My Prayer Distractions

As is my usual routine, I woke up early this morning, made some coffee, read a couple of chapters in my Bible, and then set out for a walk—hoping to spend some quiet time in prayer with the Lord. My intentions were strong, and my expectations were high. But as soon as I stepped outside into the cold, still morning, my mind became more of a marketplace than a sanctuary.

First, I noticed the leaves that still needed raking, which somehow led me to think about needing gas for the chainsaw to cut firewood (don’t ask me how that connection happened). Then, I remembered I should order gravel for the driveway. Just as I was finally getting to the “Good morning, Lord” part of my prayer, it hit me—I needed to send out our monthly update, start preparing sermons for my trip to Cameroon, apologize to my daughter for eating the chocolate candies she left on the counter, make some phone calls, and, of course, clean up the dog poop in the front yard. Talk about distractions.

The good news? I eventually set those thoughts aside and spent some time in prayer. But it was a battle to keep my focus on the Lord instead of my endless to-do list. Even as I walked another mile or two, trying to pray for my family, friends, and ministry, my mind kept drifting—to finances, relationships, personal struggles, and a mix of both important and trivial thoughts.

By the time I finished my walk and stepped back inside, I wondered if my so-called “prayer walk” had even been worthwhile. I considered heading back out to try again, this time with a more disciplined approach. But then it dawned on me—distractions are part of life.  In fact, sometimes they are life.  And since life is what we pray about, maybe distractions aren’t interruptions to prayer at all. Maybe they’re prayer requests in disguise—things God actually wants me to talk to Him about.

When I have conversations with my wife, they don’t become more meaningful just because I show up with a list and an agenda. Often, the best conversations happen when we talk about all the things that interrupted our plans and derailed our schedules. Maybe prayer is the same way. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) and to bring everything to God in prayer (Phil. 4:6). How could we possibly do that without including our distractions?

So, I didn't go back out on the road to "re-pray" my prayers. I simply thanked the Lord for listening to me as I talked to Him and for listening in on me as I talked to myself. Then I committed all my distractions to Him.

Why Every Believer Should Watch Violent War Movies

Ok, let me backtrack just a moment and say that I really don't think we should all watch violent war movies.....but it did get your attention didn't it?!

And here's my point.  I don't think most of us who profess Christ as our Lord (read: Commander-in-Chief) and Savior truly understand the spiritual war we are in and especially how violently our enemies oppose and desire to severely damage and if possible destroy our very souls.  Now my use of the plural form of enemy is not a typo.  I am referring to the dark threesome of our sinful flesh, the world, and Satan himself.  This is a devastatingly powerful alliance which, has committed itself to the total destruction of our souls.  These three are as committed as they can possibly be to fighting a full-scale, take no prisoners, brutally savage, all-out, merciless, and spiritually toxic war against our very souls with the intent to, at the very least render us inoperative and no longer effective as combatants in battle.  More desirable than this however, to this unholy alliance, is to so damage our souls through a barrage of effective, soul-crippling, spiritual-life-sapping, and collaterally damaging attacks that we look, live, and feel more like our enemy than we do our King.

Some of you don't need a war movie to help you envision the destruction of war because you were there.  You've seen what war does.  You've heard the cries, felt the darkness, and captured the destruction in your memories never ever to be forgotten.  Others have experienced the carnage of war as a result of its collaterally damaging affects which with precise potency can be even more savage than the first-strike itself.  For those who have never seen or felt war there are war movies.  And I'm not talking about the sounds of bombs off in the distance, bases still intact, no blood, no screams, non-terrifying movies of a generation ago with actors still wearing unsoiled, unspoiled, untouched, unmarred, and still gleaming uniforms.  No, I'm talking about movies like We Were Soldiers,  Black Hawk Down and Hacksaw Ridge in which the watchers are shocked, sickened, and may even find themselves forced to turn away from the carnage depicted on the screen.

You see, war destroys.  That is what it is designed to do.  Wars are fought to destroy the enemy as ferociously fast and effectively as possible.  Wars are all about crushing and terrorizing the enemy so as to make him give up the fight, surrender the cause, and never rise up in arms again.  And this is what our three-fold enemies have in mind for us.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at 1 Peter 2:11.  Peter does not use the word "war" for its attention grabbing value.  Rather, when he tells us that our fleshly lusts are waging war against our souls think about those really violent scenes in those war movies you have watched lately and then come to grips with the fact that this is no movie.  This is the real thing.  What your fleshly lusts are doing to your soul are for the intent of so severely damaging your soul that you surrender the fight, are taken prisoner, and lost to the cause.  This is spiritual warfare and it is deadly to the soul that is unprepared or unwilling to fight (Rom. 8:13).

That's the bad news.  The good news, however, is that no matter how critically wounded the soul, it can be restored.  No matter how devastating the damage, our souls can be revived and renewed.  Psalm 19:7 gives us this hope.  But you need to look it up and read it to find the hope.  No one else can do this for you.  Its your soul, your battle, and your duty.  Read it and you will see.  Then read verses 8-11.  There is indeed hope for even the most severely damaged souls who will give their attention to God's Word and fight.  It is possible to restore the soul, reengage the enemy, and win the war!  Don't Quit.  Don't Give-In.

