Prepare the Soil

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3: 10-11

I came out of the Ash Wednesday service with a pensive walk pausing only briefly to greet a couple of the families who had already made their way out. That was as it should be since we were instructed to give thought to who we really are underneath the facade we put up to ourselves and others. We need to consider our nature and what we are at our core that drives the behaviors that give evidence to our sinful selves and not just the acts of sin. While it is good and necessary to confess the acts, we are doomed to repeat these offenses if we don’t dig down to the root of darkness within and remove it.

I looked forward to my short night-ride home; there is something about riding at night for me that I really like. There is a feeling of mystery about it, a heightened awareness of the solitude of the ride and this night I embraced it having some serious thoughts about what is truly separating me from God. There was the anticipation that He would expose it to me, allow me to see the gulf between us, and therefore be able to bring the Holy Spirit to bear on the roots of it to dig it out. That is a scary proposition; make no mistake about it, seeing who we really are and working out the roots of sin is painful and something that is all too easy to run from. Knowing that I’ve only scratched the surface of it doesn’t help getting into it all that much for me. I am thankful for Lent and having the community of believers considering this both as individuals and collectively leading up to our celebration of Christ’s victory over death. I am thankful that during our Ash Wednesday service we were able to hold true to the spirit of it and not put on a happy front just to be upbeat before we left.

Once the source is revealed to me, will I dig it out or attempt to throw dirt back over it to give the appearance that there is nothing there but fertile soil? All too often, I find just the hint of a root and toss a little soil back in place and rake it around making all the right motions of working things out but not truly facing up to it.

We are told that grace awaits the repentant sinner and will be our reward. Faith that this will be so makes it so and this can sustain us during the search. We had best be prepared for the wilderness experience that the season of Lent is patterned after. 40 days; the length of time Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness and then being tempted before entering into His earthly ministry. 40 years; the length of time the Israelites wondered in the wilderness shedding all of the old to enter into the new. The wilderness is parched and barely able to sustain human life; who can survive it? None without the sustenance of grace, the manna of life from the Father.

Somewhere along Montrose Avenue between La Crescenta and Rosemont where the street lights thinned out and traffic fell behind I found something to sustain me. Grace awaits me. The power of His resurrection will get me through the wilderness and effect the change. The power of His resurrection is enough. Death of the sinful self to be resurrected in grace with Him; all that separates us from Christ falls away and we come “to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil. 3: 8) From there we can minister to this earth from a position of fullness and be effective workers of the harvest.

Shameless Audacity

Jesus said while talking about prayer "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need." (Luke 11:8 [NIV]) I absolutely love the thought of shameless audacity; if I didn't have at least a measure of that when I was young then a beautiful and intelligent woman like Cindy never would have given me a second thought and now here I am married to her for over 35 years with three great kids and two fantastic grandchildren. I am a rich man because of a little timely temerity. I consulted with my friend Webster and he says audacity is "intrepid boldness" or a "bold or arrogant disregard of normal restraints". A sampling of synonyms gives us brashness, brazenness, cheek, chutzpah, crust, gall, pertness, sauce...I like them all. The synonym that stands out for me in my little search is chutzpah which is defined as "supreme self-confidence".

Jesus has told us to approach the Father with intrepid boldness if we want answers saying after giving the example of the man coming to the door after midnight "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (vs. 9)" I confess, I have not been praying in this way. I'm too timid, too full of unbelief, and just too wimpy. I feel unworthy to come to Him and that's something I need to overcome. It's a given, I'm unworthy; I shouldn't dwell on it and let the thought of my unworthiness keep me from approaching the Lord for anything and everything. He paid the dearest price for my unworthiness and for me to let it come between us is a rejection of his sacrifice. I ask Him for good things for my family and friends, the church and her leaders, and for myself. I'm going to be audacious about it now but I had better remember one more thing. He also said to do it shamelessly or be insensible to disgrace, not give a care about appearances, and in spite of my sinful condition come to Him with chutzpah. He is the Father and what good father gives a scorpion when asked for an egg (vs. 12)? To come to Him shamelessly is not an affront to the Father but a statement of our faith that He forgives us all, that the power of His resurrection is enough to conquer everything.

