Monthly Archives: April 2010

Rest

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As I was reading the Old Testament lesson this morning, one verse just jumped out to me, from Exodus 33:

14 He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Just a short verse, but it says a lot to me. One of my favorite quotes is by St. Augustine, where he says, talking about our relationship with God,

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”

As the father of two small children, I can assure you rest is a pretty awesome thing.  I do think, though, that many of us are restless.

We are restless with work.  With family.  With leisure.  We are anxious. We are stressed. We are worried.  We are afraid and frightened. We are angry. We are whatever. . . . .

We are not rested.  We are not resting.

Why?  Because we are seeking our rest, our comfort, our peace in places other than God. At least I tend to.  We tend to place so much worth on these other things.  Our status, our position, our reputation, our worth.

Your greatest worth comes from none of that.  You are not your job.  You are not your bank account.  You are not your position.

Today, you are a child of  God.  You are His.

Rest in that knowledge.  Rest in that truth.  Everything else, it will leave you restless. Everything else will leave you empty.

Only in God, do we find the rest than we really need.  And then, when we are well rested, we find that the rest of life is even better.

When we find our identity in God, we know our identity in everything else.  And, when we know we are His, all other things fall into place.

And even if they don’t, it’s ok. Because we are His.

Today, find your rest, no where else but in God.  Our hearts are restless until we find that rest in God.

Not Me!

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As I was reading through the scriptures for today, something from Exodus 32 really stood out to me.  It was the conversation Moses had with Arron after the golden calf.   They were talking, and this is that conversation:

21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” 22And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” 25When Moses saw that the people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies),26then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

One of the things we see a lot in the Old Testament stories is this notion of – not me!  I didn’t do it.

Adam – did you eat the fruit?   Nope, the woman you gave me gave it to me.

Eve – did you eat the fruit?  Nope, it was the snake that made it happen.

Arron – did you let the people lose their minds?  Nope, they came to me and made me do it.

It’s a refrain I hear a lot from my two kids.  No me!  I didn’t do it!  Not me!  Not my fault!

It’s always someone else’s fault.  We see that in the Bible. We see it in our kids.  We see it in ourselves.

I know me, it’s easier for me blame others than to look within.  I don’t want to look within.  I’d rather blame you than work on me.  It’s less painful for me to lay my problems and my mistakes upon someone else than for me to look within myself and see what I need to fix.

Or rather, allow God to fix in me.

Sure, none of us are perfect. All of us fall. All of us make mistakes. That’s ok.  Instead of pretending like we are perfect, it’s better to admit our mistakes, take responsibility and work on what we can fix.

And know that even in our mistakes and failures, God’s love never, ever ends.

He doesn’t love us because of what we’ve done (or not done).  He loves us because it’s who He is.

He is love.

In spite of our mistakes.  He loves us.

Not our fault? I don’t know about that.

Being loved by God?  I do know about that. We are. Today, and each day.

How Could They Do That?

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One of the things that is most shocking about some of the passages in the Old Testament is this.  Really, Israelites?  You thought that was a good idea?  Really?  I mean, really?

Take for instance the Old Testament passage from today’s morning reading, Genesis 32: 1-6

1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” 6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

Really?  You thought that this was a good idea?  I mean, where do we start with this?

First, when Moses delayed coming, they said, well, who knows where this Moses fellow went off to?

All they had to do was look up at the mountain. WHICH WAS GLOWING.  I REPEAT, WHICH WAS GLOWING.

But they didn’t.  They just said, well, he’s gone and not coming back.

And Arron, said, ok, I’ll make you a calf, sure. And then he said, he’s the god that lead you out of Egypt!

I mean, think about all they had seen with their own eyes. All they had seen God do. All they had seen God change. Save. Deliver. All they had experienced.

And in one moment, they said, nope, Moses is gone and we want golden calf!

How could they do that?

One small problem.

We do the same thing.

Maybe we haven’t seen God bring plagues against the Egyptians or part the Red Sea.  But, we’ve seen Him move. We’ve seen Him do awesome things.  We’ve seen Him change lives, including our own.  We’ve felt Him in our hearts, known Him with our souls.