The Church--And Can She Be?

One of the questions I am often asked in my travels overseas, training pastors, is what would our vision for the local church be, if we used scriptural parameters rather than those of our own cultural and denominational making.  Here is the answer I give them.

The church would be a healthy, vibrant, fruitful body of regenerate (born again) believers that brings honor to Christ whether gathered on Sundays for worship or scattered throughout the week for evangelism, ministry in the community, or life at home.  She would be a church after Christ's own heart so that He can look at His sufferings--embraced and endured on the cross--and rejoice that they were well worth it.  She would be a church that makes much of Christ by making much of the Gospel, by believing it and preaching it to herself for her progress in holiness and to the lost for their salvation.  Risk-taking for the sake of adorning and sharing the Gospel would be the norm rather than the exception.  And since the desire of every heart would be to see Christ receive the reward of His sufferings--evangelism, discipleship, church-planting, and missions would not take second place to the color of the carpet, new comfortable chairs, or repaved parking lots.  Of course, doctrine, the ordinances of baptism and communion, and church discipline would matter.

When gathered, there would be a feeling of humble reverence as well as an air of joyous familial informality, where each esteems others better than himself, where everyone is important but no one jockeys to become important, and where all recognize Christ as Head.  Among believers would be a beautiful simplicity and a radiant Christian love that makes no room nor provision for gossip, talebearing, and discord. Spiritual gifts would be exercised not discussed; prophecies heard not despised; people served not used; and the Spirit set free not quenched. 

Childlike candor without duplicity, dishonesty, or disharmony would mark Christ’s church.  Power struggles and power plays would have no place within this Body.  Safe, humble, and honest conversations would happen as we learn to disagree agreeably about the things we don't see eye to eye upon. Sin would be confessed because it could be confessed without fear of condemnation, becoming an outcast, or reprisal. In this church, there'd be no large scarlet letter "A's" sewed on your clothes for all to see and shun. The seeking and the granting of forgiveness would be as common as eating, drinking, and sleeping.   And at all costs and as much as is possible, strained and broken relationships would be repaired and restored for the sake of Christ’s honor.

Men and women alike would be respected, honored, and expected to fulfill their God-ordained, biblical, and  complementary roles not allowing these sacred roles to be confused or compromised by the satanic and demonic influences of the world. Marriage would be held in honor as the picture it is of Christ's love for His bride and His bride's loving respectful submission to Him. Children, born and unborn, would be cherished, loved, protected, and taught the Scriptures which are able to provide them with "the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus".

What is done within Christ’s church would be done “in the Spirit” rather than “in the flesh” and if this is the case the presence of Christ would be felt by His beloved.  Sunday’s worship would be entered into, experienced, celebrated, and enjoyed because Christ has been entered into, experienced, celebrated, and enjoyed Monday through Saturday.  The singing of praise would be passionate because Christ is worthy of our passion.  The reading of God’s Word would be honored and done honorably for the honor of God’s Name.   And the sermon would be anticipated as that time when our Lord speaks to us through His Word utilizing the sincere simplicity of a man He has called to be “a fool for Him”.  Prayers offered before the Throne of Grace would be sincere, simple, and straightforward realizing God is not only able to answer but willing.  Prayers would be offered and answered so regularly that it is understood as normal rather than abnormal.   And when necessary, miracles would not be uncommon but worldly frivolity and entertainment would be. 

Is all this, in the light of Scripture, unreasonable to expect in and of a church? . . . Is this impossible?  Is anything impossible with God?  Is anything impossible where the Lord Jesus Christ is on the throne and His people live like it?  Is this unscriptural?  No!  The only thing that is unscriptural about this vision, is that as biblical as it is—it is not yet BIG enough.  The scriptural standards are higher still.  God not only is able, but desires to do far more abundantly beyond all that we could ever ask or imagine, according to the power of the Spirit that works within His church and He desires to do this so that He would be glorified in and through His church (Ephesians 3:20-21).  

If you believe in this vision for the church— if you would like to see this kind of reformation, this change for the better, this recapturing of the ancient power of God in the souls of His people, then there must be a radical restructuring in our minds and hearts as to whose vision for the church we should embrace--our's or God's.  The Church--and could she be?  

Making Decisions About The Future Without Knowing The Future

Decisions, especially those major, life-changing decisions about the future, are challenging, to say the least.  What makes them particularly difficult, at least for me, is just the simple fact that I'm trying to make a decision about the future, that will affect my family's and my future, without being privy to what the future even looks like.  This can cause me as well as probably many of you some stress.  So, let me share with you some things I have learned and am learning right now as my wife and I are thinking through what life and ministry could look like for us now that we are on the verge of being "empty nesters".

The big issue for us when making decisions about the future is risk.  We simply don't want to risk making a bad or the wrong decision because we do not know which decision is the best one to make. So, in order to alleviate as much risk as possible we want to know as many details about the future as possible, which for us as believers means asking God to give us clear leading as to what to do because He does know the future we don't know.  But, God doesn't usually work this way.  The future is His to know and ours to find out by experiencing it when it comes (Deuteronomy 29:29).  