Confession? Do it with confidence that He has forgiven us and longs to grant it to let us draw near. Intersession? Do it with chutzpah because He wants to be our shield and our rock. Guidance? Ask for it with brashness because He wants to lead us. Worship? Do it with audacious abandon because He wants to commune with us. Above all else, do it. Pray and then pray some more.

We Are What We Eat

Matthew 12: 35 "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."

I realized a few weeks ago that my scripture reading was sporadic, even non-existent. Check that, I've known that for a couple of years and what I've come to realize is that I'm starving myself and my spiritual growth has been completely stagnate. I had run out of the good things stored up in me and too many evil things were coming out. My feeding on scripture had been okay when I was regularly teaching the junior high students; being responsible for the lesson and their growth forced me to read and meditate on a pretty regular basis. This is one of the big reasons I raised my hand whenever I could for teaching knowing that I needed that sort of stimulus to keep me going. Once others took the teaching load I was getting by on their lessons but increasingly becoming a spiritual couch potato with my spiritual gifts atrophying at a steady pace. I did what I had to do and gave myself a quota of one biblical chapter and one skills building chapter a day knowing that I would do it because I'm a checklist kind of guy and knowing I'd read more once I got there; after all, I'm a glutton, I clean my plate and go back for seconds.

When we eat bread, do we toast it, cut off the crusts, and slather it with butter, jellies, and peanut butter? What then becomes of the bread? It was there, we consumed it, but did we taste it? The nutrients might be there but we were hardly aware of the bread other than it was a vehicle to deliver all the other stuff and only after we changed it from bread to toast without crust. Some breads are better for all that but others need to be enjoyed for what they are, fine pieces of bread. Scripture is the same as a fine piece of bread, meant to be consumed and enjoyed for what it is, and not merely as a side dish but an integral part of the great feast Jesus spreads out for us.

I caught myself today in a trap all too common with checklist people like me. I went to Rick's Drive In & Out for lunch and had the white fish, rice, and steamed vegetables. When I sat down I took out my Kindle and started to read Matthew 27 and had gotten through some pretty important stuff without really tasting it. I was aware of everything around me, the people talking and eating all those things I really wanted to be eating like burritos, hamburgers, and fries...the flat screen had CNN on talking about a subject I'm coming to loath, politics. There were lots of people there and I love to people watch. I was struggling to read because I'd left my reading glasses on the desk at the office. I had come to the Lord's banquet table completely unprepared to enjoy the feast. I consumed the Word and the nutrients are there but will they nurture my spirit as they should or be like the seed the farmer tossed on the pathway to be consumed by the birds? There are loads of things in chapter 27 for me to consider; Judas hanging himself, the chief priests not caring about his condition and cold heartedly buying the potter's field; there was Jesus before Pilot and Pilot washing his hands of it, the people incited by the chief priests, and the soldiers mocking Jesus. Who was I today; Judas, a chief priest, Pilot, or a soldier? A soldier, I mocked Jesus by reading His story in such a way as that. I've reread this section; otherwise I'd never have known that I behaved like a disrespectful soldier.

What happens when we eat right and have a healthy diet of scripture? When we prepare outselves for the meal? "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." (Matthew 12: 33) We should be able to examine the fruit of our labors and know if our spiritual diet is good or if it is bad. Do we have the fruits of the Spirit in our lives; love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? (Gal 5: 22-23) Do those we teach and have responsibility for have these fruits in their lives, are they growing in them?

Eat right, feed regularly, and enjoy the feast.

Are you going to wear that to Church?

Psalm 51: 17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Would you wear a spaghetti-stained shirt to church if there were a clean and pressed one close at hand? If you worked a whole summer’s day in the yard would you attend an evening wedding without having showered first? No, we’d like to be presentable for church and we’d like our hug with bride and bridegroom to be a pleasant blessing to us all. Neither then should we go into worship holding on to a sin-drenched spirit. With sin staining our wardrobe and drenching our spirit we won’t be presentable and will not get anywhere near enough to hug the Bridegroom.

