Paradigm Shift

Can God change your mind?

What stirs up strong opinions in you?  Politics, perhaps? Or maybe it is some deep moral conviction that makes your passions rise?  Peter, the apostle, was completely convinced that Jesus and His Gospel was only for Jews. He never even considered that the good news could or should be presented to the Greeks and Romans that lived around him. If you had asked him if he would invite a Gentile to become a child of God, he would have looked at you like you had two heads. It just wasn’t possible.  Except … it was!

In Acts 10, God steps into Peter’s life dramatically aiming to shake up his assumptions and view of life. "Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: “Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.”

Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food that was not kosher.” The voice came a second time: “If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.” This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies. As Peter, puzzled, sat there trying to figure out what it all meant, the men sent by Cornelius showed up at Simon’s front door." (Acts 10:10-17, The Message)

To his credit, he was able to discern what God was saying to him about loving everybody.  Peter took the invitation of Cornelius and went to tell him about Jesus.  There, in that Roman soldier’s home, his change of conviction was completed when the Spirit fell on those newly converted Gentiles and they spoke in tongues just as the apostles had done at the birth of the Church at Pentecost. (Acts 2)  Peter reported his experience to the Jerusalem council with these words that resonate with amazement: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34) And, a whole new era began.

Spiritual growth will bring about disturbance in our convictions, assumptions, and prejudice. Some of those things we ‘just know must be true,’ are not really true at all.  Will we be people of the Spirit who are prepared to listen and learn?

Ptolemy, an astronomer who lived in the first century, set forth an explanation of the universe that set the earth in the center.  His view was argued and defended for 1400 years! The Church accepted the Ptolemaic view as fixed doctrine, threatening anyone who dared question it with a heresy trial! Copernicus came along around 1500 AD and presented the view that the earth orbited the sun. It took courage to challenge accepted knowledge and the status quo.  It took guts and a willingness to think differently.

Few things hinder God’s purposes in us more than a closed mind that says, “I know all about how God works and what God wills.” Change is difficult. Letting the Spirit lead demands courage, deep faith, and a readiness to be disturbed.  Do you want to grow and discover His best for you and your world?  Then, listen carefully. Have a child-like mind that is ready to learn from His Word and the Spirit. Be cautious about declaring positions and digging in to defend them.

Here is a word from the Word that excites me. It is an amazing promise of Life that is rich with discovery. It is my favorite text from the Holy Word. "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV)

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Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

You call me out upon the waters,
The great unknown where feet may fail;
And there I find You in the mystery,
In oceans deep, my faith will stand.

And I will call upon Your name,
And keep my eyes above the waves,
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace,
For I am Yours, and You are mine.

Your grace abounds in deepest waters,
Your sov'reign hand will be my guide.
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me,
You've never failed and You won't start now.
Oh and You are mine.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk upon the waters,
Wherever You would call me.Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander,
And my faith will be made stronger,
In the presence of my Savior.I will call upon Your name.Keep my eyes above the waves.
My soul will rest in Your embrace,
I am Yours and You are mine!

Joel Houston | Matt Crocker | Salomon Ligthelm
© 2012 Hillsong Music Publishing (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
CCLI License # 810055

Singing in a Minor Key?

The day dawned brightly. After a cup of coffee with my daughter and her family I headed for a much anticipated visit to the school where Peter is an administrator.  At 7:47 am, there was a thunderous crash that left two cars ruined.  The other driver walked away with bangs and bruises in body. My feelings?  Renewed anxiety! Where was God? Is He with me, or not? My recent life has led me through many sorrows, great and small, one piled on the other. (I am thankful for the gentle, loving people who willingly walk with me!)  A man of mature faith and confidence, these days I am acquainted with fear.  (Oh, yes, I am grateful for the fact that the accident could have been so much worse, but why did it happen at all?)

The Sons of Korah penned a song that asks- God, what are You doing? Where have You gone? After affirming their faith and thankfulness for God’s provisions in the past, they switch to a minor key. "But now you have tossed us aside in dishonor. You no longer lead our armies to battle." (Psalm 44:9, NLT) "You sold your precious people for a pittance, making nothing on the sale. You let our neighbors mock us. We are an object of scorn and derision to those around us. You have made us the butt of their jokes; they shake their heads at us in scorn." (Psalm 44:12-14, NLT)  "All this has happened though we have not forgotten you. We have not violated your covenant." (Psalm 44:17, NLT) "Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever. Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?" (Psalm 44:23-24, NLT)

There is a place for singing in the minor key as we make our way in this pilgrimage. Oh how easy it is to pray and praise, to sing and preach, when healthy, beloved, and without trials. In such times those strong and whole are sometimes too quick to blame the broken, adding insult to injury.  I believe we need to make it safe for saints to wonder and weep! 

A healthy range of emotions includes sorrow and joy, doubt and confidence.  We know that psychological wholeness is found in proper expression of all emotions. Why is it that we do not recognize the same in our walk with Christ? When disciples lament, when they ask the hard questions of our God, they can grow into a new dimension of faith. I fear that our constant emphasis on the goodness of the Lord, our songs that only celebrate that “God is good all the time,” leaves a large group of Christians without a way to worship.  

