Receiving what God Prepares

“But I don’t like …”  is a phrase sometimes heard when certain foods are set on the dinner table. I am prepared to eat what is placed before me, with thanksgiving.  Do have preferences? I sure do, but early in life I was trained to eat what was set in front of me and to do so without complaint! Now, I must be honest about salmon and tomatoes. If those were on the menu, I would simply choose to remain hungry.

Are you prepared to receive what God has prepared for you,
with thanksgiving, so that you can live in His peace?

IF we desire to know a deep and intimate relationship with God,
IF we want to experience the ‘abundant life’ which Jesus offers,
IF we would be most effective in our Christian service -
we must be willing to surrender our preferences and accept His plan.

There is no better illustration of the toxicity of willfulness than the experience of the people of Israel during their pilgrimage from Egypt to the Promised Land. By miraculous provision, God delivered them from slavery and led them.  Repeatedly, they found His provision – in circumstance and even in daily food – unacceptable.

When they were hungry in the wilderness, the LORD provided perfect food. All they had to do was gather it up from the ground each morning. Listen to their response - “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember all the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6, NLT)

Their repeated refusals to accept what God gave to them caused them to sin in multiple ways and their failures met with terrible consequences.  They became faithless. They rebelled against Moses’ leadership. They experienced God’s judgment, and many died. An entire generation ended up dying during the 40 years of wilderness wandering because they refused to follow God into the Promised Land the first time!

The tragedy of their sin led them to turn back to God, but too late to avoid the consequence of their ingratitude and rebellion.

The book of Hebrews alludes to those stories of refusal of God’s leading and encourages us to choose differently. "God’s promise of entering his place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there. For this Good News—that God has prepared a place of rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t believe what God told them.

For only we who believe can enter his place of rest. … So God’s rest is there for people to enter. But those who formerly heard the Good News failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his place of rest, and that time is today. … So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God." (Hebrews 4:1-9, NLT)

As we begin this new week, let’s present ourselves humbly to God as His grateful children. Not every situation will be exactly as we would want it to be. We will find ourselves presented with challenges to our faith, with developments that are hard to accept, with choices in which we know what is right but not what we want to do. May we have the faith and courage to walk in faithfulness so that we may enter the fullness of His provision, with gratitude.

The word from the Word puts the focus in the right place. Meditate on this truth today. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:23-25, NIV)

Lord, find us grateful and accepting. Amen

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(Video of this blog at this link)

Making a religion of politics?

Next Tuesday we, the people of these United States of America, will elect a President who will, regardless of who it is, will bring horror and delight to the country in equal measure. The awfulness of the recent conversation, the ugliness of the political ads, the stress created between friends and family members will most likely not diminish, only increase!  Politics, it seems to me, has become our new religion.  The expressions of devotion reflect a kind of absolutism once reserved for convictions about the nature of God Himself.

Christian friend, let me urge us all to reflect and realize that politics are no substitute for the Gospel of Christ and the power of the Spirit for the salvation of the world. 8 years ago Russell Moore (Editor of Christianity Today) wrote what is even more true today - “the most important lesson we should learn is that the church must stand against the way politics has become a religion, and religion has become politics.” 

Christians are first and foremost, of Christ and in Christ. It is to our shame that we let our convictions about the state of the economy, immigration, environmentalism, or gender rights bring division and hatred among those who are called to be brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. In this electoral cycle I have heard and read this sentiment more than a few times -  “He could not possibly be a Christian. Look at who he supports.”  I’ll be blunt in my response- knock it off!  Our relationship to God, our Heavenly Father, is not determined by an R or D on our ballot! 

If we believe that legislation can redeem sinful humanity and transform sinners into saints we been seduced by an empty hope!  We have created an idol, a false god.  That is not say that Christians should be disinterested in politics or neglect their citizen responsibility to vote.  We ought to care about public policy and how it forms our culture and effects our lives. Christians, just like everyone else, have ideals that they would like to see written into law.  (And, Christians will think differently about many things.)

We who love Jesus have a high and holy calling to be messengers of the Kingdom Come, to be those who share the joyful truth that God has reconciled us to Himself in Christ Jesus.  Our mission is not to write better laws.  The world will be changed, not by our political power but by our humble service which demonstrates the Gospel.  Moore wrote that our privilege is to “maintain a prophetic clarity that is willing to call to repentance everything that is unjust and anti-Christ, whether that is the abortion culture, the divorce culture, or the racism/nativism culture. We can be the people who tell the truth, whether it helps or hurts our so-called ‘allies’ or our so-called ‘enemies.’”  A prophet speaks on God’s behalf with holy authority born of an intimate relationship with God.

I will pointedly ask – when you make those ripping statements on Facebook, when you hurl hateful comments at the ‘other’ side or when you seethe with rage about some imagined insult for ‘your’ party– is that the result of time before the Throne of Heaven and a profound experience of the Holy, or is it an expression of the preferences of Self?

