Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Renewal


(Audio version; Music: "More And More Of You" (Fike/Lee/Riddle)--WorshipMob--Real. Live. Music.)


Psalm 51:10-13

10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

Introduction

            There’s clearly a reason why God insists that we spend part of our lives in quiet contemplation and prayer. I am thankful to all of you who so graciously prayed for Renewal for me during this Christmas season. Your prayers were answered and you’ll see how those prayers for Renewal unfold over the coming months.  What emerged from my time away was a distinct theme of reflecting on what has gone before and anticipation of what lies ahead.

My wife, Laura, and I celebrated the graduation of my oldest daughter, Meagan, from college after four and a half years. The weekend that we first dropped her off, we pick a spot on the college campus and put our arms around one another and prayed that God would protect her and carry us all through that new phase in all of our lives. The day after her official graduation, we went to that same spot to give thanks to God for his faithfulness during her time at college and for the blessings still to come.

Shortly before Christmas, both my girls came home to spend the holiday with us. During their time at home, I had the opportunity to reflect with my youngest daughter, Elizabeth, about how God was using her time in college to break down her preconceived ideas of what faith means and rebuild her faith into a more personal and authentic faith; an enduring faith. We had an opportunity to reflect on how hard pre-med studies have been and we had an opportunity to celebrate the anticipation of her graduation in the spring and the next phase of her continued studies at the graduate level next fall.

In the midst of my time away from this ministry, my wife, Laura, successfully completed the first half of her pursuit of a college degree. We reflected on the rigors of going back to college later in life in comparison to the much wiser path that our girls have chosen. Unfortunately, I played a significant role by not doing more to encourage her to complete her college degree when we first contemplated getting married. Nevertheless, she complete the first phase and that phase was probably the most academically difficult. We had the opportunity to celebrate that accomplishment and we’re now excited as she is just a few weeks away from beginning the next phase of completing her degree and the expanded career opportunities that a degree will give her.

A Pastor’s Thoughts” Looking Back

            Many Christians are rightly committed to seeking God’s will for their lives in the never-ending pursuit to be conscious of what God is doing in and through them. Unfortunately, not all those Christians take the time to reflect on what God has already done in and through them and pastors are no exception. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to do that during my time away from preparing weekly lessons. A Pastor’s Thoughts ministry is now a little more than three years old. After just the first three months preparing weekly lessons, the website was being accessed in 8 countries by as many as 50 people a month with 10 lessons available in text form only. Now, a little more than 3 years later, the website has been accessed in 89 countries by as many as 1,500 people a month with 165 lessons available all in text and many in audio form. Even I was shocked when I saw those numbers and that God allowed me to be part of it all! Nevertheless, A Pastor’s Thoughts ministry has never been about the numbers like it can be with more traditional ministries. Specifically, more traditional ministries understand the numbers in financial terms. Usually, more popularity and traffic means more money. However, numbers for this ministry is an indication only of the number of people who have the opportunity to hear the gospel message because the ministry still does not solicit or accept any outside financial assistance. God has honored that decision by continuing to provide me with ample carpentry opportunities so that I am able to support the financial needs of the ministry out of my own resources. Consequently, this ministry and the gospel message is in no way polluted or influenced by outside financial contributions. The continued viability of this ministry depends on being faithful to God’s leading and not by being popular, entertaining or saying what people want to hear. As a result, some of my lessons have managed to ruffle a few feathers. In fact, during 2014, I introduced what I somewhat sarcastically refer to as “Hate Mail Thursday.” Weekly lessons are not always accessed by Christians so that I’m not only “preaching to the choir.” Every week I post my lessons on public, electronic billboards where they are accessed by believers and unbelievers alike. I am reminded every week by the hate mail I receive from unbelievers (and sadly from some believers) that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18).

            However, 2014 also gave me to opportunity to weep with and pray for some of my readers around the world who are being persecuted and face death daily because of their faith. I had the opportunity to walk alongside a number of people as they faced daunting medical trials that stretched their faith and in some cases pushed their faith to the brink of collapse only to witness God’s spiritual Renewal in their lives. I was humbled to be part of God’s salvation work in the lives of others who made the decision to build their lives on the foundation of God’s love and truth revealed in Jesus Christ. I haven’t had the opportunity to see how or if God used this ministry in the lives of everyone who accessed the ministry website but I got a glimpse of it in a few lives and that makes it worth all the hate mail and the long hours of researching, writing and recording.