While preparing for this post I really thought that I’d be taking this in a different direction from the worship topic but here we are, considering our worship again. With Mission Arizona looming ahead and having just concluded the LCPC devotional fast, I thought a related topic from either of those would be appropriate. Certainly, the fast touches on this since I experienced a couple of setbacks from the repentance aspect of my fast but a shotgun approach to some of my failings didn’t really hit home. However, I am holding onto the power of His resurrection for victory over the flesh. I had hoped, and this was a weakness of my approach, that I’d have an earth shattering announcement to make and that I’d overcome this huge mountain in the way, and that God told me distinctly to do this amazing thing. Oops. I overlooked a very important part of my reading, not by my design, Matthew 5 & 6 before the fast. I should have been looking to only make this for the Father, who is unseen so that the unseen Father would reward me thusly. (Matt 6: 18) It’s not about me. In the LCPC devotional blog Lee Cook said of his reading the Sermon on the Mount “Mostly, I come away challenged and inspired!” That’s the PC version, for me I came away convicted.

I believe that we need to spend a little more time in preparation for worship by turning away from sin and setting aside our personal grudges. In fact, the same should go for anytime we teach or attend class or participate in fellowship with each other, or go on a mission trip. Preparation is the key here for me; I need to make some honest prayer of confession before heading down the hill to the church. Most regularly scheduled services at LCPC contain a corporate prayer of confession but by then we’ve already sung a song or two and maybe heard the call to worship. I’m thinking that if I’m ready personally for worship then when we go into corporate confession as a body, I can then give myself a second review and then look to my repentance in the congregational view of my shortcomings. I want to come before Jesus as clean as possible ready for my worship to be accepted, a broken and contrite spirit. That doesn’t mean that I can’t sing out in victory or let out a shout of triumph; it just means that if I do it will ring true.

I think it would be interesting some day to close the sanctuary and have everyone meet in the courtyard first to pray and offer up our confessions; then, as all good Presbyterians do, file reverently and orderly into the sanctuary and get into worship.

Let’s raise the level of our worship by sinking to a new low of humility before the King.

Psalm 51: 12 – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” 15. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” 18. “In your good pleasure make Zion prosper”

Worship...Be Ready

John 4: 23 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”

Are you ready to worship this weekend, prepared to love our God, and show it? Good, because now we have to worship to be ready, ready for His Kingdom and Christ’s rule over us. Revelation speaks frequently, 14 times, of the worship that will fill all eternity. We’d best be in practice for something we hope to be involved in forever and if we are going to practice it we should really know what it is. I won’t pretend to be an expert on worship and I will confess to using this posting to explore it and engage you in helping me deepen my personal worship, so let’s consider a few things, shall we?

My friend Webster (any of the youth around when the lay youth leaders were teaching know instantly that I refer to my dictionary as “my friend Webster”) says “to regard with great, even extravagant respect, honor or devotion; to perform or take part in worship or an act of worship”. I don’t always agree with my friends, even Webster. He’s close; I love the part of extravagant respect but I like it better as “great, extravagant respect, honor, and devotion”. It is all of those things wrapped up as one. When I think of extravagant I see a group of us going to breakfast together and someone trying to grab the check for the table and finding that a friend had already done that when they saw us walk in. We walk into a service or personal quiet time and exceed everything that was expected of us just because we love Him, that’s extravagance.

Presbyterians use the “Book of Order” to structure and govern the church, define worship, and define the rules of discipline. There aren’t page numbers to use a measurement so I took a copy and measured the pages by compressing the book and measuring each of the three sections, Forms of Government at 5/16”, Directory for Worship at 1/8”, and The Rules of Discipline at ½”. That’s telling but skewed since we also have a whole “Book of Confessions” that is full of worship, articles of faith, and confessions. I couldn’t find my copy right away but did find no less than four copies of the Book of Order.  Hmmm… The Directory for Worship talks about the order and content of various types of services as well as explore the definition of worship on several levels. I recommend that any Christian could read this as a part of their search for worship and they will find nuggets of great truth; I’ll be doing some more pointed reading of this myself. Here is one such nugget: “Daily personal worship is a discipline for attending to God and accepting God’s grace. The daily challenge of discipleship requires the daily nurture of worship”.

In “The New Testament Church” by John Robert Stevens, lesson 20 explores Worship in the Services and he says worship is to bow yourself down in adoring contemplation of God. John goes on to say that worship is more than reading the Bible and meditating on it, more than listening to a sermon, and more than most singing and praying. As for me, I believe that if we were infused with worship as we did any of these things; reading Scripture, praying, singing, taking communion; any of them, then our revelation of Christ would be immeasurably more true and powerful.

