The Heart of Home

This evening I sat in my outdoor rocker and watched an elusive Colorado sky filled with puffy white clouds resolve into a saffron canvas dancing in technicolor antics.  Like a chameleon, it  transformed further in shape and color — becoming a melon landscape which melted into crimson and then evolved into a violet-blue mass of encroaching shadows.  At that revelatory moment, I knew I was home.  It was an odd feeling of sorts but still, a solid feeling that I am home.

As I watched the sky’s magnificent display of the handiwork of God, I reflected on some words I heard yesterday at an outdoor worship service.  The speaker mentioned the phrase “home is where the heart is.”  He went to to say that maybe the phrase should be reversed — that we might consider that our heart is where our home resides.

Today’s sunset afforded me the opportunity to reflect upon my heart — that unique and strange heart that God created in me — that unique, strange heart that mystifies and scares most of my friends and family.  In my heart, He has placed a desire for home…..home. As wonderful as our earthly home in Colorado is, the fact is:  my heart longs for the eternal home promised to us in scripture.  Because of this intense longing, some of us often try to figure out all of the minute details of our future home.

Dr. B. B. Warfield has said something beautiful we should consider: 

A glass window stands before us. We raise our eyes and see the glass; we note its quality, and observe its defects; we speculate on its composition. Or we look straight through it on the great prospect of land and sea and sky beyond. So there are two ways of looking at the world. We may see the world and absorb ourselves in the wonders of nature. That is the scientific way. Or we may look right through the world and see God behind it. That is the religious way.

The scientific way of looking at the world is not wrong any more than the glass-manufacturer’s way of looking at the window. This way of looking at things has its very important uses. Nevertheless the window was placed there not to be looked at but to be looked through; and the world has failed of its purpose unless it too is looked through and the eye rests not on it but on its God. (1)

When I look at all that God has created I have to ask myself, “Am I looking through creation and seeing God behind it?”  This creation will pass away.  It makes me wonder what the next earth and heaven will be like.  Will it be like this only devoid of the hatred of mankind?

People have speculated over centuries just what is meant by the new heaven and the new earth.  Bob Deffinbaugh, a layman who writes many interesting articles on Bible.org says, “Revelation never is given in a historical vacuum.” He admonishes us to consider “What did this passage mean to those to whom it was originally given?”  How I wish that people would take strong notice of this statement!

The facts are, God created the heavens and the earth – the ones that we know today.  The heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1-2)  For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes have been seen. (Romans 1:20)  Yet we want to know more – we are always searching for revelatory clues to our future with God.

2 Peter 3 is what I would call “revelatory.”   It tells us that we should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments given to us by Jesus and the apostles.  It warns us that people will scoff at us because the everyday activities we experience continue day after day with no further revelation as to His coming.  (Did you get that?  No further revelation?)  They, it says, will deliberately overlook the fact that the heavens existed long ago and that the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God — and that by these means, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

BUT—by that same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.  (Yes, the ungodly will be destroyed.)  This chapter concludes with the thought that when the coming day of God arrives, the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved — the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!  But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. He has promised us! 

In the book of Revelation, John tells us in Chapter 21 that he saw a new heaven and a new earth — because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away — and there was no more sea.  That tells me that the new heaven and earth are new creations not reconditioned versions of the ones we know.  Isaiah 65:17 tells us that we will not remember the former things of the old earth and heavens.  2 Peter 3 tells us that righteousness will reside on the new earth.   (It certainly doesn’t dwell on this earth.)  We also know from Revelation 21 that God will dwell with us — that we shall be His people — that He will wipe all the tears from our eyes and there shall be nor more death, sorrow, crying, nor pain.  All of these things shall be passed away.

Certainly, we could try to develop the details regarding the City of God or the details of what this future earth will look like, but these days I prefer not to try to diagnose the imagery of the Book of Revelation anymore.  Previously in my studies I might have been tempted to do so.  My brain is always reeling with ideas which try to understand and digest each and every little thing, especially the things of God.  It’s the nature of being a researcher, I suppose.  However, a wise older woman who led our study last year on Revelation kept reminding us with these words:  “So, what is the message of Revelation?” Her steady and constant reply:  “The message of Revelation is that God is in control.  He is sovereign.”

Because of her shared wisdom, I am able to let go of the details and lay aside the desire to “know it all.”  Knowing it all only causes arguments anyway.  I don’t have to try to figure out whether the city will be a cube or a pyramid (because of its measurements) as some people have tried to envision.  I don’t have to worry about whether the walls of the city will be made of jasper or whether the city will be made out of pure gold.  Or rather, is this imagery that John describes to us intended for us as a painting in which we discern “it’s more than you can imagine?”

