What Story Does Your Life Tell?

Posted on by May 29, 2014
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Acts 1:8 — But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The other day Myra and I saw a pretty hokey representation of the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. She was a harlot. He faithfully went after her, again and again. Although the play wasn’t great it did put a couple of things in my mind. One was that there are so many people in the Bible whose story we really don’t know. We know Gomer kept running off to ply her trade as a prostitute … but we don’t know why, and we probably never will. The missing back stories are not my topic today. The other thing that tugged at my attention was the way God uses people’s lives, or incidents in their lives, to teach us about His character or plans.
Faithless Gomer was a picture of Israel, faithful Hosea a picture of God Himself in His recurrent forgiveness of faithless Israel.
Then there’s Ezekiel 4:4, “Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.” Ezekiel was to be a living sign, telling of God’s many years of patience with Israel and warning that His patience was rapidly coming to an end. In fact this was only the second of three living signs in which Ezekiel portrayed the siege of Jerusalem, the end of God’s patience, and Israel’s time in exile.
Then there’s the prophet Jeremiah. As the great English preacher Charles Spurgeon said:

All through the Book of Jeremiah you will observe that the prophet taught the people not only by words, but by symbols. At one time he took his mantle and hid it in the earth till it was soiled and worn, and then taught them something by wearing it. At another time he took an earthen pot and broke it in their presence. And on this occasion he put a yoke about his own neck as the token that Israel should be subdued beneath the power of Nebuchadnezzar.

So what’s my point? Acts 1:8 makes it clear that we are all to be witnesses. It’s not an option, and there are no exceptions. A lot of us try to wriggle out of it saying “I’m not good with words.” Then we move on to “my life is my witness.” Well you know, these examples — and many others from scripture — might suggest that’s true. But if you’re going to rely on that then, as the old saying goes — you’re going to have to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk!

Fit For Purpose

Posted on by May 28, 2014
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Isaiah 28:23-29 — Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

I don’t know that I have anything to say about this passage that hadn’t been said before. It’s just that I’ve never heard anybody preach on it, and when we read it yesterday it just jumped out at me. So I thought I’d just look at it and write down what I saw.
The first thing I saw is that the farmer doesn’t spend all his time doing just the same thing — “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)
The second thing is that the farmer isn’t wasteful in the way he uses resources. Each crop is sowed in the best place for it.
The next thing I saw was that the farmer uses different methods for different jobs, or for the same job with different crops.
Next I saw that the farmer learnt this wisdom from God. It’s no surprise that God teaches. In Exodus 31 for instance, we find “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:1-3)
From all of this I find that if I am open to it, God will give me the knowledge I need for any task he has for me to do. He’ll tell me what do do, when to do it, and how.
There’s another thing, though. I think that when God told Isaiah about how He instructs the farmer, He’s teaching us about how he deals with us too. He will deal with each of us differently, according to our different natures and needs. He will deal with us differently at different seasons of our life. He won’t ever waste us either. We are His precious seeds. If we produce fruits, he’s going to feed, water and tend us according to our own special needs.
What a wonderfully reassuring passage!

How Would You Finish The Story?

Posted on by May 27, 2014
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Luke 15:31-32 — And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

There are stories in the Bible, especially the parables of Jesus, that have two special features for me. They have layer upon layer. And they could be finished in many different ways. The Master tells them for a reason — he makes his obvious point, but He leaves the story in our minds to keep on teaching us, to teach us the main point. As long as we let them, the stories keep on teaching us … And last night, and in my quiet time this morning, the story of the Prodigal Son had two lessons for me that I hadn’t learned before.
The first lesson was about knowing, appreciating and enjoying what we have in life. The father said to the older brother, “Look, you’ve been here all the time. If you wanted a party you just had to say. In fact there’s nothing round here that you can’t have. You just have to ask.” Does that sound familiar? It should — “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”(James 1:5) There is so much that is accessible to us if only we would ask. In fact there is nothing good for us that God won’t give us. You can fund that promise in His word too — “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)
The second lesson the story of the Prodigal Son taught me was about me was about law and grace — holding on to grudges and letting go. The father says to the elder son, “look, partying is the right thing to do right now.” What does his son decide? We don’t know. Does he decide to join his father, give his prodigal brother grace, and join the party? Does he decide to stay outside, insist on the letter of the law (as he sees it), and sulk outside? We’ll never know. But I think this is where the main point of the story lies. Remember the context. Jesus was making His point to the Pharisees … the legalists of His day. He so much wanted them to get the point of grace.
So don’t resent what you haven’t got. Ask God for it. If it’s good for you, He’ll provide it. And don’t hold grudges. Grace is good.
You know what’s scary? I don’t know why these thoughts came to me just now. What good thing have I not asked for? What grudge am I clinging too? I don’t know. If you do, please let me know!