A Pastor’s Thoughts” Looking Ahead

            For those of you who know me, I’m a pretty simple man. Most of the time, I feel awkward buying stuff for myself (except for books and couple of other eccentricities). Unfortunately, it can be embarrassing for my family because it means I tend to be a walking advertisement for someone stuck in the 80’s with three pairs of shoes (including flip-flops) and a narrow assortment of ratty jeans and stained tee shirts. Well this year my wife conspired against me and I ended up with a pair new jeans from the 21st century and handful of new shirts—with collars! I have to admit, it was kind of nice not being mistaken for a homeless man in public. However, there was one relic that I thought would survive—my old wallet. It was old and worn out, held together with a few threads and little bit of shredded leather. But my family is not only thoughtful, they are thorough as well so they got me a new wallet as a Christmas gift. Initially they got me a wallet almost identical to the old one. However, I kept the old one long after it should have been replaced not because it was the right one but because it was comfortable. My wife wanted to get me something better but my daughter said, “No, dad’s a creature of habit.” So why am I boring you with this silly story of a wallet? Because my daughter was right, I am a creature of habit and that goes for this ministry as well. God has been sending me subtle messages throughout the year as my email, which is tied to the ministry website, was hacked no less that six times during the year. So it’s time for this creature of habit to make a change and to inaugurate that change I exchanged my new wallet for a better one and this year, I will be exchanging this website for a better one as well! Change, although not particularly natural for me, isn’t really that difficult for me either except when it comes to modern technology. When it comes computer and internet technology, I resist change because I don’t understand it. I know that sounds strange for a ministry the relies solely on computer and internet technology to communicate its message. However, therein lies the genius of God because there is no way I could take credit for the delivery and distribution of the weekly lessons—I am a pastor not a computer expert or webmaster. As a result, all the credit and glory for the successful delivery and distribution of the gospel message through this ministry belongs to God alone—as it should. I will keep you posted as to the progress of the new website over the coming months and I ask that you pray for strength and endurance for me as the transition will be time consuming, stressful and costly. Pray also that God would provide the right people with the technical expertise to help me faithfully develop and launch the new website according to His leading and in a way that will bring Him even more glory and honor.

Conclusion

            As you can see, God accomplished much during my time away over the last few weeks. I had the opportunity to reflect and give thanks with my wife and daughters on God’s blessings in their lives and I had the opportunity to reflect and give thanks to God for the blessings in my own life. I had time to stop and look back at the people God blessed through me and all the people God used to bless me. I had the opportunity to celebrate the vision of blessings for the year to come for my family. Mostly, though, God used my time away to pour renewed life into me through a renewed vision and renewed direction for this ministry. I want to thank all of you who have faithfully prayed for me and for this ministry over the last three years and I want to thank all of you who have been faithful to share the weekly lessons as often as you can. You have been instrumental in spreading the hope and the salvation message of Jesus Christ to more than a third of the countries of the world! Every year tends to have a recurring pattern or theme. The theme for some is physical trials. For some, the theme is emotional trials. For some, the theme is persecution. For some, the theme is spiritual warfare. For me, the theme of the last year has been perseverance. My prayer for all of you for next year, if it is God’s will, is for salvation, strength, security, peace, health, and rest. For 2015, I’ve been praying, and ask that you pray with me, that God will bless me and this ministry with a different theme—Renewal.


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

NO VACANCY


(Audio version; Music: "My King Was Born Today" WorshipMob Original)


Christmas Schedule

            In past years, I have always prepared a lesson right up until Christmas. However, this year I am going to take a page out of my own lesson from this week and not do that. Consequently, this will be my final lesson until December 31st. I will be making room in my life for the wonderful gift of watching Meagan, my oldest daughter, graduate from college and then I will be making room in my life to enjoy the Christmas season with my wife, Laura, and with both Meagan and Elizabeth who are able to come home for Christmas this year. However, most importantly, I will listen for God knocking and make room in my life to celebrate the wonder and joy of God’s gift to humanity—the gift of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

