Things I hate!

Hate is a strong word that offends some people. The dictionary defines hatred as "an intense dislike, extreme hostility." The tolerant culture in which we live tries to smooth out the wrinkles of hatred in us, and for good reason. Hatred is a nuclear emotion! It packs a lot of punch and, if not carefully monitored and properly focused, becomes a toxin that destroys us. But, there are things I hate.

High on my list of things hated is abuse of power! Whether it is a government official throwing his weight around, a parent misusing his authority, or a spiritual leader feeding himself at the expense of those who follow him; I hate it. My blood boils when I see a powerful person exploit a weaker one.

I hate hypocrisy- in me, and in the world around me. As much as I love authenticity, I know there are shadows in my life, places where the truth is obscured. It makes me angry when I become aware of a gap between what I profess to believe and how I live. When I am in a room with a poser, puffing and pretending to be someone he is not, the desire to shout out the truth is nearly overwhelming.

I hate suffering, especially the kind that is unnecessarily inflicted on others by people who just don't care. Recently my uncle told me of touring WW2 Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. Those imprisoned there were required to wear a hat at all times and to always stay on the concrete walkways. If a prisoner stepped off the walkway, he was shot by guards in towers. Sadistic guards would go among the prisoners, grab the hat from someone's head and toss it onto the grass. Then they would order the man to retrieve his hat or suffer punishment. When he stepped off the walkway, he was shot down. If he did not, he was beaten to death! That is an extreme example, but the same kind of cruelty, just of a different degree, exists all around us. Why people enjoy inflicting pain on others is a mystery to me.

I hate sin. Here it gets a lot less black and white. I do hate sin, but sometimes I desire it. The Bible teaches us that this part of the normal human experience. "The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge." (Romans 7:21-23, The Message) I cannot trust my own resolve to protect me from doing wrong! In fact, just about the time I start to feel self-assured, just about the time I conclude that I am beyond the reach of some temptation, I find myself locked in battle with it. The Bible goes on to say, "Jesus Christ ... acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." (Romans 7:24-25, The Message)

Let me circle 'round and close the loop of this thought. A Believer who fails to acknowledge that he is prone to be tempted, that the sinful nature and the enemy of his soul are always ready to seduce him given the slightest opportunity, is very likely to become all the other things on the list of things I hate! Yes, I am prone to those things. If I don't not hate sin in me, I will focus on the sins of others and become a critical abuser. I will fail to see my own failures and become hypocritical, with a stench of self-righteousness covering my life. I will inflict suffering on others by demanding from them what I cannot or will not demand of myself. That is why I love Jesus! He is my Savior. For no other reason than love, He invites me to the Cross, where He died to reconcile me to my Father and to restore, in me, the ability to do God's will. I kneel in humility, acknowledging that I have sinned and that I am a sinner. Forgiveness flows and I find release from guilt, renewal of hope, and the possibility of transformation. Then, He invites me to be filled with the Holy Spirit, daily, and the power of the Spirit in me changes me 'from glory to glory.'

Believer, hate sin; but be careful that your hatred of it, drives you only to the Cross! If you allow it to take you anywhere else, that hatred will destroy you and cause you to harm those around. But, if your extreme aversion to sin takes you to the Cross, you will be transformed into a warrior of love, making the world right. Then, this will be true of you. "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, NIV)
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YahwehT'sebaoth

There is a moment in that old movie, The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and company discover that behind the curtain there is only a little man pulling levers! The mystery is stripped away and the ordinariness of the machine revealed. Is your God too small? It's thought I'm working through today. Is He so great in your life, so amazing, that you tremble before Him, or have you tamed Him, explained Him, defined Him to such an extent that He no longer reigns in majesty? When we pursue the knowledge of the Holy One, we find that His majesty grows greater, His grandeur only increasing with discovery!

In that great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, there is a line that says, "Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same." YahwehT'sebaoth- the Lord of Hosts- is a name given to God often in the Old Testament. Some modern translations say "Almighty God" but I really love the imagery of The Message which translates that title as "God-of-the-Angel-Armies." The Hebrew - "tsaba" - is a generalized word that means a force, a group, or an army. When the Scripture calls God, Yahweh T'sebaoth, the intent is to impress us with His power that is beyond challenge.