How can you truly describe the glory of God which will emanate over all?  Somehow, I don’t think we will care about precious gems, a sea of glass that looks like crystal, or whether the streets of the city are pure gold, transparent like glass.  We won’t care about these things because all we will desire will be our Father.  We will be home. He created our heart to desire to be home with Him.

Perhaps this is why reformed theology speaks so loudly to my heart.  Those who were chosen by God know Him — they know home when they see it.  He created the desire for home to reside in their hearts.  They recognize it.   He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecc. 3:11 Maybe God doesn’t want us to know the beginning from the end yet.  I perceived that whatever God does endures forever – nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. Ecc. 3:14 Maybe God doesn’t want us to care anything except that which endures, which are the things of God.

Lord, in my heart, I desire to know you more.  One day, I will understand everything in detailed context.  Until that day, Lord, lead me home.

1.  Image by Kevin Wong (Creative Commons Attribution License)   2. Image by Alosh Bennett (Creative Commons Attribution License)

(1)  Benjamin B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, Vol. I, edited by John E. Meeker (Nutley, N.J. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1970), p. 108.

Unforeseen Discoveries

Life is a journey for each one of us.  Along our journey we encounter strange and wonderful surprises that touch our hearts.  In the very next moment, we stumble and trip on unforeseen and not-so-wonderful  jolts that bushwhack our perceptions and erode our expectations.

My particular journey through Christianity has been like this — full of both unforeseen surprises which have resulted in disappointment and amazing discoveries that have far exceeded my expectations.

This past Sunday was one of those unforeseen discoveries which resulted in a heavy sadness which settled deeply into my heart. We visited a small Reformed Church in the area to hear a speaker who teaches at a respected reformed seminary.  I absolutely love the deep stuff and any chance I get, I’ll seek it out.  I love to learn, especially about the God who created me…the God who loved me enough to save me…from myself and the sin which so easily entangles me.

My journey towards the Reformed Faith has not been an easy one, but my journey has clearly led me to this place.  The Reformed Faith has given me answers where previously I could not find them.  It has reflected a balanced and rational approach to Christianity and has preserved the strong tradition of faithfully adhering to God’s precious Word.

I was not born into a family that taught the Confessions to me nor did anyone teach the basic doctrines of the faith to me as a child.  I grew up hearing opinions instead of substance.  Yet, God was faithful to me – a child of His very own choosing.  Even as a small child, I knew God was in my life.  I always felt His Hand on my shoulder.  He dotted my journey with special people who greatly influenced my life but also empowered me with both the energy and desire to seek out and understand the truth found in His Word to us.

Back to my story.  I enjoyed the morning sermon so much that I came back for the evening service.  I soaked in each and every word – words that gave depth to the scripture passage being used in the service.  I envisioned the historical setting clearly as the speaker both eloquently and elaborately described the conditions in which the passage was set.  I thought to myself, “….if only others could hear this kind of teaching!”  Sadly, we live in an age where solid teaching is often absent and minimalized.

Halfway through the sermon, the tone of the speaker changed.  The passage we were studying was 1 Timothy 4 where Paul encourages Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching.  Paul reminds Timothy to have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths and to train himself for godliness.

As the speaker entered into this section of the text he explained how Gnostic teaching was prevalent in Timothy’s day.  He then compared Gnosticism to the aberrant ideology we face in today’s world.  There is no doubt that we live in a world that willingly believes silly myths over truth.  In this instance, he used the Mormon faith as an example of gnostic teaching in our generation.

Yes, I agree with the speaker.  There is a comparison that can be made between Gnosticism and Mormonism.  I had no problem with the analogy at all.  It was the way the analogy was presented that caused my heart to sink.  What could have been a simple exposition turned into a disrespectful and slightly arrogant analogy.  I don’t want to go into the details of what he said but I hope that he simply got carried away — that he would never have wanted for his thoughts to come across this way — but they did.  Many of those sitting in the congregation laughed with him.  Their chuckles fed his wit and several more things were said.

And I sat there.  My head continued to sink down towards the Bible in my lap.  For the life of me, I could not understand why it was so funny that that sincere people were being misled by a false and aberrant religion.

You see, I have been that misled person.  I have felt the pain of being a true and diligent seeker who took a U-Turn here and there in my quest to deeply understand the truth of a sovereign and holy God.   I was that person who considered joining the Mormon Church because I saw they tried to live a worthy life.  I have been that sincere Christian whose heart so longed for God that she looked high and low for Him….that she never gave up on the quest.  Or rather, God never gave up on me.  Not having the benefit of a sound Christian upbringing, God and God alone was responsible for steering me in the right direction.  He never failed to be the expositor in my life, faithfully teaching me His truth in ways no human being could have accomplished.