In John 4: 21-24 Jesus tells us what the Father is looking for, worshipers in spirit and in truth. If we want to grow, for the church in numbers, power, and effectiveness, for the person in knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection, we must seek a spiritual truth in our worship. When it’s not there for us we know it, when we get close we know it, when we touch it, even just the hem of it, we know it and are transformed. For the individual it will leave us drained of self, weak, and ready to achieve God’s purpose. For the church, if will be when each person reaches that point of selflessness and we’ll know it by the harmonizing oneness of purpose. For each one and the church together it will rise up to the Father like pleasing incense and we will be His beloved.

Ready? ... Worship!

Jesus said “I tell you the truth; anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10: 15

We should enter worship like a little child going to Disneyland; full of excitement, anticipation, wide-eyed, and eager. We should know this is going to be a fantastic experience just as the child knows that Dumbo will be a flight of fancy that takes her to fantastic heights. Their preparations for Disneyland don’t begin as the parent hands over the ticket and neither should our preparation for worship begin as we shake hands with the greeter. Parents should start getting ready for worship the night before since getting children to church is often times part of the spiritual battle to keep the parent from entering worship. Pray, connect with God in a personal way before you leave from home. The children come to the parents before they leave for Disneyland, asking, pleading, and dancing around like little fairies to line up an itinerary of rides and attractions and so we should go the Father asking for forgiveness, pleading to meet with Him, and dancing around at the thought of some undefined blessing, being one and/or receiving one.

It’s not just the rides that get them pumped up to be there but they also anticipate the characters. They carry no animosity towards Mickey and Minnie Mouse and they’re struck with admiration at the thought of meeting the princesses. You should be smiling about now at the thought of meeting your favorite characters at church, drawing some similarities between your friends and Disney characters; who is your Peter Pan, your Donald Duck, your Snow White? We shouldn’t bring animosity toward our brothers or sisters to worship; drop it at the foot of the cross and enter in.

Little children are not free from anxiety at going to Disneyland and a dose of it adds to the height of excitement. After all, when dad tells them they are tall enough for the ride that just last year they had to sit out while the big brother went on they are just a tad unsure if they are actually ready even if they are tall enough. Aren’t we big people the same way when the Father puts something in front of us for worship saying we are ready to go higher, deeper, see Him more clearly? Don’t we battle unbelief, thinking we are unworthy even though the great Sacrifice paved the way perfectly? Unless the big brother spooks them, the little child grabs hold of mom’s hand and goes on the ride anyway and so we should deepen our worship, grab hold of Jesus’ hand and enter in.

Frazzled when you get to church with all the hubbub of getting everybody into the car on time? It’s not too late to get set; grab a brother of sister and have them pray for you, with you; take an extra second or two on the way to your seat and hug someone; take a deep breath and let it out while letting the frazzledness run off you like water off a duck’s back.

We should be like the little child leaving Disneyland when we leave worship; spiritually spent because we gave it our all, a little sad at leaving because we loved it so much, deeply satisfied because it was everything and more than we anticipated, and ready to start charging up for the next time. Get ready for the next time because you are tall enough for the Matterhorn.

In His Grip,

Jerry

Shh...On Two Wheels, more or less

Shh…On Two Wheels, More or Less

    This past Sunday I was sitting in the balcony for the service because that’s where my family was and my personal preference is to be with my family and worship and, whenever possible, hear God speak to me. Early Sunday mornings it is my custom that when I awake to take that Sunday morning’s bulletin and pray through the services, the participants and their particular part of the service, for the church staff and their ministry area, for the congregation that morning, our missionary partners, and the various items found in the bulletin which is a wealth of information and prayer opportunities. Thank you Nancy for being so faithful to email this goldmine to me, I appreciate all you do in His service. Because of my early morning prayer session I was there in anticipation and ready to be blessed hearing from Ashley Adamson, our wonderfully blessed Director of Children’s Ministry. Ashley is the real deal, filled with the Holy Spirit, and actively pursuing God’s will. She makes me wish I were a little kid again even knowing I’d have to face those teen years and all that angst again. I believed that God was going to speak through Ashley to me and they did not disappoint me. As is so often the case, it turned out to be very timely for me.