How easily we trivialize God, fooling ourselves into thinking we are reverencing Him by attaching a Christian fish to our car's bumper, or wearing a cross on our lapel, or saying a ritual prayer before we drop off to sleep. True worship of Yahweh T'sebaoth is expressed in trusting Him implicitly and following His commands without question! That can be hard to do when He only allows us to see a slice of time that doesn't include a neat ending to the story of our lives! We discover the true depth of our surrender to His authority when His orders appear to leading us into tough times or costly sacrifice.Let me illustrate the principle of submission from common experience. If you think your project manager is competent, if you understand her goals, if you agree with her strategy, it's easy to fall in line, isn't it? If our boss or leader inspires us we readily put ourselves wholeheartedly into the effort they're leading. But what about the times when you don't know the plan, when you only have your assignment and not the whole plan, and have not worked with the one in charge enough to really know if she's all that competent as a leader? It is natural then to wonder - "Is this the right thing to do? Will this really succeed?"

The Bible tells us that God is Yahweh T'sebaoth, urging us to trust Him totally, even when He doesn't reveal the whole plan to us! The General of Heaven's Armies has it all worked out and He's been very successful! So, when He sends us into the battle in life - be it with temptation, with sickness, with Satan or his demons- we go with full assurance, and with authority - not of our own making, but from His Name! David, just a teenager, went to do battle with Goliath, the giant champion of the Philistine army that was holding the line against the armies of Israel. Filled with faith and in spite of not knowing exactly how the Lord would provide the victory, the teenage shepherd strode onto the field where the contest would take place. His courage came from knowing he was in the Lord's army. As he approached the skilled warrior, he said, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, butI come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty (YahwehT'sebaoth), the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me... and the whole worldwill know that there is a God in Israel." (1 Samuel 17:45-46, NIV) And, we know the rest of the story. David defeated the hero in the power of the Lord and God's Name was honored.

Don't make God too small in your understanding. Don't steal His majesty. Let Him impress His majesty on you. "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." (Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV) Stay patiently with this theme as I take you to one more Scripture passage.

After Judah was destroyed by Babylonia and Jerusalem lay in ruins for about 70 years, some Jews hadreturned from Babylon to rebuild their nation. Nehemiah had led the campaign to restore the city walls. Ezra headed the campaign to rebuild the Temple. Surrounding nations were threatened by the re-building and sent an emissary to Xerxes, the Persian king who had allowed the reconstruction, asking him to stop the effort. The enemies of Judah said, "If the Jews rebuild their Temple, their God willreturn and make them strong again!" For several years the work was at a standstill, the foundations and stonework reminding the Jews of their weakness before the great Persian empire. During that time, Zechariah preached and encouraged Zerrubabel, the mayor of Jerusalem.

The prophet said, "This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor bystrength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. (YahwehTsebaoth) Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel's way; it will flatten out before him! Then Zerubbabelwill set the final stone of the Temple in place, and the people willshout: `May God bless it! May God bless it!' " (Zechariah 4:6-7,NLT)

Who is trying to stymie God's work in your life?
Who is trying to discourage you, cause you to doubt or fear?
Bow in humble reverence, magnify God in sincere praise.
Then, speak to them and say, "It is not by force nor by strength, but by mySpirit, says the Lord Almighty (Yahweh Tsebaoth)!"
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It's not an option!

It was the quiet of the dawn around 5:30. Bev was already up preparing for her day and I was awake. My habit in those first moments of consciousness is to talk with the Lord; simple prayers, often just phrases, that reflect my concerns of the particular day. They are childlike prayers when I present myself to my Lord, inviting Him to work in me and through me. But yesterday, I was more childish than childlike! I awakened thinking of my father's critical illness. I was angry; raw, unfocused, aching anger. Piled on top of those emotions there was disappointment, there was fear, and there was a terrible sense of inadequacy to meet the present challenges in my life. I was tempted to refuse to pray! "Why should I talk to You," I thought, "when You keep silent and allow such pain? Just leave me alone!" I was not sure if I was forsaking God or if He was forsaking me, but I felt alone, without serenity.

Just about every Believer I know experiences those kind of moments. Financial stress, people that do us wrong, relationships that fail to live up to their promise, physical pain, illness, aging, guilt ... are common to us all, at one time or another. Sometimes these things come at us all at once like a powerful wave that threatens to engulf us and sweep us away. It is quite common to grow fearful on those days. Since fear and anger live very close to one another in our emotions, one flows into the other and we tend to be angry and afraid at the same time. When we are in that place, the devil exploits the moment by tempting us to turn against the very One who can restore our peace.