As I sat there, I felt as if everyone in the room were laughing at me.  How stupid of me to be misled!  How silly that I would have made a mistake along the way.  How silly that at times in my life I may not have had all the answers correct.

The fact is:  the chuckles over the ignorance of uniformed and less than knowledgeable seekers should have been resonating sighs of hearts being broken within the congregation.  Our hearts should ache if even one soul is misled.  We should not laugh at their misfortune but instead should be willing to, with respect, teach and exhort the person who desires to find God.  God reminds us in Isaiah 66:2 that “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.  But this is the one to whom I will look:  he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

May your heart break today for those who are misled.  May your heart break today for those who seek to understand God and try to find Him in all the wrong places.  May your heart break today that God loved you enough to save you from the sin that entangles each and every one of us — the very sin that condemned us to a life of wrath — the very sin that Christ died to save us from.

It is my prayer that each believer will, with respect, take the words of Paul to Timothy seriously.  We must train ourselves in the words of the faith and in good doctrine.  If we do so, others will see our progress and we will not need to explain our progress to them in arrogant words but instead will be a sound example of what the Christian life should look like.  A life that is humble and a spirit that is contrite.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

Image 1 by Jurvetson (Creative Commons License)

Image 2 by John-Morgan (Creative Commons License)

Lobster-Like and Loving It

The press reported today that a unique lobster has been found whose colors are orange and yellow instead of the normally pigmented color of ‘normal’ lobsters.  It was reported that the odds for the existence of this unique coloring was 1 in 30 million.  Pretty incredible odds, I’d say.

I was sitting in the car as I heard this story and suddenly I felt like an orange and yellow lobster.  I’ve always been considered…..well….unique. I have my own personal interests and hobbies and rarely do they match up with what is considered within the realm of normality.

Unlike others who crave conformity and acceptance, I’ve always felt comfortable in my own skin.  I enjoy dancing to the beat of my own personal drummer and seldom feel the need to ‘fit in.‘  I may not always appreciate the occasional judgmental glance of the eye that comes my way, but I’ve developed the ability to dismiss and ignore it.  I’ve learned to be content with the person that God has created me to be.

For some odd reason, this colorful and solitary lobster caused me to reflect on Galatians 1 where we read that God set Paul apart before he was even born…..that it was God who had called him ….by grace, which only a Holy God could provide.  Paul further explained that God revealed Jesus to him in order that he might preach among the Gentiles.

While that may not sound out of the ordinary, it was extraordinarily unusual in that Paul came from a Jewish community.  As Paul started to teach, I am sure followers expected him to stay among the Jewish people – those whom were presumed to be the chosen of God.

Presumptions are often inaccurate.  Paul didn’t immediately go to Jerusalem as followers expected of him.  To do so would have conformed to the presumptions of those within the Jewish community.

Paul tells us that he didn’t consult with anyone but went first to Arabia and then to Damascus.  He followed the unique calling that God had placed before him, stepping into difficult and unknown territories because God had purposely crafted him to do so.  Paul was comfortable in his own skin.

I appreciate Paul for many reasons, one of the most important being that he was not afraid to be a unique creation of God.  Recognizing his calling, he was content to hear that personally crafted  drumbeat that God had imprinted on his heart — that God imprints on every heart.  He felt no need to conform to the expectations of others, knowing that there was only one, holy, sovereign God to whom He was accountable.

It’s a message that we should all take to heart and embrace.  Our uniqueness is not a burden nor is it something to hide from others.  It is something to be celebrated, always remembering that others are created uniquely different than we are, for it is in Galatians 5 that Paul reminds us:  love your neighbor as yourself.

Notice that he didn’t say “love only those people who are like you….”    Notice that he didn’t say, “desire to be like everyone else……”

If I were a lobster, I’m sure I’d be orange and yellow…….

Image by PixThree (Creative Commons Attribution License)

Time in Light of Eternity

Time eludes us.   Our perception of time is that we never have enough of it.  On the off chance that we do have enough time, we work hard to fill every spare second with meaningless moments and endeavors — just to keep busy or perhaps to keep up the appearance of keeping busy.  We are driven and ridiculed by our culture to be incessantly active, seeking to seize each moment and creating schemes and diversions to make the most of it. 

I recently listened to a broadcast by Ravi Zacharias called “If the Foundations Be Destroyed.” If you get a chance you should listen to it.  In this broadcast, Ravi speaks about understanding time in light of eternity. He asks an important and extremely relevant question — “What have we told this generation about eternity?”

Sadly, this generation has been taught (in Ravi’s words) that now is all we have.  Seize the moment because there is no tomorrow. How easy is it to throw God away if your understanding of eternity is that it is in the here and now!

