translation over and over until you begin to see that trust is built upon intimacy and intimacy is built upon a relationship.

Do You Smell Like Jesus?

There is a restaurant in my town that I rarely patronize. It is one of those greasy spoons where profanity flows and smoke blows and the air could be cut with a knife. Breakfast is their forte.

Go there for any length of time and what? Right! You’ll emerge smelling like the place you just left, smoky. Most of us can identify with the scene, that is why I use this analogy, albeit negative, to make my point: THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH JESUS SMELL LIKE JESUS.

Read Acts 3 and 4 (one of my favorite passages) and go as far as 4:13. No sooner than bold-speaking Peter and John had healed a man (not exactly a capital offense) they were arrested! Kept overnight and interrogated, these two men spoke with boldness! It must have come as a shocker to the powers that were that Peter and John did not cower and capitulate in order to attain freedom. In any event, they were hastily up and released! All the dumbfounded officials were left with was that they “recognized them as having been with Jesus.” They were as blown away by the Jesus in the apostles as the garrison of soldiers sent to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane. Read John 18 (4-6):

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.

Here it was Jesus, Himself. In the case of Peter and John, they merely smelled like Jesus – they had the same impact on others that Jesus would have had if He had been there in the flesh.

Rocket scientist I ain’t, but I can put it all together to say this: Churches of impact into the gates-of-hell of this world smell like Jesus – they are an assemblage of Christ-followers who “have been with Jesus.” This is the opportunity afforded us all in John 15 by none other than … Jesus:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

Churches of today do smell, stink even, but not much like Jesus. George Barna reminds us that the number of Christ-followers leaving the organized church in order to find Jesus is at 20 million and rising! Imagine that, leaving the church to find Jesus!! Now I’m dumbfounded!

Churches today are consumed with anything and everything but Jesus! We spend tons of time planning to worship Jesus, but do we … worship Jesus? We have the latest and greatest Vacation Bible School week complete with every creative craft known to man in order to encounter Jesus, but do we? We meet as a small group, go deep as heck, share our lives on a weekly basis in order to become like Jesus. Do we, really? Are we becoming more like Him with all this Christian “activity” we are given to?

Question is this: Is the product of the postmodern church human incarnations of Jesus, “little Christs”, Christ-ians? Are we turning out people who smell like Jesus? Statistically, the answer is no. We divorce like the world. We shun, gossip, abuse and molest like the world. We bicker and split like the world. We eat our own worse than the world ever did.

What to do? What to do?

We must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who is at work us to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Ph 2:12f). First, we must find ways to simply “be with Jesus” (Mt 11:28-30 in The Message):

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

This is so simple it is nearly impossible, given the consumeristic, busy, traditionalistic, narcissistic, legalistic state in which we find ourselves. Yet, it is the next step for the church. The cost is high – it may take leaving or closing the doors of what we know as “church.” It will take a humble and daring heart that says, “I am gonna do it.”

If you will, start with ten minutes of alone time, in which your only objective is to be still and silent. It’ll kill ya! Fidget ain’t the word for what you will likely do! Ten minutes will seem like ten years. We are so unaccustomed to stillness! Yet, it is in the still times we will hear the voice of God saying, “I really like you, y’know!” And it is in the still times, close to Jesus, we will begin to smell like Jesus. We will be doing the right thing, and the world will see the building of the Kingdom of God if we do it!

Second, we must rest in the mysterious grace of God. It is God who is at work in us to will and to do. Do what you hear Him saying to you. Fight the guilts that say you haven’t done enough. Do what you can to “keep company” with Him! Then, pat yourself on the back because He is just glad you showed up!

He will bring you to discipline yourself. In the quietness and far reaches of your heart, see if therein lies a flicker of willingness to take the high road, the counter-intuitive, counter-productive path to holiness. I’ll bet it is!

May the Kingdom of God be built – may you and I so BE with Jesus that others smell Him on us and come to Him!