Yesterday, when my fears fueled my childish anger with God, His wonderful Word sprang to mind: "Pray without ceasing!" (1 Thess. 5.17) By bringing Truth to me, the Spirit was waging war on my behalf, inviting me to defeat evil with obedience. "Pray all the time, that's an order!" is what God was saying to me. He doesn't tell me to pray nice prayers, or short prayers, or long prayers, or eloquent prayers; but He does tell me (and you!) to keep our lines of communication open. When we stop talking to our Father, we break the sweet fellowship that is the one thing we need most to quiet our fearful hearts and calm our angry minds! In another passage, the Word instructs us that we must not "worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel." (Philippians 4:6-7, CEV)

When prayer is difficult, when there is little delight in sharing our heart with the Lord, there are ways to remain faithful to His command to pray always.

Use the words of another! When words fail me, I turn to the Psalms or a borrow a song. In a time of sorrow recently, I sang, "Does Jesus care, when my heart is pained, too deeply for mirth and song. As the burdens press and the cares distress, and the way goes weary and long? Oh, Yes, He cares! I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief!" -public domain

Let others pray for you! Yesterday, in a meeting with several fellow Pastors, I soaked up their prayers offered for my Dad and me. I murmured my agreement as they shared the burden.

Pray simply, using a single phrase! When tempted, I might pray over and over, "Purify my heart." When standing near a suffering saint, I sometimes repeat, "Lord, have mercy." Even the name of Jesus, whispered to Him reverently, again and again, is a prayer.

Let the Spirit lead! The Word gives this promise of His Advocacy on our behalf. "The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will." (Romans 8:26-27, NLT)

Prayer is not an option. When we pray, we open up our lives to the power of God and, in ways that defy our understanding, we become co-laborers in His work of building His Kingdom here on earth. Pray first, not last. Pray often, not seldom. Pray boldly, not tentatively. Pray faithfully, knowing that He is faithful, even when you cannot discern His ways or hear His voice.
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"But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were." (Psalm 39:12, NIV)
"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." (Psalm 56:8, NLT)
"I will fulfill my vows to you, O God, and will offer a sacrifice of thanks for your help. For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light." (Psalm 56:12-13, NLT)

Selling God?

Last weeks' headlines were jarring to me as a person of faith. Time and again, I saw this line or one similar. "Pope Benedict XVI out of touch with American Catholics." One TV news story featured an angry young woman railing on the Catholic church for not being "more responsive to the demands of women in the church." These are the reflections of people so accustomed to having everything shaped by their opinions and/or their dollars that they simply assume even their church should bend to their will. In our consumer driven culture everything is for sale at the right price. Churches of all persuasions are being forced to play along with consumer demands or they wither and die. Look no further than the church just down the road that is affiliated with one of the large mainline denominations. Many are within a decade of death! What we see results from watering down the Truth and hanging onto superfluous traditions for too long. In many of those churches, which once held the prominent place in every town, about half the members are women over the age of 60, according to a professor of advertising named James Twitchell. One doesn't have to be in advertising to know that if the largest group of people 'buying' your product is over age 60, the future for your business is not bright.
- The Divine Commodity, Leadership, Winter, 2008

But, is Christianity about marketing? Is it about giving the public what it wants? Is it about taking polls and adjusting the content of our message to please the maximum amount of people? I think not!

The church is not serving hamburgers that you can 'have your way!' Christ's church provides guidance for life, both present and eternal. Christianity is about a pursuit of revealed Truth not a pursuit of maximum profit. (Or at least it ought to be!) We hold certain statements to be true regardless of how many are offended. To be sure, adaptations in the ways we worship, or even in the ways we apply what we believe to be True to our lives, are in order. There are traditions that can change without compromise of the message. A pipe organ is not more holy than a guitar. Robed clergy are not more pleasing to God than preachers in street clothing. The Bible translation commissioned by King James of 17th century England cannot be said to be more accurate or more holy than the New International Version.

But, God's revealed Truth about the Deity of Christ, His commands about holy living, the fact of salvation from sin available only through His grace given at the Cross, and such things; are not up for vote, nor are they subject to revision to fit current sensibilities.