Introduction

            Growing up, we never read the Bible in our house. Actually, I’m pretty sure we never even had a Bible in our house. We went to church and we prayed formulaic prayers by memory but we never read the Bible. Even though I believed in Jesus Christ, I knew very little about Him or anything else contained in the Bible for that matter. I didn’t actually start reading the Bible until my early twenties. One of my best memories was Christmas dinner around the table of my in-laws. They weren’t serious Bible readers either but they had Bibles in their home and at Christmas, my father-in-law, or Papa as my girls call him, always read the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel. Later, when my girls were a little older, he asked them to read the story. Of all the traditions from either of our families, I like that one best. With all the rushing around, last-minute present wrapping, and the Christmas dinner food preparations, everyone stopped and made room for Jesus. I’ve been thinking about that this year again as we approach the Christmas season. I’ve been thinking specifically about the idea of taking time for Jesus; specifically welcoming Jesus into these days before Christmas; making room for Jesus during Christmas. It seems a little redundant I know considering it’s “Christ”mas. It’s not that crazy though if you think about it—There’s no room for Jesus in most of our schools thanks to atheists. There’s no room for Jesus at work in the name of fairness to all. There’s no room for Jesus in the market place where money alone is god. There’s no room for Jesus at home where self-fulfillment and the acquisition of more and more “stuff” rules. There’s no room for Jesus in some of our churches where entertainment, popular programs and feel-good spirituality rule supreme. Finally, there’s no room for Jesus in the hearts of many people whose sinful, self-prioritizing lives are their god. For too many of us, Christmas is, or at least has been, a time when there’s no room for many of the things that there should always be room for. For too many of us, we walk into this Christmas season with a giant neon sign hanging around our necks that reads NO VACANCY! The circumstances surrounding the advent of Jesus Christ are the perfect metaphor for our lives in so many ways. With the exception of an angelic visitation announcing the arrival of Jesus to a few backwoods shepherds grazing their sheep, Jesus came to us without any fanfare, pomp or circumstance. Instead, He came to a world that welcomed Him with a great big NO VACANCY! Literally! But, thankfully, He came anyway and the way Jesus came says everything about the depth of God’s desire to be in relationship with us.

Subject Text

Luke 2:1-7

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Context

            We tend to forget about a few very important events that began more than a year before of our Subject Text. Luke tells us in chapter one that an angel visited a man named Zechariah and told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would become pregnant and give birth to a son who was destined to be God’s servant in the same way that the beloved Old Testament prophet Elijah served God—specifically, to turn the people’s hearts back to God. Elizabeth would eventually give birth to John the Baptist who would, indeed, preach repentance of sins in order to clear the path for relationship with God, and that path led straight to Jesus who John introduced to the people and who baptized Jesus at the inauguration of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

            Six months after an angel visited Zechariah with divine news, an angel visited a young virgin girl named Mary with news that she would become pregnant and give birth to a son. But not just any son mind you, Mary would give birth to the Son of the Most High. Let that sink in for just a moment. We take so many things about the Bible for granted because we know them so well and they’ve become so familiar that they’ve lost some of their intended wonder and gravity. The angel didn’t just tell Mary that Jesus was going to be a king, the angel was telling her that Jesus would be THE King; the long-awaited Messiah. We jump to that conclusion right away because we know the entire story of Jesus. But Mary didn’t know that! Mary had to put the pieces of the angel’s proclamation together. Let me give you the key parts of the angel’s pronouncement that Mary was left to piece together:

·      Jesus’ name is derived from the Hebrew name Joshua and means “the Lord saves,” and
·      Jesus would be called “Son of the Most High,” and
·      Jesus would be the final King to sit on the “throne of his father David,” and
·      Jesus would be Israel’s (and the world’s) eternal King “forever,” and
·      Jesus would establish a kingdom that “will never end.”