As Kevin DeYoung puts it:

"Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God's way.  His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds.  His way is not a crystal ball.  His way is wisdom.  We should stop looking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives.  We should start looking to God--His character and promises--and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name's sake." 

Our big problem in decision making is not so much a lack of trust as much as it is misplaced trust.  We get wrapped around the axle of trusting God to lead us to make the perfect decision, which will bring about the best possible results whereas, we should be asking God to help us make the wisest, most biblically informed, most gospel-impacting, and most spiritually healthy decision and then trust God with the results--resting in the fact that because of God's sovereignty--all of our decisions will end up being used by Him to accomplish His will for us.  Like, Scotty Smith writes, "Life isn't primarily about making the right decisions but, trusting the right Lord.  

Practically speaking, this means reaching the point in our decision-making process where we desire God's wisdom rather than His omniscience. Certainly, we should research our options and consider all our choices wisely.  But when, what we really want to know is every step, every turn, every possibility, and every outcome of God's plan for our lives we’re no longer seeking understanding, were wanting omniscience.  And quite frankly, the biblical way to making decisions isn’t found in grasping for God’s omniscience, but in grasping God’s hand as we trust that He has been leading and guiding us all along.

When it comes to non-moral choices about specific and perhaps major life-changing decisions, too often, too many of us, approach God's leading as something we just, with the onset of this decision, discovered we needed, rather than assuming that God has been leading us all along as Psalm 23 teaches us.  In other words, instead of assuming we need God's leading in choosing which fork in the road to take, perhaps we should assume that God has been leading us all along and the two options before us are the result of God's leading.  The assumption that God has already been leading us and therefore, has led us to this fork in the road means that either option would be a fine and perfectly good option to pursue since God cannot and would not tempt us to do that which is wrong (James 1:13).  

Looking at our arrival at a junction in life where a major decision is required as a divine appointment and then seeing the choices before us as the good options God has led us to consider and choose from removes the sting of fear from our decision making.  This perspective on decision making leads us to freely and responsibly choose between good, God provided, and God-engineered options so as to experience freedom rather than fear in our decision making.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us not to worry about the future, which obviously encompasses the decisions we have made and will make about the future—not because we have access to the information God only has in His omniscience or because an unknown future isn’t scary, but because our Heavenly Father cares for us:  "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matt. 6:25–26)

The idea of our Heavenly Father caring for us is not merely isolated to providing for our material needs of food and clothing, but also to those multiple and important decisions we must make that end up providing definition to our lives.  Again, the assumption is that as we are seeking God's Kingdom and God's righteousness, He is leading us, and thus the choices He is leading us to are good options to freely choose from.  

But don't make the mistake of thinking that this freedom to choose--promises that our choices will always prove successful or safe.  Freedom has never been a synonym for safety.  In fact, most of the time, freedom is risky, at least from our perspective, because when we do grasp his hand and decide to trust him, we don’t know what he’ll do.  As Elisabeth Elliot writes:

"Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust him. This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust him, he’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust him. Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses.”

You see, at the end of the day, assuming God has already been and is continuing to lead us as a result of His providential and sovereign care, as we seek his kingdom and righteousness, means we can freely live life by making the "risky" decisions that will define our lives without overanalyzing every decision or being paralyzed by fear or the prospect of failure.

  

Pastor Tim Keller once shared that when he first came to Manhattan to start Redeemer Presbyterian Church, people asked him, “Are you sure God has called you to start this church in New York City?” His answer surprised most of them and maybe it'll surprise you too.

I think He did. I see an opportunity. I don’t see anybody else taking the opportunity. I feel an obligation to come. I think it’s a good idea. I think God’s calling me. But I can’t be absolutely sure. I can be sure that I must not lie; it’s in the Bible. I can be sure that I must not bow down to idols; it’s in the Bible. I’m sure of a lot of things that are God’s will. But as far as I know, I won’t be sure that I’m called to plant a church until it happens.

And then when these same people would persist, incredulously asking him,  “But, didn’t you have a peace about it?” he replied:

No, it was too hard of a decision. It was too scary. But I know this: guidance is as much something God does as it is something he gives. Therefore, I knew that by selling my house and moving up here and signing a three-year lease that, if I failed to plant a church, God was preparing me for something I couldn’t envision.

In other words, Keller believed God had led him to the decisions and the options he needed to, freely and responsibly, choose between so as to grasp God's hand rather than trying to grasp His omniscience.  And this enabled him to rise above fear in making a life-changing decision and enjoy freedom.  In this, he followed the early Church Father, Augustine's advice, who, simply and succinctly, wrote in a sermon from 1 John 4:4-12, "Love God and do [choose] whatever you please."

We're Either Moving Forward Or We're Wandering In Retreat!

One of the things I have learned over the years both from Scripture as well as my own personal experience is that no matter how mature in Christ, how passionate about the gospel, how effective in ministry, and how greatly we may have sacrificed for the Faith, all of us are still very much prone to wander from the Lord we love.  And it doesn't take much to get us wandering.  For many of us its not as much an intentional walking away from Jesus or from His Word as much as it is an unintentional wandering resulting from the neglect of and inattentiveness to spiritual priorities and disciplines in our lives.  