There has been a foundational loss of the understanding of eternity both culturally and in the contemporary church.  Time and eternity are in conflict with each other.  Time has value but today’s pragmatism has clouded the truth that eternity has greater value.  It is eternity that gives meaning to time yet the world tells us that time has more value.  How easily we succumb to such lies…….

We can blame it on our jobs, the media, movies or politics but there really is no excuse for the disappearance of our desire to see eternity.  Even the church has ignored sound teaching on eternity — teaching which should give hope for a future life with God for the saved believer.  Parents have relegated their responsibility to teach their children about a holy and sovereign God with whom we will spend eternity to surrogate teachers in the public school system.   Parents are often too busy to teach their own children the doctrines of God and I would venture to say, many of them don’t even know those doctrines in the first place.

To ignore the reality of eternity is a huge loss for Christian society.  If you ignore eternity, time has no meaning to the Christian or to the secular person for that matter.  Ignoring eternity causes you to live only for the moment instead of anticipating a forever paradise with God.  We must once again tune our minds and hearts towards spending eternity with God, pushing aside the idea that we only have this moment.  We must long for eternity with Christ.

Many people think that we are most fulfilled when we find someone to love or something of earthly value to cherish.  We think we are most fulfilled when we have a mission in this life — the communication of some earthly value to others or perhaps extending love and service to others.  While valuable, love and service do not ultimately bring meaning to life.  It is worship that brings meaning to life.  To worship means you must have something which is worthy of worship and only a holy, sovereign God can fill that job description.

We are created by an eternal God who has put eternity into our hearts.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (ESV)

I like the NET translation of this verse:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.  (NET)

We crave the worship of our Creator because He alone placed that desire into our hearts.   Yet, God must know that our ignorant minds seem incapable of being faithful to the very one who is constantly faithful to us.  If we truly love our Creator, we will long to fellowship with Him — we will long for eternity with Him.  It is our destiny.

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God is the only one who can revive our spirits and our hearts.  One day, those who are called by God will worship Him in eternity and in all truth.  We will see everything as it is and not as we have created it to be.

May I encourage you today to focus on eternity?

1 John 3:2-3 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Image by Fdecomite (Creative Commons Attribution License).

The Genericazation of Christianity

OK — so “genericazation” isn’t really a word.   Perhaps I should use “generification” since that is a real word, but that word doesn’t quite describe my thoughts on the subject.

Maybe some of you are like me — maybe you have become weary of watching the one true, historic Christian faith develop into something it is not and was never intended to be.  I have watched modern Christianity evolve over the last half-century into something unrecognizable and foreign to true, knowledgeable believers.  Christianity’s many rich theological doctrines are continually being subjected to man’s shredding words and mangled opinions.

Some of the historic doctrines of Christianity are tossed aside because of human desire and private opinion — some of them are banished from sermons because they are seemingly unkind and unjust — and some of them are distorted and perverted to more pleasantly suit the eye of the beholder and the ear of the listener.

Many people have a deep desire to know Christ.  We should!  We were created to worship and to serve our Creator!  We long for Him — He is the center and core of our being!   Often however, it seems the desire to follow Christ is only as deep as our desire to create a Christianity of our own making, defined and designed by our own sinful hearts.  Our beloved faith is being repackaged as a generic sort of religion which pleases the human heart, tickles human ears and attracts human eyes.  Numbers of attendees matter more than truth and the accurate preservation and teaching of God’s Word.

While there is always room for differences of opinions on doctrines that may not appear clear — that’s not really what I’m trying to discuss right now.  No single human being on this planet has it all right.  Not even R.C. Sproul is right about every theological issue and I respect just about everything he says as biblically accurate.  We are fallen human beings – we fail and we fall — constantly.  God opens the eyes of some and for some, He does not do so.  No doubt confusion will occur within the Christian faith.  This is to be expected.  We live in a sinful and fallen world.

What is not to be expected is to watch the continual erosion of our faith by those who are called to lead.   It’s being done in a generic, innocent sort of way — stamped and approved by Barna’s research to give it authenticity.  A perceived generic way to teach has evolved — a perceived generic way to reach the masses — a perceived generic way to “do ministry.”

I don’t doubt for a minute that intentions are more often than not genuine especially in the beginning of a leader’s ministry.  Evangelism drives our hearts.  We want many to be saved before Jesus returns.  The problem occurs when in the desire to reach larger and larger numbers of people, we sacrifice truth in the process.  What good does it do to reach huge numbers of people for Christ if the words we use to reach them are false and misleading?

The teaching of the gospel has been laid aside in order to offer encouraging words about life issues — how to be a better person — how to stay married — how to be good parents.  While these are all important issues, the Bible reminds us that it is the gospel message that should be taught each and every Sunday as a reminder to believers about the focus of our faith.