Believers read all these things in Luke 1:31-33 in the context of the rest of the gospel of Jesus Christ and already know that He is the Savior of the world. But Mary didn’t have the context. She was a young, Jewish teenage girl who lived in the context of the Old Testament expectation of the Messiah. Imagine being a devout Jew whose country was occupied and ruled by Rome, a Gentile nation. Then suddenly an angel appears to tell you that you will give birth to Israel’s Messiah. Mary’s head had to be spinning. As unbelievable as all that news must have been, at what point do you suppose it dawned on her that she was a virgin AND she wasn’t married? For many people in our culture, being a virgin, even as a teenager, means there’s something wrong with you and becoming pregnant outside of marriage is no big deal. But in Mary’s culture, being a virgin until after marriage was non-negotiable. In fact, being sexually active outside of the marriage covenant meant, at best becoming an outcast, and at worst, being put to death. The angel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would miraculously plant the seed of God within her when she wondered how an unmarried virgin could become pregnant. No big deal, right? Well put yourself in Mary’s shoes and play that through your mind and then tell me how you would explain that. You know, something like this: “Mom, Dad, I have some exciting news! An angel visited me and told me that I would become pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Savior of the world! Isn’t that exciting?” Don’t kid yourself, Mary was in trouble and I’m pretty sure she knew it. However, God knew exactly the challenges that Mary would face in her community so He convinced her future husband, Joseph, not to refuse taking Mary as his wife even though she was pregnant and he wasn’t the father. Joseph’s humility to be obedient to God even though he knew what people would think of him for marrying a girl who was pregnant with someone else’s child, set the stage for the Old Testament fulfillment that prophesied the ancestral lineage and the geographical birthplace for the divine Messiah which brings us right to our Subject Text.

Text Analysis

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.


            Sometimes it can be difficult to place the biblical text into its proper place in history. However, Luke, a physician who was not one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, gives us a very specific point in time for the temporal context of the gospel of Jesus Christ in vv. 1-2. Luke tells us that the events of our Subject Text occur during the Roman rule of Caesar Augustus who presided over the whole empire with Quirinius as the governor of the Roman province of Syria. The text says that Augustus order a census to be taken of the entire Roman empire. And what was the purpose of the census? In order to determine the appropriate taxation to be assessed and collected from each region within the Roman empire as well as keeping tabs on population distribution so as to determine the military presence necessary in each of the various provinces. No doubt, larger populations probably necessitated a larger military presence as a reminder that opposition and unrest wouldn’t be tolerated. In order to tabulate an accurate census, everyone within the geographical empire was required to return to their own hometown according to v. 3 to register for the census. This was no small matter considering the geographical extent of the empire as illustrated by this map of the empire (Roman empire in orange):


            We know Caesar Augustus because of the biblical narrative but apart from that narrative, people may not be familiar with Augustus. But if I mentioned Marc Antony and Cleopatra, you’d probably recognize those very familiar names from Roman history. Well at that time, Augustus was known as Octavian. Let me explain how Roman history unfolds into biblical history: In 31 B.C., “Marc Antony, painted as the betrayer of Rome who sought to establish a monarchical rule over the Mediterranean with his illicit lover, Cleopatra of Egypt, was defeated at the battle of Actium by Octavian and his forces…In gratitude and in the hope that complete allegiance to Octavian would forestall any future civil wars and the incredible loss of property, security and life which accompanied them, the Senate and people of Rome gave Octavian the imperium, the right to command the legions of the empire and made him perpetual consul…He was given the title Augustus, which denoted him as ‘pious’ and as ‘worthy of reverence,’ and named him Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the official religious life of the Greco-Roman world…The provinces were glad to accept Augustus’s imperium. He brought security and stability to their agrarian and urban lives—for many, for the first time in their lives! What the Mediterranean needed and wanted was a strong ruler and a clear line of succession. Poets lauded Augustus as the bringer of salvation and good news. (Luke will use the same terms to speak of the significance of Jesus’ birth.)”[1]