Want to lose the election angst? Trust God profoundly to do what He promises – to guide, to keep, to direct. Then, pray fervently for His wisdom to be made known to your mind and heart.

When we make our politics our priority, we sin like Esau of old, exhanging true treasure of our salvation for trinkets of little lasting value. Right or Left in our convictions, we cannot afford to become so closely aligned with one party’s agenda that we lose our ability to represent the One who is the Hope of the World.  I am a Christian first, an American second, and my political affiliation comes in a distant third. How about you?  Are you my brother or my sister in His family?

The word from the Word is a reminder of our true identity. I am His, He is mine. 
In Christ, “You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.  “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.”  (1 Peter 2:9-11)

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(Video of this blog at this link)

 

Father God,  preserve us in this time of change.
Call us into Your holy Presence.
As we kneel humbly and gain the assurance of
The salvation and Your love shown us in Christ Jesus,

Help us to rise to love others to wholeness.
Forgive us for making our politics into a religion,
For giving devotion and fervor rightly reserved for You
To lesser things.

Make Your Church beautiful, a place of clear vision of what is true and best.
Transform us into people of hope, full of amazing, courageous, and bold love.
Jesus shine brightly in us and through us. Amen

Let’s talk

Prayer is one of the most mysterious practices of the Christian faith.  We may ask many questions about it.

Why do we make requests of a God who already knows everything? 
How does prayer actually ‘work’ or should we even think about it in that way? 
Is prayer just a psychological exercise as some skeptics insist, merely a way of talking to ourselves? 
If we pray, what are best practices?

I have heard thousands of prayers and prayed even more than that! 
Some were formal with carefully prepared phrases and rich vocabulary.
Others were desperately spoken, raw, and emotional. 
Some were quiet and intimate, whispered only for the ear of God.
Some were expressions of fear, some of love, some shaped by obligation.
Some were exuberant, outbursts of praise in times of great joy.
A few were wordless – a quiet heart in God’s Presence that waited on His comfort or offered Him adoration.

If you are thinking, “Jerry, that sounds a lot like our human conversations,”  then you just got the point! Prayer is connecting and communicating with God and takes many forms, shaped by the need of the moment and the personality of the one praying.  If you know how to have a conversation, you know the basics of prayer.

Whatever our questions about prayer, this I know for sure: we must pray.  We can learn to pray in better ways, but prayer is not reserved for pastors or those of advanced years in the faith. Prayer is a privilege offered to all of us that makes us richer in the practice. 

Jesus did not say “If” you pray, He said “When” you pray.  To think about prayer only in terms of ‘answers,’ determining if we should pray based on observable results, misses the heart of prayer.  True prayer is much more than bringing our ‘grocery list’ of human needs to God everyday.  It is our spiritual lifeline through which the vitality of the Holy Spirit enters our lives and circumstances. So, just speak – using your words to start a conversation with God; doing it often!

When we grow into intimacy with the Lord, He promises this: "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." (Romans 8:26, NIV)  When we turn our attention to Him, even when words fail, He remains our Advocate, there with us, the Divine connecting with the human, Heaven touching earth.  The Message says it this way: "God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God."

When I pray, whether it is just a few words in a moment, or a focused time in the church’s sanctuary, I remember that I have a Meditator in the Throne Room of the Almighty!  Jesus, who knows the frail state of my humanity, stands alongside of me. "So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." (Hebrews 4:14-16, NLT)  When I do not know what to say, He fills the gaps. When I am less than articulate, He understands. When my prayer is an overflow of emotions, I know He has felt what I feel.  Even if the only words we can find are mumbled cries for mercy, He knows the deeper need.  Moreover, He has taken away our guilt and given us confidence to come into God’s Presence. 

When I pray I know He stands alongside of me. I am shabby, without beauty,
but the majestic Lord of Glory puts His arm around my shoulders and says,
“Father, Jerry is here with this need, this cry!”

Richard Foster speaks of ‘simple prayer.’  This most basic form of prayer is not about eloquence or persuasive arguments.  It is prayer that is filled with our inconsistencies, mixed motives, sorrow, anger, joy, dreams, hopes, longings, and daily concerns.  “Let us pray!”  Yes, simple prayers, wordless prayers, groans, and laughter formed into simple prayer.

The word from the Word is an invitation - "And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise." (Hebrews 10:19-23, NLT)

God is inviting you and me this day to stay in touch!  He says, “Let’s talk!”

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(Video of this blog at this link)

The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)

Father let your kingdom come (holy holy)
Father let your will be done
On Earth as in Heaven (let it be done)
Right here in my heart

Give us this day our daily bread
Forgive us forgive us
As we forgive the ones who sinned
Against us forgive them
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from the evil one
Let your kingdom come

It's yours it's yours
All yours all yours
The kingdom the power
The glory are yours

It's yours it's yours
All yours all yours
Forever and ever
The kingdom is yours

On Earth as in Heaven
Right here in my heart

Bryan Fowler, Jacob Sooter, Matt Maher

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