"Be Fruitful and Multiply"

In my daily Bible reading today (Genesis 1 & 2; Job 1 & 2) a simple phrase jumped off of the page at me: "Be fruitful and multiply." When God created man He told them to "be fruitful and multiply." Now in this context God is obviously speaking of their physical legacy - He's telling them to fill the earth with humankind.

But I can't help but wonder...

What if we could ask God this simple question: "Should this command to Adam and Eve be an axiom for our spiritual lives today?" In other words, "God, should I 'be fruitful and multiply' in my spiritual life as well?" I think we all know that His answer would be a resounding, "YES!" In fact, we see this truth sprinkled all over the New Testament. But do we live it?

So, ask yourself (as I'm asking myself):

1. "Is my spiritual life fruitful?" Am I continually seeing fruit that is born from walking with God, being rooted in the Gospel of Truth? (See Galatians 5:22-26) Or is my spiritual life stale and lifeless?
2. "Am I multiplying myself spiritually?" Am I intentionally and systematically leading others to Christ and discipling them on what it means to walk with Him, or am I content to keep my faith to myself and let others find their own way?

Hopefully the answers to these questions aren't as sobering for you as they are for me. If they are sobering for you, and you cannot answer yes to each one, what will you do about it?

Mmmmm.... Oreos.....

     I love milk. Actually...let me qualify that... I love to eat Oreo cookies and drink milk along with them. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon: after a great post-church lunch, get a few Oreos and a big glass of milk and turn on the football game. Then, after you've munched the Oreos, and drank your milk, you can gently fall asleep on the couch to the football game. It's beautiful right? 
     Have you ever had a big ol' gulp of milk only to discover that it'd gone sour? It's pretty gnarly. Very unpleasant. It tastes like dirty gym socks from the local junior high locker room... gross.
     The Apostle Paul had a great way with words, and he was really good at being very direct. In Galatians 6:7-8 he wrote, "Don't be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit."  
     These are sobering words to think about. If you leave the milk out on the counter, you're gonna be drinking sour milk later. Neglecting the care of the milk is bad news for your Sunday afternoon plans! 
     In the same way, neglecting our walk with Christ, or "sowing to the flesh", will result in a sour Christian life. We will not be refreshed or refreshing. In fact, we'll be like nasty ol' gym sock Christians. Of course there are many ways in which we can "sow to the flesh." Most of us are experts at it - after all, it is pretty easy to do. It's requires a bit more of me to sow to the Spirit, but isn't it worth it in the end?
     Take some time today to sow to the Spirit. Open your Bible. You could start right here, with the book of Galatians if you want. It'll be worth it. I promise.

More Than Conquerers

  Last Sunday morning I watched as my father-in-law played bass guitar in our worship service. This, in itself, is not unusual. He's been leading in worship bands for years. What was unusual about this Sunday was that it was his first Sunday back in the band after his wife of nearly 4 decades died - suddenly, inexplicably, unexpectedly, devastatingly. He was leading worship in songs that declare that God can always be relied on, and that He loves us, and that He is an ever-present help - He never fails. And while my father-in-law was manipulating the strings of his bass in genuine worship of this God, he was weeping over the loss of his wife.

  Not too long ago a massive tornado ripped through Moore, OK. Kids were crushed to death; some drowned in the basements in which they went to to seek shelter. Not too long before that bystanders to a marathon were shredded by shrapnel from backpack bombs. Not too long before that a madman reeked havoc in an elementary school in Newtown, CT, killing scores and scarring the hearts of hundreds for life. 

  Tragic natural disasters - tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis.
  Horrific acts of violence - bombings, shootings, rapes, abductions, planes flown into buildings.
  Deeply personal afflictions - disease, depression, death - quietly suffered, unnoticed by all but those intimately involved. 

  Everyday occurrences. These are not rare events that we are occasionally subjected to. These are integral pieces in the puzzles of our lives. Each puzzle piece is a different part of our picture - distinct from the others, but all a part of the whole. They fit together tightly, interlocking with the joys, triumphs, disappointments, and hardships. It is in these puzzle pieces that life is lived. Every single day we work, eat, talk with others, perform tasks, drive, do both the mundane and the fantastic, in, through, and informed by these puzzle pieces.
  
  As Christians we have to ask, "Where is God in this puzzle? Where does He fit in these horrible moments? Is He absent from these puzzle pieces, withdrawing to allow this suffering? Is He not that God that we sing about who never fails?"

  

  No, He is not absent. He is very present. Psalm 46:1 says, "[He] is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

  
  Why does He allow evil, horrible, difficult things? Sometimes we can grasp some understanding, but as a dear friend and pastor pointed out, there's not always a "why," sometimes there's just an "is." Sometimes horrible things just are. But God, who is rich in mercy and love, through His grace has provided a solution. He can move into a bad situation and bring good. He can move into death and bring life. And so if you live a life characterized by following after Him, you may not ever get a satisfactory answer to the "why", but He will be faithful to be an ever-present help, providing refuge and strength when the unthinkable happens.

  If tragedy has not hit you yet, it will. Prepare now. Dig into His Word now. Study it. Know it. Understand it. In this way, when life's shrapnel shreds your soul, you will not falter and wither away. Instead you will stand firm in the midst of great suffering and pain in the knowledge of who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised He will do, and He will bring life and peace again.