One of the vivid examples the Bible gives us of such neglect is found in the Book of Nehemiah.  In this autobiographical report, Nehemiah gives us a “play by play” analysis of everything that took place when he traveled from the Persian city of Susa to Jerusalem to lead in the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem as well as be used by God to help ignite a spiritual revival.  The climax of this revival is seen in chapters 8-9 where the people, upon hearing the Word of God, read and taught, respond by confessing and repenting of their sins.   Then in chapter 10, they signed a covenant in which they promised to obey and honor the Lord from there on out.  

What a tremendous response to the preaching of the Word of God.  I’m sure Nehemiah was ecstatic.  What preacher wouldn’t be thrilled to have a whole nation respond to the Word of God in such powerful expressions of love and loyalty to the Lord?  

Well after his twelve year success in leading in this great work for God among his people, Nehemiah needed to return to his day job as the cupbearer to King Artexerxes back in Persia.  In preparation, he did what any good leader would do under the same circumstances.  He made sure the reforms he had set in motion would be carried on by qualified men.  Once theses arrangements were made, he then left to resume his service to the king.

Now, fast forward twenty some years and Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem, only to find that in the approximately two decades that he had been gone, the people had drifted back to the way they were before he had come the first time.  I’m sure he was shocked to hear about and actually see for himself that the mountaintop experience of twenty years ago had become a distant memory in the people’s minds and hearts.  And I’m certain, he was greatly saddened to find that the people’s zeal for God’s praise and glory, which burned hot twenty years ago, was now, cold as ice.

Nehemiah 13, is the record of how quickly and gradually God’s people can move from a spiritual high to spiritual decline.  Its a good reminder to all of us that even in our strongest and most vital  moments with God, we are still very “prone to wander from the God we love”.  

It appears, from reading chapter 13, that the people began their departure from Nehemiah’s reforms in very small and seemingly insignificant steps, that really could be described as inattentiveness to God’s Word.  More specifically, the people were guilty of a careless attitude toward corporate worship (13:4-21) while the spiritual leaders were guilty of a nonchalant attitude toward their spiritual leadership responsibilities, giving their time, energy, and influence to following popular, yet unbiblical, trends (13:22, 28-30).

Spiritual and Biblical reform is always an ongoing experience.  If not, it, very quickly, becomes “dis-reform”, which sometimes leads us back to square one in our walk with the Lord.  We must never forget that regardless of whatever progress we have made in Christ, whatever growth and maturity we are experiencing, and however intimate our walk with the Lord is today--we are still prone to wander. We must not forget, that until Heaven, when the presence of sin is completely removed from us, that our hearts are still prone to wander from the God we love.  Therefore, as Proverbs 4:23 commands: We must always “Watch over our hearts with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Just like the people of God in Nehemiah's day, we cannot afford to underestimate the destructive inclination and desires of our own sinful flesh which we carry with us until the day we die and finally experience freedom from any further influence and inclination toward sin.  Nor can we disregard the powerful pull of the world toward its fruitless, fragile, and fleeting pleasures.  Certainly, we dare not forget that the enemy of our souls, who is none other than the devil, is always prowling around seeking those, who are careless among us, whom he can devour.   Finally, we must always keep at the forefront of our minds, the truth, that we are either moving forward in our battle against sin, our flesh, the world, and the devil or we are in retreat, which is nothing less than wandering.

The Great Commission Is A Mission For All Seasons

If all we do is scroll through FB posts, listen to “Woe is the Church During Covid” podcasts, fail to filter the propaganda our favorite internet news brands want to feeds us, and then buy into all the doomsday predictions swirling around—you just might think that all the church is focused on and obsessing over today is the “to mask” or “not to mask” issue as well as how to keep the government from taking our rights, our guns, our votes, our voice, and of course our money.  It’d be a pretty grim picture indeed.  It’d also be the wrong picture.  

You see, the truth of the matter is that today, even during Covid and the aftermath of a contentious election, far more Bible believing and preaching churches are focused on the mission of the Great Commission than are not.  Oh, I don’t doubt there are a great many churches focusing on the wrong things but that’s because they are not necessarily Bible reading, Bible preaching, and Bible believing churches.  I say this because those kinds of churches who still place a high priority on the Word of God understand that the Great Commission is a mission for all seasons—regardless of who is the president, which political party has control, what the economic forecast looks like, how well our church and personal budgets are faring, and is Covid ever going to go away.

These kinds of Great Commission mindset and focused churches also understand that the fear of future potential loss is not an excuse to slow down, rest, or bail on the mission.  As Peter, our 14 year old, shared with me a couple days ago when we were out walking and talking about his future missional goals—If anything our current situation should cause us to move forward in Great Commission endeavors with much greater urgency—willing to take far more substantial risks than ever before as we see gospel opportunities diminishing.  