The newly divorced person needs to be able to tell God and their community of the ache.
That parent whose child is disabled needs love as they wonder why their son will never read or sing.  
Grief is real and changes my worship!

If songs in the minor key are written out of our worship, we may Christians to one of two faulty conclusions:  that their faith is faulty or that God is justly judging them for some moral failure. Truthfully, suffering comes to us all and we need Him to be our Lord when we walk through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ as much as when we are led by ‘quiet waters where He restores the soul.’   We need songs of lament as much as we need songs of celebration, songs that wonder as much as songs that make bold proclamation.  If God is to be truly our God, then we must learn to talk with Him in every situation and trust Him when the sun refuses to shine.

Christians need to give place and space to those who weep without rushing them to a counselor to get them to ‘deal with their emotions,’ or handing them a manual to help them to “get life right.” 

There are not many sermons preached from the third chapter of Lamentations. Jeremiah’s sorrow is simply too unpleasant for most of us to share.  Look at this portion: "He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:15-18, NIV)  Oh my! And Amen!

I can tell you this:  times of lament make one weary to the bone, bring on times of temptation of a very different kind than prosperity, and are lonely for few want to sing in the minor key with those who are sad.  But, these times can also soften the heart, make tender the spirit, and enlarge the reservoirs of compassion. So, I will, despite my sorrow, let Jeremiah lead me to hope. I will join in him in a confession of faith. Will you?  "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." (Lamentations 3:21-26, NIV)

"For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love." (Lamentations 3:31-32, NIV)

Meantime I may need to sing in a minor key for a time, until the sorrow finds comfort.

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 Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide.When other helpers fail and comforts flee,Help of the helpless, O abide with me.  - Public Domain

Suffering? Why?

Monday was a tough day, exactly 2 months since Bev died.  I made my way to Texas, there visiting my daughter and family. Seeing her triggered grief; deep, hard sorrow.  As I lay down to sleep that evening, I was angry with the Lord and prayer came from a cold fury. “So, Father (tone is sarcasm, not endearment) You have surely been a comfort to me today. Are You listening? Do You even care?” The implication of those words was that He owed me something different than what I have found: a living wife, not a dead one, a healed wife, not one in His heaven.  I would be lying if I said I heard an audible voice, but I do believe He placed a word in my heart. It was simple and profound – “I suffer, too.”

In an era when so many Christians want only victory and nicely summed up answers, the Bible takes us to the awfulness of the Cross to explain God’s response to evil, sin, and brokenness.

• Why doesn’t He just make an end of this broken world? We wonder.
• Why doesn’t He compel humans to be good? We ask.
• Why doesn’t He topple the oppressors, end sickness, break the grip of Satan? We ponder.

The answer comes to us in His choice to suffer. 

Isaiah saw the mission of the Messiah and described it this way: "He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed." (Isaiah 53:3-5, NLT)  God entered into His creation, born a baby to Mary, lived in the real world, felt hunger and pain, and ultimately suffered an ignominious death on a Cross. What an inglorious life – at first glance!

Our God allows us be fully human, gives us freedom to choose, and even when our choices -as well as those of a sinful world- are crushing us, He does not rush in to change everything. Instead, He comes to stand alongside of us, offering to lead us to wholeness, to engage with us, to suffer.  And somehow in all that, we are transformed.  By the Cross, we are lifted and in the hope of the Resurrection we learn to live with tears, while we hope for the moment we are revealed as eternal children of God beyond the reach of pain. Our wise Father knows that we could never be who He desires us to be, we would never love Him as He desires us to love, we could not grow into mature saints without fiery trials.

Thus, He does not always send a lamb in thicket to save us from the altar, as He did Isaac. (See Genesis 22:14) Sometimes He leads us to a cross where we die to Self, to this world, so that we can be raised.  There simply is no Easter without Good Friday, no celebration of an Empty Tomb without a Full Cross!  Meditations on the Cross are so gruesome, so unpleasant, so bloody awful – we want to rush on quickly to the Resurrection, but we must not.

In our time of instant everything, the development of the character of Christ through suffering is not a theme that is much preached. We like the miracle stories, the crisis moments that bring quick conversion. But, mostly our God prefers to let us walk among sinners, just like He did and does.

Yes, Christian friend, there is meaning in my path. I do not like it! There is purpose in the tears, though I am not filled with pleasure in the discovery. But, as He leads, as I accept the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) I will find “green pastures, quiet waters, and a restored soul.”  (Psalm 23)

The way of discipleship sometimes descends into darkness, leads occasionally through searing pain, does not evidence great triumph in every circumstance, but the disciple who humbly seeks is always led by the Spirit as he is ‘made into the likeness of Jesus.’  God’s ultimate desire for us is not blue skies and untroubled minds. It is that we would love Him more than life itself and find our Hope in His embrace.   

So, in the middle of Lent, the season of suffering before the Victory, here is a word for suffering followers of the suffering Savior.  Jesus "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:6-11, NIV)

God lead us to the Cross and walk with us to give us steadiness and comfort so that we will not lose heart, grow weary, or give up.  For Christ’s glory. Amen