    Ashley spoke to us about the blessings of silence, how we should seek out solitude to go with it, and to go so far as to create special places and times for ourselves to be silent before our God. We should never be lonely because He is always with us and should take advantage of such times when we find ourselves alone to embrace the solitude of the moment and listen for the voice of God. These are “great opportunities for Godly discovery”. She talked about the discipline to practice silence in His presence and how difficult an activity such a passive sounding thing can be. Imagine, not speaking, putting your mind in a receive-only mode, shutting down the thousands of random thoughts about your life, and directing your inner thoughts to the task at hand, hearing God speak to you. OMG (yes, I spent time with a bunch of teen babysitters last night at church), this is the hardest thing I undertake in my spiritual life! The silence part is not all that difficult for me as I am by nature, a quiet and introverted person, much to the contrary as to how God has determined to use me over the years. I am generally slow to speak and when I do it is usually with conviction. A very good friend has referred to me as an Ent; go ahead and Google the word for a laugh. It’s those times that I’m not following my own general rule that tend to cause me trouble. My biggest problem for this discipline is the quieting of my mind and harnessing my thoughts and bending them to be completely surrendered to listing for Him. Ashley referred to Richard J. Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline” as a great resource of this practice and I have to concur; read it, you’ll like it. I use the word “practice” here because that is what this should be, practice and discipline. Starting out, go as long and completely into it as you can. Then the next time go longer and deeper. Sounds like a workout doesn’t it? If we want our spiritual abilities to improve then we have to exercise them. A principle that I have shared with young and old audiences is “SAID”, Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. If we practice being passive in front of the TV then we’ll get better at being passive. Trust me on this one, I’m pretty strong in the passivity department and it’s my biggest hurdle to writing. If we practice the spiritual disciplines then we’ll get better at being spiritual beings, in touch with Our Father and, as with any healthy practice, we will live longer and be filled with Joy. This is such a tough discipline for me that I often times go a long while without it and it then requires a difficult season ahead to send me to solitude. One such season starts about a month before Mission Arizona, peaks during the trip, and levels off a week or so afterwards. I seek short respites from the turmoil to charge up and find His direction and usually at some point during the trip when I’m feeling lost and ineffective and pleading for a meeting He tells me that He’ll meet me in the way and then He does. Is it any wonder that when I believe it to be His will that I embrace MAZ?

  Well, all this and I haven’t even touched on the “very timely for me” part or put this on two wheels. Perhaps there will be space for a paragraph on that toward the end. This has gone in a different direction than I thought it would but I’m having too much fun and feeling too blessed to stop now. Ashley used the forced silence of Zechariah (Luke, Chapter 1 is the reference) during his son John the Baptist’s incubation as her biblical anchor for the message. How great was that! It was the first Sunday of Advent, Zechariah starting on the journey to bring John the Baptist, the herald of Christ our King into the world. Sweet. Ashley shared how Zechariah’s silence was forced, a punishment for his unbelief, but that it was in truth, a real blessing to him. He came from the temple and the people knew he had seen a vision but was unable to speak. After his term of service in the temple was over he returned to Elizabeth, his wife and continued following the vision and she became pregnant with John the Baptist. The confirmation of Ashley’s contention that this was a blessing comes when Zechariah completed the command from the vision, naming his son John (vs. 62 – 66) and then bursting into prophesy (vs. 67 – 79).  I can’t help it, I have to quote part of the prophesy here, Luke 1, 76 - 79:

“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

My friends, this is how I pray for my own children, their children, their spouses and significant others, and my beloved wife; that they go before the Lord, prepare a way for Him and give the people knowledge of their salvation. I thank Him for the tender mercy of their blessings in my life. Neighbors, this is how I pray for the children God brings into my life, the people who cross my path, and especially those that are yoked with me in shared service for MAZ and the children. I have a confession to make here. Typing this I broke down completely and wept with conviction because I don’t actually do this enough and fear that I’ve failed Him and in some way let somebody go by that needed a blessing right then. While I feel strongly that the Lord wants me to be writing, I believe that this is God’s highest calling to me; to pray for the children and bless those around me.

I was going to continue on with my timely practical application of Ashley’s message that I used on two wheels but I just can’t, maybe later this week. I have to leave this post here and encourage you, my friends, to seek out the quiet place, the silence, the solitude, and hear God speaking to you. You’ll probably be broken by it but a broken and contrite spirit, God does not despise.

In His grip, jerry