Lifesong

All of you know I love music.  I love hearing the praise band on Sunday morning, listening to Christian radio and hearing our choir practice and sing.  I love playing/singing songs with my friends and taking in Sandy's practice on Sunday morning as we share discussion about the music she has chosen for the day.  It is all beautiful to me. In that music there is a sharing of life itself because we sing to and for the God of the only eternal song.

In a Michael Card song he recounts the idea that our lives are truly songs that will resonate with joy when they find their origin.  Our souls were made by a God who leads us back to that rhyme and rhythm.  We were/are created to rhyme with His purpose.

Philip realized this in John 1:45 when he exclaimed ... "We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about.  His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth!"  Philip's realization brought his very being into a rhythm with God's plan ... an amazing and wonderful place to be.

Casting Crowns (the group) sing a song about this.  They sing ... "and now my lifesong sings!"  It sings in the opening of eyes.  It sings in the realization of God's ancient promises.  It sings in the fulfillment of God's present plans.  It sings best in knowing that we, who were lost, have now been found!  It sings because we realize that our lifesong is only realized in Jesus!  Now ... go out and find your rhyme!  Randy

Where is God?

In John 1 Andrew asks a simple but profound question.  "Where are you staying?" is Andrew's query.

Most of you are saying, "That is just conversation."  "That is just a normal part of greeting and interacting with anyone."  "Why is that profound at all?"

It is profound for two reasons.  First, this is a timeless question lots of people ask God.  "Where are you?"  Some asked that question yesterday.  "God ... where were You when Paulette Riley made her last steps on her final journey.  Where were you when I pleaded to be released from my addiction.  Where are you when I struggle through the day on decisions, deal with life and wrestle with sin.  Where are you when I am juggling overwhelming issues with ailing loved ones, entangled kids, money and a nation that seems to have lost its collective mind."  Jesus answers as He answers Paul ... "My strength is perfected in your weakness." Translation ... "Rely on Me, listen to Me, live in Me!"  This answer reflects God's constant call to leave self and find Him!

The second reason relating to the importance of the question, "Where are you staying?" is basic and simple.  "Jesus ... if I do seek you, where will you be staying?"  For sure God is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).  So go to the brokenhearted and you might just get a glimpse of Him.  God is also close to those He is blessing with a direct connection.  The meek, the humble, the peacemakers, the pure in heart and those who mourn.  David (in Psalm 139) says God is close to those who allow God to search and correct them.

Two ending observations about the places Jesus is staying.  Note that none of the above places include "the top."  They are more what our society would call the bottom.  Do we possibly seek "the top" more than we seek God?  Also, note that that the more we get away from self-serving things and self-edifying behaviors, the better chance we have of getting close to God.

I have a friend who says he is an atheist. He, beyond reason, seems to desire to be there for his friends when they need help and he gains great satisfaction and contentment from giving that support.  Does he ever wonder about the source of that satisfaction?  Might it be possible that when he leaves self behind and gets close to where God is working, God gives him a glimpse of Himself?  Randy

Are You the One?

In Matthew 11 John the Baptist asks an important question ... "Are you the One?"  Maybe John was onto something!

John could have been worried about his well being.  He was jailed, waiting for "justice" from Herod, possibly even concerned about the lives of his followers.  All of these worries were valid.  Jail was not the cake-walk it is today.  Herod's justice would be no justice at all as John would be beheaded on the whim of an evil woman.  His followers were certainly in danger.  Yet John, in his focused and single-purposed way, was more interested in getting a question answered.  Maybe this is not just "a" question ... it could be "the" question.  "Are you the One?"

As I watched an episode of Morgan Freeman's "Story of God" I considered that even today we ask that question.  Freeman is pursuing answers to questions about God, faith, theodacy, the afterlife and other deep theological questions.  Many of the answers on the TV show are hopeful expressions of faith and belief from people who cannot possibly all be right.  But John's question truly gets to the point ... "Are you the One?"