Commitment

Posted on by May 26, 2014
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2 Samuel 15:19-22 — Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee. And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him.

Perhaps my thoughts today are not entirely devotional — but I hope you’ll feel they’re appropriate.
Year by year members of the US military die in active service. Since 1980 the lowest count has been about 800. The highest has been about 2500. Consistently, year by year, people pay the ultimate price to serve this country.
According to various media reports at VA hospitals and clinics across the country, more than three dozen veterans have died while waiting for care.
About 5% of the people serving in the US military are not citizens.
What do all these facts add up to?
When David returned from exile in Gath, he brought 600 Gittites — Philistines — as a sort of bodyguard. When Absalom rebelled against his father David and David was forced to flee, Ittai — the leader of the Gittites — went with him. When David tried to send him away, Ittai refused to leave his place. “No”, he said, “I’m staying with you.” He stayed, and so did his men, and their families.
Do you feel the contrast here? Ittai and his men were committed to David. David was committed to Ittai and his men. Today the US military is committed. But the government isn’t good at showing that same commitment in return. And what’s the cause?
There was a time when the king was plainly God’s choice. King and commanders had a shared understanding of their place in the world. Now it’s not even clear that government and those leading our soldiers share the same basic understanding of the mission. It is desperately clear that there is a failure of commitment from the government to those soldiers to those who are ready to lay down their lives. How could such a thing be?
I believe that as little as fifty to sixty years ago there was a common Christian frame of reference that bound government and troops. There’s been a conscious attempt, ever since, to destroy that frame of reference. Without that identity of belief, it is no surprise that Memorial Day is increasingly no more than another excuse for a day away from work, a party, and another tag for sellers to put on sales.
I long for us to recapture the hearts and minds of Americans, restore Memorial Day to its proper place and reward the commitment of our troops with the loyalty it should demand.

Who’s At The Center?

Posted on by May 25, 2014
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John 4:23-24 — But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Pastor Hayes preached a great message around Psalm 134, worship, and service this morning. One of the many things that struck home was when he said that “we are self-centered not God-focused”. Ouch! 
I have to admit that when it comes to worship I sometimes find myself saying “I like this” or “I don’t like that”. Well what’s it got to do with me? 
There is a flow of worship (the kind of worship that happens in church). There’s an assembled congregation seeking the presence of the Lord and expressing love and desire for the Lord through worship. There’s a response from God, that may flow through worship leaders, or flow directly to the congregation. The responsive process has to center on God or there can be no power in it. 
There’s more too it than that, though. Worship can’t be turned on and off at will. Paul brings that idea to the fore in his letter to the Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

“Brothers” he says, appealing to the collective nature of our relationship with each other and with God. Then he goes on to place worship right at the center of our daily lives. William Barclay expresses it with his usual wonderful clarity:

‘So,’ Paul says, ‘take your body; take all the tasks that you have to do every day; take the ordinary work of the shop, the of?ce, the factory, the shipyard, the mine; and offer all that as an act of worship to God.

Hmmm … I don’t always hit that mark either. Sometimes the daily round, the common task, takes me out of the worship space and into the whining space! But if we put the ideas together — worship as a collaboration between ourselves, those around us and God, and worship as a seven day a week part of life, then how wonderfully worship expands to include everyone we ever touch!
The one last thing that came to mind as I thought about worship, and Pastor’s message today, is the risk of pushing God out of the center and putting something else — person possession or practice — in His place. Jesus Himself said it:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4:8)

The thing is, every time we think we have put anything other than God at the center of worship, we fool ourselves. We’ve taken the focus off God and become self-centered — and that way lies destruction. I’ve made that mistake from time to time. But not any more.

Woe and Whoah!