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

            Think about the prophetic significance of what happens in vv. 4-5. Approximately 700 years before the events of our Subject Text, God revealed through the prophet Micah: “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler of Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times (Micah 5:2).” The Messiah was prophesied to come from the line of David and was going to be born in Bethlehem. And then without any warning, world events that don’t appear to be related in any way whatsoever to biblical events begin to unfold precisely the way they were predicted hundreds of years before. If we read past this quickly we miss exactly what these events mean in the grand scheme of our faith. Unbelievers disparage the faith of Christians as believing in myths and fairytales because we can’t present concrete evidence that Jesus is divine and must, at some point, take it on faith that Jesus is who He says He is and did what He said He did with respect to our salvation. And that is true to a large extent. However, that doesn’t mean the Christian faith isn’t based on concrete historical evidence that supports that faith. All the characters in our Subject Text are real historical figures that are represented in both biblical and extra-biblical texts. All the biblical characters that wrote about the Messiah hundreds and even thousands of years before our Subject Text were also figures represented in both biblical and extra-biblical text. Did you know that there are more than 300 prophesies about the Messiah going all the way back to the first chapters of Genesis? We have a handful of them in the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. Do you want to know the probability of Jesus being the fulfillment of all those prophecies? Well just to give you an idea of how certain you can be that Jesus is the Messiah, the probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the Old Testament prophecies would be 1 x 1028. Maybe that doesn’t paint the picture clearly enough for you. Here’s what the probability figure looks like: 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! That’s the fulfillment of just eight prophecies and two of them are right here in our Subject Text! Yes it still requires faith to believe that Jesus is who He says He is and did what He said He did but it doesn’t take blind faith. Vv. 4-5 demonstrate to us that God was always in complete control of all the events of history even though He appeared to be uninvolved for hundreds of years. “From the universal, we now move to the particular. To this point, it would appear that Augustus is sovereign over the whole world; he issues a decree and the whole populace travels here and there in order to participate in the Empire’s tax burden. Now, however, we learn not only how the census related to the unfolding of the angel’s words, but also that a still higher purpose is at work than that of the emperor…this is the first time in the Lukan account of Jesus’ birth that Joseph does anything, though even here he is introduced to us primarily in his relationship with Mary and his inherited status as a Davidide. Both the description of his journey as a ‘going up’ and the designation of his destination as ‘the city of David’ invite the reader to speculate that he is traveling to Jerusalem. Luke upsets such expectations by identifying Joseph’s destination and identifying the city of David as Bethlehem. In this narrative aside, Luke intrudes briefly to render explicit that Joseph is fulfilling the Scriptures and, thus, fulfilling God’s own purpose…As often in biblical narrative, then, we find here a conjunction of intentions. On one level, Joseph’s journey is the consequence of the almighty decree of Augustus. On another, even the universal rule of Augustus is conceived as subordinate to another purpose, the aim of God. One may call this ironic, as if Rome is made unwittingly to serve a still greater Sovereign. But it is also prophetic, for it reveals the provisional nature of even Roman rule.”[2]

6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

            Travellers during the time of our Subject Text could usually cover about 20 miles a day if they were healthy and didn’t run into trouble along the way. Considering Mary was probably nine months or close to nine months pregnant at the time, it probably took them a week to make the journey. After traveling the 80 or so miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph finally arrive in the city according to vv. 6-7. Unfortunately, so did all the other people who originated from the town of Bethlehem. It seems clear that neither Joseph nor Mary had any relatives or acquaintances in town because they sought public accommodations when they arrived. And to make matters worse, Mary went into labor. Imagine this scene now—the small city is overrun with countless visitors from who knows where in the Roman Empire. Private homes are filled with visitors (relatives and/or acquaintances) and public accommodations are filled with everyone else. Joseph and Mary are on the outside looking in with “no room at the Inn” and Mary was in a bad way. I’ve been through the birth of two children and I’ve tried to put myself in Joseph shoes. Let me try and explain, in one word, what I would be experiencing at that moment: Panic! So the only thing left for Joseph to do was improvise. So he found and prepared a place for Mary in a stable. A stable! Joseph fixed up a place for her to give birth to the Savior of the world in a dirty barn among the animals. And it gets worse. The text says that after Mary gave birth, she wrapped Jesus in some cloth and “laid him in a manger.” Do you know what that is? You know that little manger scene you have in your children’s books or that cute little manger scene some of you have set up under your Christmas tree? Yeah, it’s nothing like that. A manger is a feeding trough for livestock; donkeys, horses, cows, pigs, etc. The stable was filthy, disgusting, and smelled of dirty animals and their waste. But this is where we find the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6).” “The promised king came to his people but did not have enough power to secure a resting place for his birth. The descendants of David descended to a stable to find a place to lay the head of the King of kings. This is how God used earth’s lowest to bring salvation from heaven’s highest.”[3]
  