John understood that the answer to the God question isn't trees, nature, men who have lived and died, rivers, animals or "the force."  The answer is one God.  A God who is not altered by us but chooses to manifest Himself in ways that Scripture describes in both stark detail and maddening vagueness.  Jesus loved John so He gives John a tangible answer.  "Look at what is happening!  The blind see ... the lame walk ... the deaf hear ... the dead are raised."  I pray all of us will open our eyes to the miracles of this day and be able to escape the storm of daily issues, most of which have no cosmic importance.  I pray we will see God in this day ... powerful ... wonderful ... mysterious ... beautiful ... one.  Randy

Supernatural

Google defines supernatural as "something attributed to a force beyond scientific understanding or the known laws of nature."  In the Star Wars series this was described as "the Force" and characters were quick to say, "May the Force be with you!"  but that was fiction.  There are lots of supernatural events described in the Bible.  Jesus, in response to John the Baptist's question, "are you the one?" said ... "Go with what you are observing.  The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised." (Matthew 11).  Go with the supernatural.

When we talk about Biblical things that are supernatural we might wonder two things.  What causes these things to occur?  Why do they happen?  John 2 gives a little insight.

John 2 is where Jesus changes the water into wine at a wedding.  I have wondered about this supernatural happening.  It seems almost below Jesus' "standard" to perform a miracle that seems to only benefit people who want to keep drinking it up at a wedding.  Yet, He does this at the suggestion of Mary, His mother.  What is up here?

Let's go to my second question first.  Why do miracles and supernatural things happen in Scripture?  This one is pretty easy.  These things happen to glorify God ... to demonstrate something about God's power ... to teach us something about God's care ... to allow us to see beyond the "natural."  In a sense, watching a miracle and celebrating that it happened is akin to worship ... when we see these things we naturally want to point to God.  That is always good.  These happenings let us know that God is not absent from daily life ... He is here ... present ... involved.  God is shouting that he can take the common and transform it into the uncommon.  He is saying ... "Always look past what you think you see!  Follow me and I will show you things ... teach you things ... allow you to glimpse the power and compassion of a God beyond your understanding.  I will let you stand in the temple (currently the lives of God's people) and see a bit of who I am ... but you better be watching and you better be believing or it will go right past you."

The other question ... "What causes these things to occur?" is both simple and complex.  It is clear that they are "beyond nature" and are powered by a force beyond our understanding.  We want to know the mechanics of these miracles and we strive to fit them into our scientific understanding and our little minds.  My suggestion to you is ... stop.  Be still and know that He is God.  Put your haughty "I have a right to know"on hold and just enjoy that God has graced you with that moment when you are able to see His power and His provision at work.  God causes these things to happen.  And, like Job, "I place my hand over my mouth."  Randy

A Puzzlement

Something is and has truly been a puzzlement to me.  Let's set the stage. 

First scene.  A true, big, sovereign, all-powerful, merciful and perfect God exists.  That God is the same God we sin against whenever we choose to wander from God's path for us.  The sin can be omission or commission.  The Bible says we all (every one of us) sin and falls short of God's requirements here.  And the sins carry equal weight ... my sin is no more noble than your sin.  The just penalty for that sin is death.  We are ALL guilty.

Second scene.  We gather on Sunday, go to a Christian concert.  Attend a Christian movie.  We say and do all the right things.  We sing songs like "Jesus gave it all ... all to Him I owe" ... "Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."  You get the point.  We KNOW the jargon.  We say we get the point.  But do we?

Third scene.  Jesus is nailed to a cross, dying so that the penalty for our sin is paid.  By the way ... that is ALL of the sins of the whole world.  We read about this event in Scripture and all of us say, "Yes ... we get the point. This event is about God in Christ dying so I can be forgiven of my sin and so I can be invited to a life inside His Kingdom forever and so I can share this blessing by passing on the message and act of forgiveness to others." 

Fourth scene.  You say, "Wait a minute!  I am all good with the dying for my sin and being forgiven and living a Kingdom life in and with Jesus!  But come again with that "passing on" thing."  OK ... here it is again.  How can we say we get the point of forgiveness unless we understand it well enough to pass that message forward ... that is the message of the cross.  We even pray it when we say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Fifth scene.  We are rich young rulers.  We have lots of stuff, freedom and a legalistic view of God that we apply to others not as "religious"as we are.  We sin, but not like those other folks who commit those "terrible" sins.  We meet a man named Jesus who says ... "time to sell out.  Give away the ownership of your stuff.  Give away the pride that allows you to believe you are better than other people.  Give away your time and come and follow me.  Oh ... and one last thing ... give other people the kind of forgiveness I give you."