Wow, I couldn’t agree more!  And as I reminded Peter, for every believer who rises up, leaves family and familiarity to go to a hard place to live among gospel-hardened people for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission, there is a small army of praying, sacrificing, giving, and biblically hopeful believers and their churches who instead of bemoaning their troubles and lack of ability just keep trusting God for more strength, more power in prayer, more funds to give, more gospel influence, and more gospel-investing opportunities.  We think that this aptly describes you all who have our back at Regions In Need as we work to advance gospel influence among unreached people groups by providing training, resources, encouragement, and pastoral care to indigenous churches, pastors, and church planters in select areas of Cameroon, Myanmar, Nepal, and East Asia.  Thank you for still believing the Great Commission is a mission worth sacrificing for, praying about, and giving to even in the midst of serious difficulties and setbacks at home.  

Want to more about us and Regions In Need?  Check us out at:   www.regions-in-need.org

  

I Kissed Retirement Goodbye!

Wow--here's an article that is just too good to not share with whomever may be reading this blog from time to time.  Please read it, take it to heart, and then do something about it--especially if you are in or heading for those often dreamed about and long-hoped for "retirement years".

This article will help you not to waste your life by wasting this retirement you've been anticipating for the last--who knows how many years.  It might just help break you out of that fragility mindset some folks get themselves caught up in where all you think you're good for is sleeping in, visiting the grandkids, and reading them books about Barney.  Now, there is nothing wrong with that at all, but there is so much more you can do with your retirement, your resources, and your life experience walking with the Lord.  So please for the sake of Christ and those He has given His blood to save--Don't piddle your life away in the last lap.  Finish strong and finish well!  

Here's the article, entitled: Kissing Retirement Goodbye by John Ensor, who is the Executive Director of Urban Initiatives for Heartbeat International and author of The Great Work of the Gospel, which is a great read about what God has accomplished for us through the Gospel.

I kissed retirement goodbye—at least the kind traditionally planned for in America. My mother has finally persuaded me that there are better things to do than "just retire" when I reach her age.  

In August, I wrote about caring for family with end-of-life challenges.  My mother, at 78, started to go blind while on a mission trip to Mongolia.  Her sight was saved through high-dose steroids, which tripped other health concerns which were compounded by the discovery of breast cancer.  The subsequent surgery left her fragile.  She fell and added injury to sickness and disease.  We gathered with her in August to discuss how to care for her as she enters what I call “the frowning years.”  Ecclesiastes simply calls them the "evil days", when: 

"the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets." (Ecclesiastes 12:1-5).

The point of this description is to “remember your creator in the days of your youth” (12:1) while you can taste and see the goodness of God while all your senses are in full function, and your strength is still intact.  Savor him while you can—before your teeth fall out (the grinders cease) and your eyes fail (the windows are dimmed) and your bones ache with every move (the grasshopper drags itself along); before the fears of dying assail you and sap your strength and try your faith one last time before they are swallowed up in victory.  

Evidently, at 78, my mother is still in the days of her youth.  Since August, she has prayed and fought for her health but just last week she left for Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  She joined a team of trainers for a Leadership Development Conference in which 90 teachers from around the country took their school vacation week to learn to study and teach the Bible through an inductive-study method.  Seven more teachers planned on being there.  But my mother writes, “They did not get here because their charter bus was ambushed by robbers and the driver was killed.”  

In spite of such things, she writes of the thrill of watching the participants learn how to discover the Bible's unsearchable riches.  She concludes, “I have been so blessed to be here, that at times I think I will burst!” 

Evidently, she intends to die with her mission boots on as she faces down those “frowning years.” 

"STRESSED OUT? GENESIS CAN HELP!" (Genesis 1:1A)

Recently, I read an article on how to survive stress.  And the very first survival tip was . . . Don’t Panic followed by, don’t isolate yourself, keep a normal routine, and get out of the house.  So much for trying to survive stress in our new COVID 19 normal huh?!  And when you add this coronavirus pandemic to all the normal stressors of life—like losing loved ones, poor health, chronic illnesses, marital struggles, family issues, financial problems, work place struggles, getting old, and any number of other things . . . you have all the makings for what is called “stress overload”.

Interestingly enough, more people have become news junkies in the last few months than ever before—watching the headlines everyday and wondering, “What is going to happen next?”  And that’s the real stressor about the situation we’re in—isn’t it—the uncertainty of what’s going to happen tomorrow.  That’s the hardest thing for most people to deal with.  They’re facing an unknown future which they can’t predict—and certainly cannot control. 

So, today and really for the next several months I thought it might be a good idea for us to look at a Book in the Bible that was designed by God to  help us deal with stress and especially stress overload caused by the fear of an unknown future.  And it may surprise you to know that this Book is the Book of Genesis.

The reason this surprises us is because when most of us think of Genesis all we think of is a long book filled with ancient history, endless genealogies, names we can’t pronounce, stories we’ve heard over and over again in Sunday school, and all the sometimes confusing and technical details about Creation versus Evolution.  And quite honestly, that’s why Genesis is one of the least preached Books in the Bible.  That’s really too bad because as I said before—Genesis should be a go-to book for God’s people when they’re dealing with stress . . . especially the stress that comes from facing an unknown future.