We forget so easily.  We need to hear the gospel message constantly lest we forget what that message is really about.  We need to remember Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.  We need the source of our faith to remain intact.  We need our Christian pastors and teachers to teach and to exhort the Word of God to us because we are a lazy laypeople.  Our pastors have a calling –to be faithful to the gospel message of Christ and to teach it accurately to those entrusted in their care.  All else should be saved for private counseling sessions where our humanness can become intimately exposed and mentored.

This frustration has nothing to do with the battle between contemporary worship and traditional worship.  This is a battle for truth.  This is a battle for the preservation of God’s Word.  This is so much bigger than our personal preferences regarding music, don’t you think?

I’m hungry for the Word to be taught in our Christian churches.  Willow Creek is way off base in their analysis.  Mature Christians don’t need to be taught how to be self-feeders so that the pastor can continue to teach pablum to the masses.  Most mature believers have already become self-feeders on their own because their pastors aren’t being faithful to their call.  I am a self-feeder not because I want to be but because I have no choice in the matter.  I want to know my God.  I wish I didn’t have to do it alone.

I used to make excuses for our teachers because (and I mean this sincerely) — most of them are wonderful men and women of God.  We will always have our share of Ted Haggards and Jimmy Swaggerts to deal with and expose but how can the everyday Christian expose error when they don’t even understand their faith in the first place!   Christians who have studied the Bible can see right through those ruffians but those who are sitting under pastors who are not teaching the deep things of God are lost in their lack of discernment.  The risk is great for these followers.

No, it is the everyday, honest pastor and teacher that is befuddling my heart these days.  I love them as my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I appreciate their efforts within the church to serve.  Yet, in their humanness — in their desire to grow the church — they have lost the centrality of their calling in the mire of daily activity.  They have lost their first love — the gospel message of Christ.

Last Sunday I was in Orange County — a large metropolitan area filled with churches.  Desiring to worship God on the Lord’s Day, I searched the internet to find a suitable church to visit.  It’s a wonderful thing to have the mp3s of each pastor’s sermons online, ready and available to hear.  I went from church site to church site, slowly becoming discouraged with the words that flowed through my speakers.  Finally, after a lengthy search, I found only 2 churches worthy of attendance.  We chose the closest one and indeed worshiped the Lord that day.

Sadly, the church was tiny. The other one was a little bigger but not by much.  Here, in two very small churches, God’s Word was rich and flourishing!  Yet in the plethora of larger churches in that area, the Word was negligible and almost non-existent.  There were plenty of sermons to hear about Earth Day and how environmentalism should flourish in the church.  Imagine!

I learned a lesson last Sunday.  The Word of God is still here as He promised it would be but it’s not necessarily in churches that are thriving and growing.  It is more often found in small, faithful congregations who are consistently preaching and teaching the gospel message Sunday after Sunday, week after week.  They make a conscious choice to do so instead of using pleasantly entertaining stories to increase the size of their coffer.  In the little church I attended last Sunday, I watched as the children sitting in the congregation recited the Nicene Creed by heart — because they heard it every Sunday.  This church was serving God well — yet few people in that locale appeared to be noticing.

God bless faithful pastors who serve congregations who can barely support them financially.  Their reward will be great.  Sadly not every community has even a tiny church like this for true believers to attend.  Thankfully, with the advent of the internet, most of us can feed on the rich message of Christ delivered by faithful teachers who treasure the Word of God, but I wish I could have it all — the Word of God and community.

My heart wishes that God’s Word, faithful teaching and community could co-exist into the beautiful body that God desires for us to be.  Pray that it will be so once again.

Psalm 119:1 – 16

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!
You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Image by Robert Stinnett (under Creative Commons Attribution License)

Rain in the Desert

The View From My Front Door

It rained and rained this weekend.  While that may be the norm where you live, out here, it is unusual.  Here in The West, we have learned to appreciate each drop of moisture.  When you live in the high dessert, every droplet of precious rain is a life-giving force for every blade of pasture grass.  Every Ponderosa pine tree sends roots deep into our parched soil — those magnificent specks of green that so beautifully dot our often brown desert landscape — every one of these drink heavily during these times of plenty because more often than not, the desert lives in the reality that these seasons of plenty are quite rare.

People living in the high desert know that only God can send us healing rain and plentiful snow showers. Often in the spring we get heavy, late wet snowfalls.  In fact, we pray for them because we understand that they feed and nourish our delicate ecosystem.  Without these inconveniencing snowfalls, our reservoirs would dry up — water could not be sent downhill to the ranchers and farmers — crops die — livestock fails and the earth begins to crack before summer even arrives.

In early Spring, the green tint of budding meadows is often seen lying below snow-capped ridges and peaks, just as it was this past weekend.  It’s a painting of a sharp contrasts– a mixture of fury and warmth come alive.  It’s beautiful.