Sixth scene ... you  have a choice.  You can go away sad and saviorless.  You can follow and start by going to those people you have held to your "high" standards and say, "Please forgive ME for my lack of forgiveness.  Please give me the chance to throw my pride away and instead of dying on the hill of self-righteousness, let me die on the hill of Calvary where my savior forgave me."

Very simply put, your choice here is a decision to accept or reject the salvation Jesus offers every person in the whole world.  We all fall down ... only one can lift up.  David said it best ...  "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." [Ps. 40:2-4].

Witnesses

Friday morning I was out in my kayak at 6am.  I watched the ospreys, the herons, the swirls on the top of the water, the shadows of trees getting smaller as the sun came up and the breeze touch the water making small ripples.  The morning was a witness to the bigness of God.  I used to believe the world was big, but now news travels so fast that an event in China can transcend the globe in a matter of seconds.  An earthquake in Argentina elicits immediate response from relief agencies like the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).  While we marvel at the bigness of God we see the world getting smaller and smaller as travel times decrease, the internet increases, social media connects people for good and not-so-good reasons and we are reminded of what a commercial from the Olympics kept repeating ... "we are more alike than we are unalike."

In that context Isaiah shouts, "Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes ... who are deaf, yet have ears!  Let all the nations gather together and let the peoples assemble.  Who among them declared this and foretold to us the former things?  Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, 'it is true'" [Isaiah 43:8-9].

Each Sunday this month Max and Ryan have been reading this passage as we gathered for worship.  It is a passage about how God can and will gather us all together and we will rightly witness truth, whether we are using our eyes and our ears.  God demands our witness to His greatness, His knowledge, His sole position as savior and His sovereignty as the one and only true God.

In this world where we are truly one species, a people who are alike, why do we get the idea we can somehow isolate ourselves?  C. S. Lewis reminded us that God created us as one people ... all being individual likenesses of our God ... all created to have the freedom of will to love ... all having special gifts to exercise for Godly purposes.  We are small but significant to God.  In Matthew 16 Jesus tells Peter "You are Peter (the rock), and upon this rock I will build my Church" [Matthew 16:18].  Tony  Evans rightly observes that the rock here is a small rock that is part of a big Church.  We are individual stones bound together by Jesus in a way that overcomes all that the world has to offer (both good and bad).  Jesus is telling Peter, though the world seems big, it is small in comparison to the greatness of God.  As Isaiah gathers all people together he is reminding us that a very big God will gather us and call us to either witness (tell about the great God that is our Lord) or unwillingly confess (the confession of those who do not claim God).  This "big" world will become very small and the God we have demeaned for a lifetime will be seen as He is ... larger than the universe.  Randy

Caught or Released?

I have been accumulating fish for this Thursday's Celebrate Recovery special speaker and fish-fry event.  I will say, it has been tiring because there are several moving parts to this event.  The catching is fun.  The cleaning, the logistics of figuring out times when other people can be part of the catching and just the worry of "will we have enough fish?" has been heaver on my mind than it should.  Because in the midst of this project church life happens.  Charge Conference is coming fast (September 19).  Issues within the church family and my biological family are happening.  People are getting sick and going to the hospital.  Civic duties continue to unfold.  There are nuances and sub-plots to all that is happening.  There are lots of fun things in which to invest my energy.  Fact is ... I am way to stressed over these things.  Like those fish I am caught up in things that will do me harm.

Then ... maybe to clear all of our brains from the secular, the mundane, the unimportant, we hear Jesus.  We are on a hill overlooking the "Rio" of Jesus' time.  A campfire is burning.  All of our fellow campers know what is happening down there.  There are parties, drugs, what the world calls "fun."  It's just a few miles away, down the trail into Caesarea Philippi.  We could go and jump right into the "fun."  But Jesus asks a question ... "Who do YOU say that I am?" (Matthew 16).  It stops us short as we think about this question.  Our answer defines our actions (or should, something I fail at often).  Our answer decides whether we want to be caught (in the world) or released (into God's vast kingdom).  Jesus' question hits me hard because it is a decision I must address all through each day.  Who, really, is Jesus to me?  Does He make a daily difference that gives me freedom and wholeness?  If I am "caught" in life, wouldn't it behoove me to find a savior that could release me?  Wayne Watson asks (about His relationship to Jesus) "Would I miss You now, if You left and closed the door, would my flesh cry out? I don't need You anymore, or would I follow You, could I be restored? I wonder if I'd know You now?"  Great question!  Randy