Posted on by May 24, 2014
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John 12:47-48 — And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Over the last week or so, as well as Pastor Todd and his wife the wonderful Sonya Stearns directing us from time to time, we’ve been blessed to have Lindsey Graham rehearse us in a song that starts with a series of expressions of awe … “Whoah,…whoah …”. (In case you don’t know Lindsey Graham and her wonderful music ministry, I feel bound to include a reference to her website http://www.lindseygrahamministries.com/ ).
As we rehearsed the song Lindsey pointed out something she had been told, that really made an impression on me. Sometimes, perhaps, we take the “whoahs” (and maybe the “ohs” and “ahs”) in devotional songs a bit lightly. But there will come a day when we stand in the presence of Jesus … and then “whoah!” will certainly be in our vocabulary!
OK, changing gear a little …
This morning, as Myra and I were having our devotions, she pointed out that at the last judgment there’ll be two sorts of people, and two sorts of fear. There’ll be Christians, with the kind of fear of God that is “the beginning of wisdom”. Then there’ll be everybody else — and they will have the fear that is abject fear of the terrible future that inevitably will lie ahead. As she said it, “whoah” and  “woe” popped into my head!
When I consider the “Woe”, I think of an extraordinary book — “The Devotions Of Bishop Andrewes”. Lancelot Andrewes was head of the committee that created the King James version of the Bible. He wrote his manual of devotions in Greek, and they were translated by John Henry Newman. They contain this passage that surely describes the state of the wicked on judgment day. It is so clear and accurate that I make no apology for this long extract:

Alas, alas! woe, woe.
…
when the thrones are set
and Angels stand around,
and men are brought in,
the books opened,
the works enquired into,
the thoughts examined,
and the hidden things of darkness.
What judgment shall be upon me?
who shall quench my flame?
who shall lighten my darkness,
if Thou pity me not?
Lord, as Thou art loving,
give me tears,
give me floods, give me today.
For then will be the incorruptible Judge,
the horrible judgment seat,
the answer without excuses,
the inevitable charges,
the shameful punishment,
the endless Gehenna,
the pitiless Angels,
the yawning hell,
the roaring stream of fire,
the unquenchable flame,
the dark prison,
the rayless darkness,
the bed of live coals,
the unwearied worm,
the indissoluble chains,
the bottomless chaos,
the impassable wall;
the inconsolable cry,
none to stand by me,
none to plead for me,
none to snatch me out.

So which is it going to be for you? “woe!” or “whoah!”? To know that so many will be doomed to that horrific future is heartbreaking. It is hard for me to believe that many reading this devotion can fall into that group. If you do, I beg you find a good Christian advisor, and surrender yourself to Jesus now! For everyone else — look forward to “Whoah!”

The Law Of The Harvest

Posted on by May 23, 2014
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Numbers 32:23 — But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.
 
Do you have sins that you cannot hide? I do. Anyone who sees me can tell, without needing to make inquiries, that I have not taken proper care to balance my diet and exercise!
I’m sure that when I was a child somebody must have given me the warning that Moses gave the Rubenites and Gadites — because I had plenty of things I thought I could get away with until I found differently.
King David certainly felt the force of the lesson too. When he committed adultery with Bathsheba he might have thought he could get away with it … until her belly started to provide some irrefutable evidence, and drove him to the horrific further sin of arranging the murder of Uriah the Hittite.  
There are some sins that seem easier to hide. There’s laziness for instance. It’s not always obvious that somebody isn’t working as hard as they should be – especially if they always seem to be in the right place at the right time. But Proverbs 6:10-11 warns “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” It might seems as though slacking off a little, “just  bit, for a little while”, might be OK – but people will notice your falling off, and consequences will follow. Or you might fall into sexual temptation. Oh, I don’t mean full on temptation like King David, but maybe watching the wrong movies, visiting the wrong websites … “There’s no harm in that”, you might think, “it’s only me involved.” Sadly that’s a dangerous self-deception. There’s a reason Psalm 101:3 says “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” The eyes are the gateway to the mind and heart. What we read and see influences our attitudes — and sooner or later those attitudes affect the ways we treat other people. The change in you will be noticed!
There is a potential upside to all of this, though. There’s another text  — Galatians 6:7-8 that says “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” It certainly repeats the warning, but there’s a promise too: “he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The life of the spirit has everlasting fruit.