You might think the desert is a very difficult place to live but it’s not.  The truth is, for those of us who live here, we are in constant awe of the beauty and majesty that co-exists in our mountain desert climate.  We more acutely see our need.  We more clearly can see the hand of God, not only in the physical beauty of the landscape, but in His provision for that landscape.  We more easily thank God for that provision.

The desert toughens you.  It makes you long for the source of clear, fresh water.  It creates a hunger and a desire for the really important things of life.

Thankfully, out here in The West, our desert climate lies beneath tall, thundering mountains covered with a seasonal snow pack that gradually trickles down into our barren land.  Rain is scarce, but God has enabled man to harness these frigid waters.  Civilization is able to store them for times of extreme parchment.  God has provided.

Still, we long for our provision to be easier.  We want it hand-delivered and easily packaged.  There’s nothing wrong with longing for the source of nourishment to come home to us.  We need it.  We crave it.  In fact, it is essential to our very being.

Isn’t it ironic that God has even done this for us?  We long for our Father.  He’s our source.  He is.  He alone reaches down to us, even when we are unfaithful and lazy.  We choose not to rest in His sufficiency which He has poured down upon us.  We often fail to listen — yet He’s there as He promised He would be!  We push Him aside and in essence create our own personal desert simply because we prefer to be the ones who walk up towards Him.  We desire to meet Him on our terms.  We too easily turn on the tap water and expect man’s provision to be enough.  But it’s not enough.

It’s not enough because our soul longs for its Creator.  Our very being knows God is just waiting for us to listen to what He’s already said — to tap into His strength and encouragement.  Like the Ponderosa Pine, we must desire to develop deep roots that soak in every drop of nourishment falling towards us so that during times of famine, we survive and indeed thrive.

As a deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God!
I thirst for God,
for the living God.

Psalm 42:1-2

It’s a good thing we don’t have to physically thirst here in the desert West.  The water comes to us — we don’t have to perform any great work to achieve it.  Isn’t it like that with our eternal Father?    We don’t have to thirst.  He has promised to comfort and to guide us – and He does.  Are we listening? Psalm 42 continues to say:

One deep stream calls out to another at the sound of your waterfalls;
all your billows and waves overwhelm me.
By day the LORD decrees his loyal love,
and by night he gives me a song,
a prayer to the living God.

Psalm 42:7-8

I find it particularly amazing that God has decreed His loyal love — He alone is able to make our heart sing in the middle of the desert.  He alone allows us to be able to pray to the source.  It is nothing we do of our own accord.  Left up to ourselves, we would be a perpetual desert, always longing for God, but never finding Him.

It’s a reason to give thanks today, wouldn’t you say?

The Reason for Easter

Easter will be here soon and amidst all the flurry of fuzzy little bunny feet and colorfully decorated, tie-eyed eggs is a reminder to us that Easter….is about Jesus. It’s about what He did for us on the cross.  It’s about remembering the wonder and awe of the atonement purchased on that cross by Jesus — for us.  It’s about seeing through biblical eyes and recognizing the fact that by the shedding of His divine blood, our sins could be vanquished before the one and only Holy God.  It’s about understanding that through this act we are reconciled with our Heavenly Father once again, able to stand clean before His presence and are able to enjoy relationship with Him once again.  It’s about the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  Each drop of blood that flowed down that cross 2000 years ago gave another precious soul the gift of eternal life.

That should make shivers run up and down your spine.  It should make you gasp in amazement – that God would do this — for me — and for you.  But does it do that for you?  Have you lost the wonder of Easter?  Have you lost the astonishment of this great gift?

Sure, I enjoy the Easter Bunny and stained-glass eggs, so I hope you won’t misinterpret what I’m going to say.  I believe something is getting lost in the media-driven message of Easter.  While we enjoy these fun little diversions with our children, we need to be faithful to remember to teach our children the real story of Easter.  We need to explain the gospel message that Jesus delivered to us for all time in a way that they can understand but also treasure and respect.  We need to make Jesus’ sacrifice very real in their little lives — so real that their hearts are touched by what Jesus did for them.

In Saturday’s Faith section of our local paper, there was a headline for a local church advertising “The  Holy Week Experience.”  I used to be a part of this church, so I believe my words accurately represent this church’s intention for this “experience”.

This church states an innocent desire:  they want people to get a taste of what it really was like during Jesus’ last week before the Crucifixion.  They will use interactive videos, dramatic lighting, activities, etc. to depict the events of Holy Week.  People will walk through the church and encounter stations depicting scenes designed to challenge their thinking and as an end result, discover the ways they have personally betrayed Jesus.  Along the way, each person will pick up a “burden” to carry.  At the end, they will lay their burdens down.