Application

            The events surrounding the birth of Jesus are a perfect metaphor for so many of our lives. Jesus, yet unborn, arrives in Bethlehem but there is “no room at the Inn.” God came knocking but there was NO VACANCY. No one seemed to care that Mary was pregnant and was about to give birth to the long-awaited Messiah, but no one in the city had room for Him or seemed to care. But there were some, there are always some, who would make room for Him; who did care. But they weren’t leaders or officials or really very important people for that matter from the world’s perspective. Instead, they were lowly shepherds who got a message from an angel that if they took the time and believed, they would find the One they had been waiting for lying in a manger in the city. Here’s how it happened:

Luke 2:8-15

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

            Notice something about this part of the biblical text? The angel came to the lowest class of people. It was an agrarian culture but shepherds weren’t part of the prominent social class. They were poor, dirty, smelly and usually not highly thought of. Notice something else about the text? When God’s messenger came to them and told them about the coming of the Messiah, they went to Bethlehem to see. So what, you might be asking. Well what about the animals they where charged with shepherding. It is unlikely that they herded their animals into the city with them. Instead, it is more likely that they left the animals and went to the city without them. Imagine that, there was something more important than the animals that were given to their charge. As important as their duties were, they made room in their lives for the Savior. There was no room for the Savior in the city of David but there was room for the Savior among the filthy beasts and the lowliest of people. The shepherds demonstrate the attitude so often missing in our present culture. When Jesus knocks on the door to our work, we proclaim that there is NO VACANCY in our work for Jesus. When Jesus knocks on the door to our public schools, we proclaim that there is NO VACANCY in our public schools for Jesus. When Jesus knocks on the door of our relationships, we proclaim that there is NO VACANCY in our relationships for Jesus. When Jesus knocks on the door to our finances, we proclaim that there is NO VACANCY in our finances for Jesus. When Jesus knocks on the door of our churches, sadly there are some churches that proclaim there is NO VACANCY there for Jesus. It is true that Jesus knocks on the door of all areas of our lives and our culture and we are given the choice of letting Him in or telling Him that there is NO VACANCY for Him. But during this Christmas season, I want you to consider something else; something that is necessary before you are able to answer Jesus’ knock in any of these other areas of life. During this Christmas season, take a moment and quiet yourself amidst the noise and rush that is knocking on your life and listen very carefully for a different knock. This Christmas, listen for Jesus knocking on the door to your heart. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, man or woman, rich or poor, Jesus is knocking. Jesus knocks at the hearts of all humanity. You need not fear that you are unworthy or unclean, remember that Jesus wasn’t born in the comfort of an imperial city surround by royalty. He was born in a small, back-woods town into the filth of a stable where he slept in a feeding trough surrounded by dirty animals in the company of smelly shepherds. So during this Christmas season, listen for Jesus knocking on the door to your heart and consider very carefully if you will let Him in or if you will proclaim that this Christmas, there is NO VACANCY for Jesus in your heart.




[1] David A. deSilva, An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), pp. 57-58.
[2] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke—The New International Commentary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), pp. 126-127.
[3] Trent C. Butler, Luke—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2000), p. 29.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

In The Eye Of The Storm


(Audio version; Music: "Finding My Joy...Again" (by Jessica Tozer)--WorshipMob Original--Real. Live. Music.)


Introduction

            I want to confess right away that I stole the title for this lesson from a book by the same title from one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado. In the book, Max tells the story of Chippie that I would like to share with you.

            “Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
            The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said ‘hello’ when ‘ssopp!’ Chippie got sucked in.
            The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie—still alive, but stunned.
            Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do…she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
            Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
            A few days after the trauma, the reporter who’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.’
            It’s hard not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over…that’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart.”[1]