So, maybe we haven’t seen what they saw. But we’ve seen a lot.

And, while we may not have melted down our jewelry and built a golden calf, we’ve done the same thing.

We’ve all put our hope in something other than God.  Our job.  Our family.  Our status.  Our wealth.  Our reputation.  Our whatever. . . .

In this text, they said the calf had led them, not God.

In our lives, we can say, these other things, they lead us, save us, take care of us.

We do not need to make that same mistake they did.

We need to trust.  Our life, our hope, our safety, our future, they all come from God.  No where else.  From God.

They didn’t always trust God.  How could they do that?

We don’t always trust God.  May we learn from their mistakes.

And today, and always, may we trust God, knowing that He is our life, our hope, our safety.  And, above all, thanks be to God, that in spite of their mistakes, He still loved them, and didn’t give up on them.

In spite of our mistakes, He still loves us. And will not give up on us.

Thanks be to God!

Worthy Fruit

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This morning as I was reading today’s readings, the words of John the Baptist, in Matthew’s readings stood out.  He is confronting the Pharisees and Sadducees as they come to him.  He says:

8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

This got me to thinking about fruit worthy of repentance. What is that?  What does that mean?  

I imagine the fruit being talked about here is the Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc. But, that was not what really got me to thinking this morning.

How do you bare that fruit?  How is the fruit produced?

To get more personal, how will I make sure that I bare that fruit?  What must I do today, and each day, to make sure that I am barely fruit worth of repentance?

So, I thought, how do produce fruit?  I’ve found that for me, the way my life is fruitful for God is when I am walking closely with God. When I am praying, reading, listening, seeking God, I find that I produce the fruit of joy and peace and love and mercy.

But, when I am not. When I’m too busy. When I don’t seek. When I get bogged down in my schedule. When I turn my attention to what I have to do; what is next, it is in those times I am not patient and kind and loving.

The fruit in my life is worthy when I am walking with the Lord as I ought. When I turn away, towards myself and my stuff, my fruit is not as it ought to be.

So, for me, I have to make myself slow down.  Pray.  Breathe.  Listen.

Today, no matter how busy you are.  No matter what your schedule is, you can take a few moments every so often to stop.  Breathe.  Pray.  Listen.  You don’t have to pray for 30 minutes.  But, you can stop.

And, if for nothing else, become aware to the reality that God is there with you, even then.

In short, I think the key to producing worthy fruit is to live with that awareness that God is there with us. Every moment.

Even now.

Humility and Leadership

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It seems like the readings each day from 1 Peter are really speaking to me. Today, as a I was reading, 1 Peter 5 spoke to me:

1 Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you 2 to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it -not for sordid gain but eagerly. 3 Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away. 5 In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

As I was reading through this, what spoke to me was this notion of humility. That is a virtue that our culture doesn’t really care for. And, honestly, its a culture that we as Christians don’t always care for.

And I’ll be even more honest its a virtue that is easy to forget.  I do a lot of reading in Church Leadership. I’ve been through a lot of teaching in Church Leadership. And I’ve very thankful for it, because I think it’s made me a better leader.

And the think that being a leader (either in church, in work, in your family, in the school, wherever) can whisper to you is this – “It’s all up to you!”

We can buy into the myth of our own self importance.  We forget to humble ourselves.

With all that I’d been taught, I’d forgotten that.  I’m not really all that important.  I’m really not.  The fate of the free world is not upon my shoulders. The future of the church is not dependent upon me. Sometimes, I forget.  I forget those things.  I think it all depends upon me.

We need to remember who we are.  We are not as strong or as important as we think we are.  We are not.  None of us.

Now, that sounds depressing, doesn’t it?  That sounds like we are not much.  Quite the contrarey. Since we aren’t much, there’s a freedom there that comes from just depending and trusting in God.  A freedom that says, I’m not much God, but I’m yours.  I’m not much, God, but I am who you want me to be.  I’m not much, but I’m your child.

And, if we are child of the King, what more could we want to be?