  

  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -The Apostle Paul, Romans 8:35-39

  "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Psalm 46:2-3

Donuts and Dogma

So this morning I met with a couple of buddies over coffee and donuts just to hang out and invest in one another's lives and talk about the things of God. After the obligatory discussion on Apple products and other technology we began talking about Matthew 15:8-9. 

According to Matthew, Jesus had recently walked on the water shortly after feeding 5,000+ people and they were hanging out healing sick people in a town called Gennesaret, when along come some Pharisees and scribes (read, "heavy duty religious leaders") from Jerusalem (Jerusalem is over 100 miles south of Gennesaret). Well, the Pharisees have a real problem with the way Jesus' disciples are doing something and they really wanna bring them down, so they ask Jesus this deep, probing question: "Why do your buddies break our traditions by not washing their hands before they eat?" Jesus is dumbfounded and flummoxed by their clever line of questioning. But He gathers Himself and responds by giving one example of how hypocritical they are because they use their beloved traditions to break the Word of God. Then He quotes Isaiah's prophecy regarding them in verses 8-9:

"These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”

My friends pointed out that Jesus was condemning them for their legalism, for their vain religious activity and they noted that we, in the context of our own church lives, have a tendancy toward legalism and vain religious activity too. Well, this concerns me. 

What are the vain religious activities that we engage in? Or even more dangerous, what vain religious beliefs do we hold?

We talked about church history and how the errant views of a few in the past on matters that seem kinda minor resulted in the shackling of millions of people to certain false dogmas for centuries, binding people to beliefs, traditions, and fears that are unnecessary and damaging, and create false views of who God is.

Between bites of my French Cruller I realize that this is a very frightening thing to think about, because I wonder... We often feel like we've got it pretty much right; that we sorta have it figured out better than some of those guys in the past. But I wonder, do we hold any errant views today that maybe seem like no big deal, but that might result in shackling many to false dogmas in the generations to come? Are there religious ideas and views that we hold precious to us that could serve to bind people to beliefs and traditions that are unnecessary and damaging, creating false views of who God is?

I contend that we do... and I'll write more on that next time...

Psalm 141

Sometimes reading the Psalms is no fun. Sometimes they feel like convicting reminders of our own sin - pricking the heart a little. Psalm 141 is kinda like that. 

Oh, don't get me wrong, the first couple of verses are really nice, 

"Lord, I call on You; hurry to help me. Listen to my voice when I call on You. 2 May my prayer be set before You as incense, the raising of my hands as the evening offering." (http://msb.to/Ps141:1) 

I love the idea of God hurrying to help me, listening intently to little ol' me with my little ol' problems. I love the concept of our prayers being as incense - a pleasing aroma in the throne room of God. This is comforting, this helps, this is what I want God to look like, this is the kind of scripture passage I can really get into. I can witness to my friends with this kind of passage: "Hey buddy, Jesus loves you - and look, see here in Psalm 141, God's gonna come running to your rescue ANY TIME YOU WANT!" So
convenient, this God. Isn't this how we witness to our friends these days?

But then, "Lord, set up a guard for my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. 4 Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts with men who commit sin. Do not let me feast on their delicacies. 5 Let the righteous one strike me— it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me— it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. Even now my prayer is against the evil acts of the wicked." (http://msb.to/Ps141:3)

Oh, how often I "feast on their delicacies!" How often do I let the words and deeds of men influence my own speech and actions.  How easily I am swayed to enter into behavior that is decidedly not God-honoring in response to my environment. How often to I sit at the banquet of iniquity and dive in.

You know what I'm doing when I do that? 

Yep.

How do we stop doing this?



Are you ready? It can be a bit painful...











 



 .






David said it like this in Psalm 141, "Let the righteous one strike me— it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me— it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it... my eyes look to You, Lord God. I seek refuge in You; do not let me die." (http://msb.to/Ps141:5)

Will you ask God to strike you? To rebuke you? The wise one sees it for what it is: healing.

God, convict me of my failings. Teach me to love what you love and hate what you hate. Give me the courage to deny myself and not partake of the banquet of the world. 

The Work of Our Hands

This morning, as I was filling out information on a resource's website, I was prompted to pick a "title" from a drop down list. Clicking the button I expected to see the standard, "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms.", etc., but was instead greeted by a long list of professions. As I scrolled through the alphabetical list, my cursor stopped on "pastor." A simple word, really. It comes from the Hebrew word meaning to shepherd. Not exactly a prestigious title. But when my cursor landed there I couldn't help but to become more than a little emotional. See, God pricked my heart for pastoral ministry over a decade ago when Rick Ferguson encouraged our congregation to "get out of the boat" one Sunday evening, and I've been working toward that end since that night. Last night my beloved church body ratified by vote that calling from so many years before when they voted to call me as their Pastor to Students. Author Morris Kline wrote, "The most fertile source of insight is hindsight." Looking through the lens of memory it is clear that God has been orchestrating events such that at this time I would be prepared to step into His calling, just as He is using the current events of my life to orchestrate how He will use me and my family in the future.

An hour later, during quiet time with God I read these words in a prayer of Moses, "Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God." http://msb.to/Ps90:1 And a few verses later Moses finishes his prayer with, "Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands-- establish the work of our hands!" http://msb.to/Ps90:17

God doesn't need us to fulfill His purposes, He's been at work since before time began. But He chooses to use us, He chooses to "establish the work of our hands," and for that, I'm grateful.

God grant your favor on this, your servant. Grant wisdom. Grant faith. Grant humility. Grant peace. And grant a holy fervor to see your Kingdom purposes accomplished in my little circle of influence.