OK, so I don’t mind people getting a history lesson about the Crucifixion.  Here’s the part that bothers me.  After seeing the empty tomb, participants will be asked to decide how this “Jesus message” has changed them and what they are going to now because of it.

The key phrase is:  “What they are going to do now” because of this “experience.”  When did we start seeing Christianity as something we do?  It’s not about our experiences.  It’s about historical facts and an amazing account recorded for us in God’s Word.  It’s about what Jesus did – not what we are going to do with this information.  It’s about what Jesus did for us on that cross.

It is so easy to make our faith a works-based faith.  By believing that we must constantly encounter “feelings and experiences”  we begin to belittle the faith given once and for all to the Saints to those who are called by Him.  Our responses become “works” if we are not careful to point everything towards Him and every thought away from ourselves.  It may seem like a little thing to differentiate between the two, but it can make all the difference in the world in understanding the awesome God we serve — the Sovereign, Holy I Am.  He is God!  He is the Maestro of the Universe — directing and conducting our paths in the way He chooses to direct them.

This week, let’s not forget this message.  By dying, Jesus gave us the gracious gift of eternal life.  By dying on that cross, His blood was shed to atone for our innate and continuing sin — the sin we are born with and the sin we continue to exhale from every pore of our soul.  By dying on that cross, we can now be reconciled with the Father and live in the hope of eternal life with Him.

Have you communicated this information to your children?  This is my encouragement for you today, that while you enjoy cute little bunny feet and Easter candy, you will also revel in the truth of Easter, remembering that your children should experience the truth of Easter.  They should understand the awe of the sacrifice made on their behalf.

Once emptied, an Easter basket is easily forgotten until next year.  The truth of Jesus, however, is a gift of immeasurable worth to your child.  Give them a gift that is not easily forgotten.

Images by Dainis Matisons (Creative Commons Attribution License)

The Highway of Holiness

I get very sentimental about certain passages in the Bible.  It is rare to go a day without certain words jumping off the pages of my Bible, landing right before my eyes as I ingest them with wonder and awe.  No doubt you will eventually hear about most of them on this blog.

Today I was reminded of Isaiah 35 – a glorious passage of hope and promise.  It follows a much harder chapter, though.  Chapter 34 says some very hard words to Israel and to all nations, in fact.    It tells them that God is outraged at His people — it tells us that God can be outraged at us.  It tells us that there were consequences for their actions – that God will require consequences for our actions.

So when we flip the page and read chapter 35, our eyes are drawn away from wrath of God in chapter 34 and are then transported into a world of God’s love, which seen so abundantly in chapter 35.  Here we can rest.  We can breathe.  We need to see both God’s wrath and God’s love if we are to fully understand who God really is, don’t we?

The history of Isaiah is revelatory of our past but also illuminates the contemporary soul.  It uses rich imagery to draw us deep within its pages.  We see the history of a disobedient Hebrew people.  We watch them walk through each page because the imagery is so beautifully painted by the author that we find it hard to close the book.  We hear the condemning and encouraging words of a faithful prophet who warned God’s people time and time again to repent of their disobedience.   Isaiah continually reminded God’s people to be faithful.

If we stop here, however, and simply view Isaiah as a history book, we lose something of extreme value, because as we turn each page, we see Isaiah’s finger pointing right back at us.  If we are honest, we must see our own lives in these words and wonder if we are the ones being disobedient….if we are the ones being unfaithful.

We are reminded in  Isaiah 56:12 that “Tomorrow will be just like today!”  It’s such a universal truth, isn’t it?   Our generation is not unique.  We are not more enlightened than the Israelites.  We are very much like our ancestors.  We choose sin over good – it is our nature.  Almost three thousand years later, the words of Isaiah still have the power to convict today.

So here’s the verse I love so much.  Isaiah 35:8.

And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

What a promise!  Unlike the promises of today’s politicians who promise change — who lack integrity — purposely choosing to forget promises that have been made, God’s promises are a sure thing.  God is faithful.  We are not.

We can relate to the struggles of the early Hebrew people because their struggle is not unique.  They disobeyed.  We disobey.  They failed.  We fail.   They chose to sin.  We choose to sin.  Their hearts were not humble before the Lord….and neither are ours.  Both generations choose willingly to let the contemporary culture of their era not only attract them, but entrap them.

God’s path to holiness belongs to those He has chosen.  Even if we have become fools (and we have), we will not go astray.  God will use whatever means required to present justice to us in such a way that we can recognize the Hand of God.  We have the Holy Spirit living in us — God living in us.  Many times we must place our feet on the rocky road to see that Hand, but how sweet it is when we take the fork of the road that leads towards the smooth path of righteousness — for His namesake, not our own.

