Watch for God!

How I enjoyed teaching the Bible Station sessions at our church’s Vacation Bible School last week. It is no easy task to teach children all morning long, but the rewards are rich. Their faith is simple, their hearts open. One boy, about 9 years of age, delighted me with his honesty. I taught from Psalm 139 the truth that God knows the very thoughts inside of our brain. When asked how he felt about that fact he said, “I don’t like it. It is an invasion of my privacy!”

The children were encouraged to report “God sightings” every day. The idea is that they would become more aware of the Spirit. Not a bad idea, right? Their responses include the ordinary stuff of life - “My puppy sat with me while I watched TV.”  “I saw a pretty cloud in the sky.” “My Grandma got better after being sick.”  Are those incidents of God at work or are they just ‘life?’  Truth is – God’s Presence is in evidence all around us, even in the ordinary, and we do well to learn gratitude for the simple blessings.

We need to pray for an awareness of God’s Presence, faith to see Him at work, in our lives. We do not have to become gullible or foolish, but we do need the heart of a child. Listen to a story from the Gospel of Mark. "One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them!

For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:13-15, NLT) We can become so ‘adult’ that we will miss the moment when the Spirit of God whispers His Presence.

Does God only show up in rainbows, butterflies, in the church sanctuary, or in a baby’s smile? Of course not. He is also found in the face of a homeless man, present in our greatest sorrows, and at work in our moments of trials.

God is Omnipresent but not always perceived!

He is working in the world and in us but sometimes outside of our vision because we simply do not look up, take it in, and become a part of what He is doing. I have one huge regret from the first 40 years of my life- an obsession with checking off the tasks on the urgent list of ‘to do’s' caused me to miss out on so many of life's miracles. My face was often so close to the task, I was oblivious to the wonder happening around me.

With this realization, I am becoming less eager to 'finish a job' and instead I desire to know what God is doing, to understand the stories that are waiting to be discovered, to see God at work in the lives of people with whom I work and live and love. In learning to be a little more flexible, I am finding more wonder, greater joy. And I confess that old habits die hard! I still can get so goal oriented I forget the joy of the journey. God teach us to wait on you!

John tells us about some people committed to their pre-conceptions, gripped by their ideas about what God wanted. They were blind to the ‘kingdom of God’ however! They missed a miracle that happened right in front of their eyes.

"Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed— lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”

Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! What an amazing development, a cause for celebration and rejoicing, right? After 38 years a man is walking, whole, on his feet! You would think that everybody who saw him would be infected with his joy, overcome with his excitement. And you would be wrong! Read on - “But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So, the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”  He replied, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’”

“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so, stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.”" (John 5:2-14, NLT)

Do you see the miracles of life and love that God is doing or are you so religious that you, like those ancient Pharisees, are robbed of wonder. They didn't see a man just healed after 38 years of being crippled. They only saw a man carrying his bedroll in violation of their religious traditions!

That was not the only time in Jesus' life when He ran into people who missed the miracle. In the 12th chapter of Matthew, we are told that he healed a man with a deformed hand. There, too, the Pharisees only saw that He did it on the Sabbath, in violation of their prohibition against doing 'work,' so instead of rejoicing that a man was healed, they "discussed plan to kill Jesus."  

Yes, that is how easy it is to miss the miracle when we're consumed by our own pre-conceived ideas. I've missed my share of miracles, too, because I was focused on my plans, my ideas, my needs and unwilling to enter into the experience of another person in a way that let me feel their wonder, share their joy (or sorrow), or see what God was really doing in and/or through them.

Today, the God of wonder is at work! And He will be working in your neighborhood, and mine, too. The question is, will we perceive His work? Will we rejoice with those in whom He is working?

Here's a word from the Word. It is Jesus' own words of frustration with those who could not, would not, see what He was doing. “What are the people of this day like? They are like children playing in the center of town where people gather. They call to their friends. They say, ‘We played music for you, but you did not dance. We showed sorrow in front of you, but you did not show sorrow.’ 18 John came and did not eat or drink. They said, ‘He has a demon.’ Then the Son of Man came and ate and drank. They said, ‘See! He eats too much and likes wine. He is a friend of men who gather taxes and of sinners!’ But wisdom shows itself to be right by what it does.”