Now, why do I say that Genesis was written for people who are stressed out?  Because, the original audience God gave Genesis to—were the Hebrew people Moses had just led out of Egypt into the middle of the barren, uninhabitable, dark and dangerous, “no-mans” land of the Sinai Wilderness.  These were people who had been in Egypt for 430 years—most of that time as slaves—who had all but given up on God ever hearing their cries.

Then God, whom they had for the most part forgotten—raised up Moses, an adopted former member of Egypt’s royal family turned fugitive whom the Hebrews did not know—to lead them out of Egypt on a journey through the Red Sea—and then across a dry, desolate, and dangerous wilderness they were totally unfamiliar with on their way to a homeland—a “promised land” which they had never seen and wondered if it really even existed. Talk about stress!

Can you imagine all the “what-if’s” these people were thinking about when it came to this “new normal” they were thrust into?!  So, if you were there would it be of interest to you to meet this God and find out a little bit more about Him?  Might you want to know something about His ability to take care of you, provide for your family’s needs, keep you safe, and successfully lead you all to the Promised Land?

Well, I sure would!!  I mean, if I am going to entrust my life, my family, my future, and in fact, my very soul to this God—I’d like to get the scoop on Him.  In fact, if I don’t get the scoop on Him—if I really don’t have any understanding of this God—how can I really trust Him—let alone love Him.

So, the way in which God began to alleviate their stress and their fear was by formally introducing Himself to them through the very first Book in the Bible—the Book we call Genesis—which God called Moses to record while leading the Hebrews through their wilderness experience.  But, not only did God introduce Himself and make Himself known to His people—He also introduced them to themselves and by extension—us to ourselves by sharing through Genesis the stories of our roots and our ancestors.  You see, in Genesis, we find out who we are, why we’re here, Who made us, and believe it or not—why we’re having to deal with this Coronavirus.

But, that’s not the only reason God gave them and us—Genesis.  You see, Genesis tells us why there is evil in the world and how it got into us and why life just doesn’t seem to make sense so much of the time. . . .and why our hearts experience so much emptiness.  Genesis tells us why we can’t seem to be content or get along or stop striving for more and what God has done, is doing, and will do about all this evil in and outside of us.  And in Genesis, we also get a glimpse of our future and how God restores our relationship with Him as well as our hopes, dreams, and original destiny through the “seed of the woman” Who would come to earth to defeat evil and death by giving up His life.  Genesis also gives us the preview and outline for the rest of the Bible.  Its the first chapter of God’s story about His intention to live life with His people on earth so as to fill the earth with His glory.  And the story ends in Revelation 21-22 with God doing exactly that!  So, God gives His stressed out and fearful people Genesis to give us faith, hope and courage by revealing Himself, His Attributes, His Faithfulness, His Promises, His Love, and His Son to us.

But, to really get a handle on Genesis we need to understand that the Hebrews were not so much concerned with how old the earth was or precisely how God created the universe as much as they were with knowing if this God Who was leading them into the unknown—could and would take care of them so as to give them a future in the promised land.

Now, don’t misunderstand me—I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be concerned with the age of the earth or how God created the universe.  What I am saying is that if all you see Genesis and especially the first two chapters in Genesis as is a textbook refuting evolution—you will have missed the whole point of the Book.

You see, God gave the Hebrews and us Genesis so that we might know Him better than we do—so that we will trust Him much more than we are—so that we will love and enjoy Him far more than we ever thought—as He leads us safely home to the promised land—that their promised land was merely a picture of.   But . . . on top of all this and in fact, most important of all . . . God gave His people Genesis to introduce us to Christ and the gospel. 

Yes, you heard me right. You see, its really important to know that Genesis, correctly understood, is primarily about Jesus Christ and the Gospel.  I mean, Jesus, Himself makes this point in several passages like Luke 24:25-32, 44-47; John 1:45; 5:39, 45-47.  The apostle Paul makes this same point in Acts 26:22-23 and 28:23.

You see, Jesus is the ultimate reality that everything in the Old Testament including Genesis is talking abut and pointing to.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 5:17-18 when He said He came to complete and fulfill the Old Testament. You see, Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross are what of the Old Testament Scriptures, the feasts, the sacrificial system, the Temple, the priesthood, and all the stories pointed to. 

Thus, every bit of Scripture including Genesis is part of the same great story of God rescuing us from our sin and its condemnation through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ so that we might be reconciled to God and restored to our original destiny in Creation, which we had all but forgotten.  As Tim Keller writes:

There are two ways to read the Bible.  The one way is to read it as though its all about you—what you have to do in order to be right with God and stay right with God.  This way of reading the Bible will never give you sure hope and security because you will never measure up.  The other way to read it is to see it as all about Jesus.  Its about Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done to make you absolutely right with God.  If you do not read the Bible this way you will never be secure in your Faith.  But, once you understand that the Bible is all about Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and in your place—then you can be secure and experience hope and peace.

And this is precisely why Genesis is so important to us—It introduces us to the God of all hope, to God the Son—Jesus—and to God the Holy Spirit who all show up in the very first verses of chapter one.  In fact, in Genesis we have the foundation for all the major fundamental teachings of the Bible.  But again, most important, in Genesis we have the first mentioning, explanation, and pictures of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is why I am calling this series—“The Gospel According To Genesis”. 