Image by Cindytoo (Creative Commons Attribution License)

Amusing Ourselves to Death

In Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age, author James Boice writes of an academic study written by Neil Postman entitled Amusing Ourselves to Death. In this study, Postman presented a contrast between the written word and visual media (such as TV and movies).  He states that when we read something, it requires us to really think – to analyze, re-read and focus.  We look up words we don’t understand and increase our vocabulary.  He concludes that the more people read, and do so with thoughtfulness and purpose, the better they think.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed I’m surrounded by a lot of people who don’t know how to think.  I like to think.  I wish more people around me desired to cultivate “thinking.”

While Postman wrote this study back in 1985, it’s obvious to most of us that the situation has deteriorated even further as the reach and grasp of the visual media has choked our throats and strangled our minds with their ideology.   Refusing to use our minds affects us spiritually.  It affects us culturally.  It wins elections because people remain in ignorance and blindly choose to follow charismatic leaders who never really give their minds anything to think about.  People embrace easy-believism with open arms and minds because……they aren’t thinking.

Postman quoted Ronald Reagan as saying, “Politics is just like show business.” How true!  The very nature of show business does not reward virtues like honesty, integrity, and the pursuit of excellence.  It seeks sensationalism.  It seeks to distort a possibly more true view by offering its own preferred view.  The fact is, we have allowed ourselves to become ignorant by trusting what the media dangles before our eyes, more often than not watching with interest images that are filled with intrigue, persuasive opinions and intentionally misleading edits.

We do this in our Christian walk also, don’t we?  The media promotes the Joel Osteen’s and Joyce Meyer’s of the land with awe and wonder.  Savvy editors produce pieces which tickle our ears and ignite our eyes with untruths that are represented as truths because they sell better than way — they make more money.  We have been led to believe by the Barna’s of this world that the audience matters much more than the Maker and His own written truth.  We have been misled to believe that bigger (in the size of mega-churches) is better because more people are in the house — when in fact, the opposite is probably true.  Bigger is not better if error and distortion has been allowed to creep in.

Boice goes on to comment that ‘your mind matters!” I couldn’t agree with him more.  If you do not engage your mind you cannot understand the deep things of God – his holiness, our response in worship, God’s sovereignty……things essential and necessary in the understanding of an accurate, biblical Christian faith.  The Jesus we see must be the biblical Jesus, not a media-driven reincarnation of a false image whom. others have created for us.

Boice isn’t the only one who told us to use our minds.  Paul appeals to us to use our mind.  Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Why should we renew our minds?  So that we may discern God’s will.  We must renew our minds with God’s words, not man’s words.  God does not ask us to blindly follow.  Our faith has substantiated substance.  If you only listen to media-driven, culturally-relevant preachers — if you fully trust the words they say instead of reading God’s words in the Bible for yourself (in context historically and scripturally), then you risk error.  You risk deception.  If you seek the excitement of a media driven church instead of seeking the teaching of a biblical-based expository church, you risk deception.

I can’t say it any better than this:

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.     2 Corinthians 11:12-15 And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.  For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Aren’t you tired of not thinking?  Try to take time to think today — about God — about your country — and who is influencing your mind.  Allow God to influence your mind — not the media.  Your mind is a protection for you and a gift from the Heavenly Father above.

Image by Irish Wildcat (Creative Commons Attribution License)

An Organization is Only as Effective as…..

An organization is only as effective as the kernel of truth found in the heart of its leader.

In today’s post, I’d like to share the heart of Wess Stafford, CEO of Compassion International, with you.  So often we have a hard time trusting any organization because we don’t have true insight into its vision and effectiveness.  This video will take you straight into the heart of Compassion’s Vision.

Wess grew up in West Africa and lived there until he was 15.  His parents were missionaries stationed in the Ivory Coast.  He grew to love his brothers and sisters in the small village where they lived, often watching his friends die from disease and hunger.  He personally suffered as a child in West Africa in ways many of you might relate to.  I don't want to give out the details -- his story is compelling and you are missing a great read if you don't read his personal story.  You will be changed by reading his story in  Too Small to Ignore.

There is no doubt.  God has called Wess Stafford to serve the children of the world who live in poverty.  Because he has personally experienced the very situations children in third world countries daily face, no one is better equipped to understand the need -- no one is better equipped to design a plan to combat the disease of poverty.

The biggest blessing of all?  Wess understands that God called him to serve -- and he obeyed. He has no need to act out of compulsion nor does he seek the fame that visibility brings.  His motivation is each and every child who stares back into his eyes -- those eyes which reflect our Heavenly Father -- those eyes which have value and worth.

Now that you know a little more of his story -- here's a little piece of his heart.  An effective leader promotes an effective solution to a problem.  This video shows the kind of fruit produced by the effective ministry of Compassion International.