Then He began to say strong words against the cities where most of His powerful works were done. He spoke to them because they were not sorry for their sins and did not turn from them.” (Matthew 11:16-23 NLT)

Let these words challenge you to celebrate the wonder, to open your eyes to the miracles of the hand of God who is here, now!

• Watch for God!
• Listen for the blowing of the Wind.
• Be still enough to hear the whispers of the Spirit.
• Keep an open heart that experience the Kingdom (under the rule) of God!

Amen

 

Morning Prayer 76

 

Abba,

My heart overflows this morning with wonder at Your goodness to me. In Your grace, You have granted me life, health, peace, purpose, the love of family and friends, and the hope of an eternal home with You. I am filled with awe: “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8).

Protect my heart from selfishness. Help me to live generously, remembering that I am blessed to be a blessing, and that those who give of themselves liberally will find themselves refreshed.

I pray for those who suffer, that they may know Your comfort. I pray for those living under the threat of war or oppression; bring them peace, and defeat evil at every level of human relationships. I pray for those who are hungry—physically or emotionally—that they may be fed and experience the fullness of Your care. I pray for those who are lost, without hope, and living in darkness. Let us be a light to them, and reveal Yourself, Lord Jesus, as the Way.

When I come to the end of this day, I pray it will be without regret, having invested each moment wisely and for Your glory.

In the Holy Name of Jesus,

Amen.

Ideals, Principles, and Ordinary People

I recently watched a documentary series about the third President of the United States, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, a man who penned those enduring words that shape our national ideals: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Thomas Jefferson embraced lofty ideals and principles but did not consistently live by them. He died without freeing the more than one hundred enslaved people whose labor sustained his life and estate. Equally disturbing is his decades-long relationship with the enslaved woman Sally Hemmings, who was more than twenty years younger than he was and with whom he fathered several children. She remained a slave until her death!

It’s not fair to hold Jefferson to standards of the 21^st century, but it is troubling that a man who inspired a revolution for liberty and freedom refused to apply the ideals of which he wrote to his own life mostly because of the cost to his chosen way of life. Do Jefferson's choices make his words meaningless? I don't believe they do. Rather, his actions should remind us that we all, even the ‘great’ are just ordinary sinners!

My purpose is not to excuse sin or minimize failure. Instead, I hope we can learn to extend grace to one another, to remain inspired by truth even when its messengers fall short, and to recognize that we are all striving toward a life that none of us has yet fully attained.

I love Paul’s words that were inspired by the Spirit.
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3)

Did you read that carefully? Paul aspires to turn his back on desires for recognition, on his legalistic religious accomplishments, on his own pride so that he can fully know Christ. BUT he recognizes that he is a work in progress – ‘not that I have already obtained all this.’  He refuses to wallow in guilt or shame. He does not go back repeatedly to try to fix it all. He pushes forward focused on the grace of Jesus and the prize the Kingdom of Heaven. “I press on!”

Who among us can honestly claim to live every principle or ideal we hold in our mind?

In my 70 years on this earth there are some chapters of success and some of glaring failures. Perfection eludes me. I am quite certain that there are places in my life to which I am blind, moments of sin despite my best intentions, compromises of convictions made for convenience of the moment.

Yet I, like Paul, aspire to ‘know Christ’ and I press on.

The wonder of the Gospel of Christ is its reach, totally removing our guilt even as He inspires us to look higher. The Word tells us that we are ‘God’s masterpiece so that none of us can boast’ of our self-perfection or look down on those we might consider weak or failing. I confess that I am an ordinary sinner and I hold to the promise of adoption into God’s holy family through the inexhaustible grace of God, shown to me in Christ Jesus! The realization of that grace humbles me.

Are you conflicted, confused, or unsure of God’s grace?

Let God love you to life today.
Set aside the condemnation of Self or others.
Aspire to live by the Spirit and grow up into spiritual maturity.
Pray for the ‘beauty of His holiness’ to be seen more clearly each day in your life.

The word from the Word says “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do.

He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (Romans 8)

Let’s live by the Spirit, no guilt, no shame – beloved Children of the Heavenly Father – who press on to greater glory day by day.  Amen