            I’m sure that some of you got a big laugh out of that short story, but not all of you. Some of you are just sitting there staring at these words. You can’t laugh anymore, you have only tears, and you’ve lost your voice from crying out day and night in pain. So now you’re like Chippie—you sit and stare; no more joy; no more singing. I know you. I’ve been you. Life seems perfect and then comes that day when the military chaplain shows up at your door to tell you that your son’s been killed. The police show up at your door to tell you that your daughter’s been killed in a car accident. The doctor walks in and says it’s cancer and you’d better get your affairs in order. You watched Muslims butcher your family in front of you. Your boss says he’s sorry but cuts had to be made and you didn’t make the cut. You realize that your marriage is barely surviving and your spouse doesn’t seem to care. We find ourselves sitting and staring, feeling like the life has been sucked out of us; like we’re drowning in pain and sorrow; like we’re being blasted by a wind that feels like it is trying to cut out our soul with a dull knife. You’re trying to do life but all you can manage to do is just put one foot in front of the other or just sit and stare. Life for you is no longer something to embrace, it’s become something to endure as the storm clouds around you grow darker and darker with each passing day. You can’t figure out where to turn, what to do next, how to get out. You are In The Eye Of The Storm and your only hope is to lash your life to God who is immovable until the storm passes—and it will pass one way or another.

            One of the great things about the Bible is the transparency of the characters it portrays. Life is rarely filled with rainbows and butterflies for the prominent characters of the Bible. For example, David experienced withering storms during his life and he recorded his joy, fear, pain, and sorrow for us in the Book of Psalms where he is also transparent about his doubts about God and his faith in God.

Subject Text

Psalm 6

1O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. 3My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? 4Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. 5No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave? 6I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. 8Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. 9The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer. 10All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

Context

            Psalm 6 is traditionally understood to be one of six penitential Psalms. One of the difficulties of the Psalms is trying to establish their context because each Psalm is separate as opposed to a running narrative. Some of the Psalms are hymns and are meant to be sung. However, many of the Psalms are prayers except that the person offering the prayer doesn’t generally give us the specific reasons for the prayer. Consequently, the best we can do is take a look at the life of the one offering the prayer, in this case David, and try to understand this Psalm within the context of some of the events that surrounded his life. When we understand those events, we might get sense of why he was praying. The prophet Samuel anointed David as Israel’s king when he was ten years old according to the historian Josephus but most theologians and historians believe he was fifteen when he was anointed by Samuel. Unfortunately, Saul was still the official king at the time and even though he no longer enjoyed God’s endorsement because of his continued unfaithfulness, he wasn’t about to relinquish his throne to David. In fact, Saul made countless attempts to kill David. David spent many days hiding from Saul who was slowly going mad trying to cling to a throne that no longer belonged to him and an authority that was no long endorsed by God. Consequently, David wouldn’t take his rightful place as Israel’s king for 13 to 15 years after being anointed. However, even though our Subject Text references “enemies,” I don’t believe this prayer was offered exclusively in the face of opposition. Specifically because David makes reference to God’s “rebuke.” Consequently, it appears that David is also laboring under the consequences of some unnamed sin. Some even suggest that David is battling with some kind of illness, which is entirely possible. Nevertheless, even though we know David best as a “man after God’s own heart,” we also know him as the man who seduced and slept with another man’s wife. Lurking in the shadows behind this anointed king of Israel and towering man of God is the story of David and Bathsheba, the wife of a Uriah, a man in David’s army. When we read the story of David’s affair with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 in English we miss some of the gravity that is conveyed in the Hebrew. The English makes it sound a little like a love story at best or an illicit affair at worst but the Hebrew tells a far different story. The Hebrew makes clear that David raped Bathsheba. Apologists for David don’t want to admit it but it’s right there in the Hebrew and we have to face it just like David had to face it. And in case that wasn’t bad enough, David had Uriah assigned to the front lines of the battle to insure that he would be killed. As hard as it is to admit, the accurate picture of David is a man of God who raped a woman and had her husband killed. David wasn’t rejected by God, like Saul was rejected by God, because David confessed his sins and repented of them and turned to God for forgiveness. Although God forgave him, David labored under the consequences of his sins for the rest of his life. I believe that in addition to constantly facing opposition from his enemies, both internally and externally, David is living with the consequences of some unidentified sin as well as maybe even some illness. This is possibly part of the background and context of our Subject Text.

Text Analysis

1O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.