Believer, let's make it personal. Are you a spiritual consumer, quick to move to a different church when you collide with some stand on a matter you regard as inconvenient or unpleasant? Are you quick to criticize spiritual leadership in your church or even in the wider Church when their teaching runs headlong into your choices or values? We need to rethink the way we relate to the place and the persons who provide spiritual care for us and our family. We do not want somebody in our church pulpit whose primary qualification for ministry is his great charisma and glib tongue. He will substitute his opinions for eternal Truth to win our loyalty and applause! Those who teach us the Scripture should be deeply devout, reverent before God, and careful students of Scripture, who are full of the Spirit. If our preacher is telling us things we want to hear, all the time; if he does not make us think and occasionally perspire with some level of discomfort over the way we are living, we ought to question his devotion to the Truth! He might love our money more than our souls. Don't confuse sincerity, earnestness, or even the volume of presentation with passion for the Truth. While some churches err by falling in love with tradition, I fear that in the evangelical church we have fallen so in love with 'relevance and change' that our preachers are adrift on the sea of novelty, without an anchor in immutable Truth! There is no substitute for hearing, "the Bible says" from the lips of one who has "been diligent to rightly divide the Word of Truth."

In a letter to a younger pastor named Timothy, Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God, wrote: "Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you." (2 Timothy 4:2-5, NLT) Such a commission is demanding. It requires that the pastor resist the latest fad sweeping through the Church even when he knows that some will leave for a church more 'open to the move of the Spirit' taking their support and service! The true servant of God will remain steady and solid when people say, "but, Rev. Riches says..." and he is a big-name preacher on TV who appears to be oh-so-successful. In those kinds of situations, as a shepherd of God's people, I pray for the humility to be teachable, but also for the courage of a lion to remain faithful in defense of the Truth.

Here's what God asks of each of us. Take this word from the Word and let it shape your love of God's church and support for those godly men and women He has called to serve as teachers in His body. "Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. . . . Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen." (Hebrews 13:17, 20-21, NLT)
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The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the word.
From heav'n He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Elect from ev'ry nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation - "One Lord, one faith, one birth;"
One holy name she blesses; partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with ev'ry grace endued.

'Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious, shall be the Church at rest.

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, "how long?"
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

The Church's One Foundation
Samuel Wesley © Public Domain

Make it God's week!

Monday mornings have a terrible reputation. Traditionally, it is the 'back to work' day after the weekend break. Another week stretches out in front of us with work to be done, deadlines to be met. Let me suggest that instead of thinking, "O Lord, it's Monday," with a sigh; that you change that to: "Praise God, it's Monday!" with a song. Commit the week to the Lord, asking Him for wisdom for each task, for strength to carry each burden, and for enthusiasm in each challenge. Instead of dragging yourself toward Friday, choose to live fully in each day, in what God allows for that day.

One of the miracle experiences that God gave to His people when they were making the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land provides a great lesson for those of us who attempt to take on too many days at one time. While the Israelites were in the desert, God fed them each day with a miraculous provision called 'manna.' The name literally means "what is it?" because that was what they said on the first morning that they found the white, flakey stuff lying on the ground in their camp. "It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey." (Exodus 16:31, NIV) Moses instructed them not to hoard it. "Just gather enough for the day and tomorrow God will provide it again." Some of them did not listen and tried to store it. The next day they found it had gone bad and developed a terrible smell! Here's a curious detail. On the day before Sabbath, they could gather two day's provisions and the manna did not spoil! The lesson? Let God be Lord of this day and leave tomorrow to His care.

Sometimes I weary myself and/or grow discouraged by anticipating the work of another day before I have finished this day's work. Jesus says that living for tomorrow is foolish and teaches us to take each day, one at a time, and the bread provided for it. "Give us today our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11, NIV) "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." (Matthew 6:34, The Message) Give us today our daily bread! That short phrase is a way to pray, "Lord, provide what I need to meet the challenges of this day and help me not to borrow sunshine or trouble from tomorrow!"

So, make it God's week! Pray your way through each day. Present your requests with faith that He has an answer. Talk over your concerns and let Him help you solve your problems. Give thanks for what He provides so that you don't become self-centered. Seek His wisdom which He promises to give to those who ask. Weep, if you need to, with Him; for He is a Friend that cares for you. If you do these things, you will arrive at Friday in a much better frame of mind.

Letting the Lord provide for each day keeps us humbly dependent on Him. As proud people and living in a culture of wealth and self-reliance, we resist living from day to day. It is possible to be rich in supplies, yet poor in our relationship with the Spirit. Our Father wants us to know His love, to live at His table, to come often into His Presence. It's Monday! Begin this week with His gracious blessings by taking your needs to Him early and often. Remember He is Yahweh Yireh - "The Lord, Your Provider." (Genesis 22.14)
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