Now, the title “Genesis”, which means “origins”, comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures which is called the Septuagint.  The original Hebrew title of the Book is simply “Beginning”.  Both are appropriate titles because Genesis is about the origin or the beginning of our universe, the beginning of marriage, family, sin, redemption, the Hebrew people, and a bunch of other things.

But, Genesis is also especially concerned with informing us about Him, Who has no beginning . . . Him, Who has always been and always will be.  Him, Whom we call God.  Him, whom we, who are believers, call our Father. And we need to keep in mind that before God became the Creator, He was a Father.  We see this in Jesus’ words in John 17:24 where Jesus says:  “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the very glory you have given me, because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

You see, in eternity past, eons before God initiated the creation of the heavens, the earth, and us—God the Creator was God the Father.  In fact, His role and position within the Trinity has always been for all of eternity as God the Father just as God the Son has always been the eternal Son of God—completely equal to the Father as God.  So, God didn’t create to become a father.  He created because He was a Father.  As Michael Reeves writes in his book entitled, Delighting In The Trinity, 

The fact that Jesus is “the Son” really says it all. Being a Son means he has a Father. . . . That is who God has revealed himself to be: not first and foremost Creator or Ruler, but Father. . . . He is Father. All the way down. Thus all that he does, he does as Father. That is who he is. He creates as a Father and he rules as a Father.

And He created so that He might share the love He has for His Son and the joy He has in His Son with people who will believe in and love His Son.  And if you believe in Jesus and you love Jesus—it is because God, the Father has set His love on you.  This means that if you love Jesus for Who He really is—Whom the Bible presents Him to be—then you are loved, cherished, treasured, fully accepted, and highly valued by God the Creator of Heaven and Earth Who is Your Father.

Jesus put it this way in John 16:27,  “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God”.

And if you have God the Creator as your personal Heavenly Father, through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, then you have a truly good, powerful, patient, wise, attentive, and forgiving Father whose love for you is greater than you can ever imagine.   The problem with all this however is that, as Reeves goes on to say: 

Many of us simply have no idea how to have a Father in heaven.  We know to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven. . . .” but we still pray (and feel) as if he’s galaxies away.  We know God is sovereign, righteous, all-wise, just, and even merciful, but we struggle to believe he could be that personal — like a father would be to his own child.  Some of us are uncomfortable in prayer not because we haven’t learned enough about prayer, but because we’ve never learned what it means to truly be a child of God.

And this is why we need to study Genesis—so that we can learn what it means to truly be a child of our Heavenly Father—Who loved us so much that He sent Jesus to the cross to die in our place to pay for our sins that we might be reconciled to our Father in Heaven.

Genesis is the beginning of our Heavenly Father’s story in which He shares with us Who He is, Who we are, Why He created us, What broke our relationship with Him, and What He has done and is doing to bring us back home to Him.  Thus, Genesis is a Book about the future as much as it is the past and it presents a great future for people who will come home to their Father.  And that is the only real antidote and cure for stress there is!

[From the sermon series The Gospel According To Genesis, Sermon 1, Pastor Mark Waite]  

 

 

Christianity Is War

Make no mistake about it, Christianity is war, plain and simple! 

If you don't know this and you are a Christian you are in trouble.  It is a war far more real than you think. The fighting is intense, long-lasting and real victories are hard won and more rare than you think, casualties abound, retreat is commonplace, and taking and holding ground far more costly than ever imagined. Our war is the ultimate reality all earthly wars point to. They are but the picture, as real and terrible as they are. Our spiritual war is the reality they point to.

Our weapons are not made of metal and plastic but are divinely powerful designed to destroy all that is in us that is opposed to Christ. Our enemy is a brutal, savvy, treacherous, highly skilled, and unbelievably enduring foe whose greatest strength is its close proximity to us....for our enemy is always with us 24/7. It is none other than our sinful flesh, our old man, if you will, whose nature it is to oppose, fight, and if it could, destroy the spiritual life within us that is becoming more and more glorious everyday as it is being conformed moment-by-moment into the image of Christ 24/7, whether you realize it or not.  Our enemy will never quit, be reformed, tamed, surrender, tire of fighting, or concede. It's a fight to the death and only in our death will its head never rise again.

But while our flesh presents itself as such a formidable foe it can be defeated. It can be resisted and it can even be used to encourage our battle hardened and weary souls when seen aright for what it is and why it is. You see, the mere realization that we have a sinful flesh that opposes us in our desire to pursue Christ assures us that our pursuit of Christ is real and something the enemy of our soul finds worthy of opposing.

The truth, Christians must learn and can only truly learn through spiritual hand-to-hand combat with an enemy who seems to prevail against us at every point is that the mere fact that we are being opposed by and opposing our sinful flesh provides us with an assurance of salvation we could find nowhere else. For you see before salvation, we were at peace with our sin but at war with God. After salvation, we are at peace with God but at war with our sin.