Honor To Whom Honor Is Due

Posted on by May 22, 2014
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Romans 13:7 — Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor

I have been honored over the past few weeks to give honor in our church — in one way or another  — to those to whom honor has surely been due.
First there was the couple who faithfully had shepherded our Sunday School class for many years. Then the couple who had managed the church’s Hospitality Ministry for a similar lengthy period. Finally there was the group of people who, over varied periods of years, have been stalwarts of our church choir but who, for various reasons, are no longer able to.
All of these people have two things in common (actually there are quite a few things, but these stick out for me). First, they served faithfully for many years with no expectation of reward. Second, they had no expectation when they had to step back, that they would be especially honored.
This business of honor is an interesting one. Honor is not something to be laid claim to, but it is something to be freely offered. Jesus gives a great example when He talks of guests at a dinner:

And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11)

Have you ever felt that you weren’t getting the honor (or credit) that you deserved? I have. It’s tricky isn’t it. There’s just nothing that can be done about it except to follow Paul’s advice later in his letter to the Romans — “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;” (Romans 12:10)
Paul had an inspired understanding of human nature, and he knew what it was to be treated without honor, and he understood the challenges of long unrecognized service — and so gave this firm direction to give honor to those to whom honor is due. As for me, I just want to record my thanks to those people who were the inspiration for this devotion.

Open The Shutters On Your Heart

Posted on by May 21, 2014
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Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I must preach a sermon to myself today. To say “God knows all about me” is to say he can see through the window — but God wants us to open the door of our hearts and show Him our treasures. I know that, but all too often I find myself internally declaring certain topics “off limits” in my quiet time, and having to make a conscious effort to open the shutters.
Those closed shutters was one of the things that Myra noticed about me, early in our relationship. She has gently, lovingly, been chipping away at my resistance and helping me open the shutters to her.
Opening up to Myra is one thing. Opening up to God, though, that’s something else! So what’s going on with me? I’ve come to understand at least two things, and it seems I need to share them. Perhaps you have some of the same issues …
One thing I know I deal with is that there were some tricky moments in my pre-teen and early teen years. When my parents split up I (and my siblings) spent some time in children’s homes and with foster parents. I suffered some sexual abuse. Then in my senior school I was bullied for a while. So when you’re a kid you go under or you develop coping mechanisms. I buried the bad stuff, and learnt to be a bit of a joker. I buried that bad stuff deep, built some hard shells. They’re not easy to crack. By the grace of God, He gave me my sweet wife to be the gentlest of jackhammers!
The other thing that plagues me is somehow connected to yesterday’s devotion … Girls needs their daddies … And boys need their fathers. I never had a real relationship with my father. He was gone before we really had a chance to know each other. He had some struggles even before then. So when I talk to God somehow, in the back of my mind, I think there’s a little voice saying — “You don’t really know Him. Do you really want to share that?” Well yes, I do, so I have to remind myself. “Open those shutters. There’s nothing God doesn’t know, but He wants you to have the freedom of sharing, to be relieved of the burden of secrecy.”
So how about it? Do you have rooms in your heart with shutters that you find hard to open, even for God? Are you kidding yourself that you know yourself and that’s good enough? Remember Jeremiah’s warning. The heart is desperately wicked — only God can truly know it. Satan will find all sorts of ways to dissuade you, but let God into your heart, so He can show you what’s really inside!

A Girl Needs Her Daddy!

Posted on by May 20, 2014
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Judges 11:34-36 — And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.

The story of Jephthah and his daughter might be one of the saddest and most troubling in the Bible — but the story itself is not my focus today (if you don’t remember it, it’s in Judges 11).
What tugged at my attention was the relationship between Jephthah and his daughter (a non-Biblical source calls her Seila, “asked for”, and I’m going to use that if I need to). I think you can tell from Jephthah’s horror when he realizes that he has unintentionally committed to sacrifice his daughter that Seila was daddy’s little princess. Her reaction makes it clear that she felt that way too.
I’m not sure how the discussion provoked me to connect to Jephthah and Seila, but Myra and I were talking about her relationship (or lack of it) with her father. The thing is, it marked her for years — and although the resentment is gone, there might still be a little scarring.
There’s a counter example in the Bible too. For all his good qualities, King David wasn’t a great father. And he certainly didn’t treat his daughter — Tamar, who really was a princess — like his little princess. And when Amnon raped her, although David was “very angry” he did … nothing, and the consequences were devastating.
One way and another, Myra and I have seen a lot of the damage that can be caused when daddy doesn’t take care of his princess and show her how a real man should behave. When we worked for a while, in a little ministry at our church focused on children of divorce we saw a lot of impacts of absent fathers. Now don’t get me wrong — girls need their mommies too, and boys need both their parents. In fact all four relationships are critical, so that as those children grow up they know how they should be, and what they should expect from the opposite sex. But of all the four, that relationship between the princess and her daddy is the most precious, and the most irreplaceable. So I have a plea, as Father’s Day approaches… If you’re a daddy, and your princess is not getting all she needs from you, grab the opportunity to reconnect. The rewards will be greater than you can imagine!