It isn’t until we submit the King, though, that we remember that we are His.

Today, remember, God is bigger that you. And it’s not all up to you.  Humble yourself. Trust.  Depend.  Listen.  Pray.

God is bigger.  May we humble ourselves before Him.

April 16, A Remembrance – No Greater Love

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I don’t normally read from the King James.  I read from the NRSV normally because it’s the standard pew Bible edition for most United Methodist Churches.  I also like the TNIV, even though they are no longer making it, the NIV, the Message, and most all of them.  I always tell folks read the Bible that speaks to them.

But, when I quote scripture off the top of my head, I quote the King James.  Why?  Because it’s what I grew up reading and hearing, and it’s what scripture still “sounds” like to me.  Especially the Psalms, or John 14 (in Father’s house were many mansions).

And the passage I’m thinking about this morning. When I think of John 15: 13, I always hear it in the KJV

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I always think of that verse on April 16.

See it was on April 16, 1978 that no great love was shown to me.

On April 16, 1978, my mother was murdered.  She was killed as she was walking out of our house, with me in her arms. She was walking out of the house because she did not want me raised in an abusive situation, in a situation full of drugs and destruction. She was walking out of the house because she wanted me to have a better life.

She was walking out of the house because she loved me.

And in that, she laid down her life for me.  Literally.  I sometimes tell folks I have the burden and blessing in my life of having had two people lay down their life for me, Jesus and Mama Sarah.

And, every day I wake up and know that I am here, I give thanks for no greater love.

And every time I look at my daughter Sarah and mourn over the fact that she will never know the grandmother she was named for, I give thanks for no greater love.

Every time I look at my grandparent that adopted me, even though they had raised their kids already, and had other plans for life, I give thanks for no greater love.

And every time I get the chance to teach my children about what love looks like, I give thanks for no greater love.

Today is a bittersweet day.  I have no doubt that I am and have been loved.  I just wish the price weren’t so high.

But, greater love hath no man (or woman, mother, or father) than this, that they lay down their life for their friends.

I give thanks for no greater love.

The Tears Will Come

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Everyday in the Morning Office, there are several scriptural passages assigned for each day.  It really is a neat thing when the Spirit moves and feel and see the commonality between them. Today, I noticed something in both one of the Psalms and in 1 Peter

First, Psalm 17

11 They press me hard,
now they surround me, *
watching how they may cast me to the ground,
12 Like a lion, greedy for its prey, *
and like a young lion lurking in secret places.

And, 1 Peter 3: 13-15

13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.

In both of these, there is this notion that suffering will come. We will face those that are against us. All will not be easy.

The tears will come.

So then, the question is not will trouble come. The question is, what will we do with it when it comes. When we face trials, when we face opposition, when we face times of trouble, what will we do.

When those seeking out for us come, what will do?  When suffering visits our door, what will we do?

Are we walking with the Lord now, so that when trouble comes, we may find strength?

Today, this is a day He has given us. There will come good and bad, joy and pain, laughter and tears. They will both come.

We can’t expect a life of only laughter. What will we do when the tears come?  What will we do when trials come? To whom will we turn?

Scripture tell us to turn to God, in whom we have our hope.  May we turn to Him, not only in the good, but in the bad. And may we find His peace is there for us, in all of life.

War on the Soul

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This morning one verse out of 1 Peter wouldn’t leave me alone:, 1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul

I think what stood out to me is this notion of the things we “desire” can actually do great harm to our soul.  The things of the flesh, that look so appealing, can actually do great damage.

Bishop Ward once said something to us in a meeting, that has always stuck with me, “Temptation promises life, and gives death.  A discipline promises short term pain, but gives life.”

How many of us get caught up in things we shouldn’t do, that we know are wrong, but still desire?  How many of us get tangled up in temptation that does war against our soul?

That is the story we each face.

Today, what is at war with your soul?  What temptations look so good to you, but in the end will harm you?  Let us stay away from them.  Let us flee from them.  Let us not get caught up in them.

God will give us strength.  Let us seek after what give us life, not death.