 Listen, I know firsthand how ugly this battle can get. I also understand how demoralizing and discouraging it often becomes to lose battle after battle. But don’t diminish the value of the battle whether won or lost. Only believers are at war with their sinful flesh and thus, the greatest value may not lie so much in your successes as much as in the fact that you’re in the fight.

Don't Muzzle The Only Perfect Words Your Church Will Hear This Sunday

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that nothing we human beings produce or can produce is perfect.  This is true in every realm of human existence including the church’s worship of God.  As inspiring as the music can be—it is not perfect because the songs being sung were written and put to music by flawed human beings.  As powerful as the preaching may be—it too is not perfect for the simple reason that the preacher isn’t perfect.  This is true of every aspect of every worship service every church has ever experienced or will experience.

But there is one aspect of the worship service which, is perfect.  And that worship activity is none other than the reading of Scripture.  The reason I say that the reading of the Scriptures is the one perfect aspect of any worship service is because God’s Word is perfect and if read, as given, word for word, it is the only perfect thing done in any service of any church.  

Now, I understand that many churches, including many evangelical churches, do not include the reading of Scripture in their worship services which, is hard to understand since God tells pastors to be devoted to including it in the worship service of the church (1 Timothy 4:13).  And if this is your church you might want to think about the fact that you’ve jettisoned the only perfect part of the service in which God Himself is speaking directly to His people through His divinely inspired and preserved Word.

That’s right!  You heard me correctly.  The public reading of the Scriptures, in the church’s worship service, is the one and really the only time in the service when God’s people get the opportunity to hear God speak directly to them through His perfect, powerful, fully authoritative, inspired, and preserved Word as it is read to them outloud. 

Now, don’t get me wrong here.  The sermon is important.  In fact, it’s as essential as the public reading of Scripture, but the sermon was written by a man not God.  Thus, it, while certainly authoritative, blessed, and used by God--as long as it’s true to the Word—is not perfect.  Corporate worship is necessary too in any worship service but, it will never be perfect. Corporate prayer, while passionate, sincere, and faith-filled, will never be perfect for the simple reason that none of our thoughts, perceptions, emotions, attitudes, and words are perfect.

But, God’s words as recorded in Scripture are perfect and thus to read them publicly in the worship service is to be reading the very inspired, revealed, and perfect words of God to God’s people.  Is this important?  The apostle Paul sure thought so because, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, he wrote to a young pastor named Timothy and told him to: “. . . devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching . . . be diligent about these matters.  Give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress.” (1 Tim. 4:13-15)  It would seem that Paul considered the pastor’s job on any given Sunday to be incomplete and lacking if all he did was preach and teach the Word of God without ever reading or having the Scriptures read publicly.

I kind of wonder if we couldn’t even go so far as to say that it is arrogant of pastors and their churches to neglect the public reading of God’s perfect Words as recorded in the Bible so as to make more time for our imperfect words uttered in announcements, songs, preaching, and prayers.  Certainly, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and drop these important and essential aspects of our corporate worship services, but neither should we muzzle God and neglect the only perfect words that will be heard by God’s people on any given Sunday.  Pastors and their churches must make room for God’s Word to be publicly read and heard by God’s people during our time of corporate worship.  So, let God’s Word be read loud, clear, and publicly in the church! 

God’s Mysterious and Unseen Paths

Figuring out God's will for our lives is never an easy task for the simple reason that we are not God and thus are not privy to all the thoughts of God regarding the twists and turns of our lives.  Whereas, we have access to and should avail ourselves of God's revealed will for our lives as provided to us in Scripture, it goes without saying that God's unrevealed will or His secret will is sometimes a mystery to us as He works out His revealed will in and into our lives.

Such was the case with the Israelites as they followed God's revealed and commanded will to leave Egypt.  They knew they were to leave, had somewhat of a faint idea of where they were headed but had no real idea of how they were to get there.  They were in the dark as to the twists, turns, and the trials that awaited them along the way.

This is pretty obvious when on day three of the journey, they reach the Red Sea and notice a huge dust cloud behind them signifying Pharaoh's army, approaching fast and about to trap them against this seemingly insurmountable barrier.  With no where to go and fearing the worst, the people cry out to the Lord, blame Moses for their predicament, and believe the worst.  But, then God does the unthinkable.  He divides the Red Sea and uses the problem, if you will, to provide the solution to their predicament.  We know the rest of the story.  The Hebrews cross through the Red Sea on dry land and make it safely to the other side whereas, Pharaoh's army is drowned and destroyed in their pursuit.

In commenting on this event, Psalm 77:19-20 says:

Your way was in the sea, and your paths in the mighty waters, and your footprints (path) may not be known.  You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

In other words, God's unrevealed will, up until the time they needed to know it, was hidden in the very problem they were facing.  God's path for them was through the very thing they saw as a great barrier to them.  With power and might, God, like a shepherd, led His people on a pathway no one knew was there.

So, be encouraged confused, doubting, wondering, and fearful believer.  God is still His people's shepherd leading us according to His will, both revealed and unrevealed, through life's difficult decisions and seemingly insurmountable struggles on pathways we could not possibly have imagined and never even knew were there.  And don't be surprised when the answer to the "bigger than life" problem you see in pursuing the will of God is in the problem.