            As a dad, one of the things I learned in disciplining my own children is to do so under control and with a clear mind. David knows how abhorrent sin is to God but he appeals to God not to treat him in a state of wrath even though he knows that God would be justified in doing so. I know that nothing melted my heart more than when one of my daughters confessed a mistake and asked for forgiveness. There were still consequences for the mistake but sentencing was far more painful for me than it was for them. God isn’t waiting in the bushes for us to fail so that he can pounce on us with judgment and discipline. God is constantly guiding and instructing us so that we can avoid the pitfalls of sin. Nevertheless, God cannot simply ignore the sins we inevitably swerve into. However, God takes no pleasure in disciplining us when we sin (Eze 18:32) even though He does it. David isn’t asking God to close His eyes to sin but is asking God to have mercy on him. David’s character as a man after God’s own heart is not defined by his mistakes but by his willingness to be guided and instructed by God. The Hebrew word that is translated by the NIV as “rebuke” in v. 1 is intended to convey the idea of correction and not condemnation. It “means…‘show the right way,’ notably in texts that are concerned with instruction; it is often parallel to…discipline. This is especially the case where the subject has both the insight and the authority to address one for faulty behavior. A key role of the wise instructor is to reprove a student in order to develop that one’s character. A discerning student, realizing that reproof is essential for learning, loves the teacher who reproves judiciously. Indeed, those who offer wise, judicious reproof to one who is receptive are highly regarded; their value to the community is comparable to that of gold jewelry. That is why one psalmist prays that he may be reproved, set right, by a righteous person. Conversely, the self-centered, i.e. fools, not only do not like to receive reproof, they hate and may even harm the one who offers reproof. Yahweh, like a father, reproves those he loves. In the dynastic covenant Yahweh made with David, he promised to rebuke with a human rod any of his descendants on the throne who would break the covenant. Responding to iniquity, God disciplines one of his followers with numerous reproofs, including pains of a serious illness, in order to have that one change from harmful ways. The person receiving God’s correction is considered blessed. Nevertheless, since God’s reproof can be severe, one might earnestly ask God not to reprove by his anger.”[2]

            2Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. 3My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? 4Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

            Nothing moves the heart of a parent more than the sincere pleas from their child for help and relief. Of course no child likes to be disciplined at the time but it’s the latent consequences that can be so painful. This is why we, as parents, discipline our children as they grow up for even minor offenses. Specifically, at least in my case, we know how painful the consequences can be for more serious offenses. Some consequences are relatively short-termed while others could last a lifetime. For example, while intoxicated you may say something foolish or embarrass yourself in front of a group of people. Later, you may have to apologize, either publicly or privately, for your behavior. The consequences are that you might not be included as a guest to any parties for a while but eventually people forget and life returns to normal. However, what if while intoxicated, you get behind the wheel of a car and kill a father, or a mother, or a child, or maybe even an entire family? I promise that the consequences for that will never go away for you or for anyone else affected by the accident. There may be forgiveness for the mistake but relief from the consequences may prove to be elusive. In vv. 2-4, David is expressing the deep anguish he is enduring and he is pleading with God for relief by appealing to some of God’s character traits—mercy and endless love. Some of you know this pain, you know the anguish and the sorrow because you’re living it. And in some cases, it is self-inflicted because of your own sin. At other times we suffer the consequences of someone else’s sin or because of no specific sin but because of some injury or illness. We might endure it for a while because we know we deserve it or can’t do anything ourselves about it but eventually, even the strongest among us craves relief. We beg God to notice us; to turn to us, and acknowledge our anguish. We’re convinced that if God only knew how much we are suffering, He would do something about it. I know that sounds strange considering God knows everything and sees everything, but this is one of the characteristics that comes with severe anguish—the feeling of being forgotten, even by God. “Maybe your husband has left you. Or maybe your wife. ‘God, what are you doing to me?’ you are asking. ‘What have I done?’ Maybe you have gotten very sick [and]…You do not know whether God is punishing you for some sin or trying to develop character in you by the things you are suffering. Paul wrote, ‘we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’ (Rom 5:3-4). That may be it. But how do you know? And what does it matter as long as you are feeling downcast as you are? All you want is that God should hear you and relieve your distress, if that is possible…A sense of being disproved of by an angry God is bad enough, but sometimes in our depression things seem even worse than this. What if God should not even be present? Suppose he has turned away from us or withdrawn himself?...It may help to remember that these words were written, not by some unsuccessful or weak person naturally inclined to depression, but by King David. If anyone was ever strong or successful, it was he. Yet sometimes, it would seem, the strong in particular have this problem…If you have been long in such a condition, you will know the feeling of utter weariness and fatigue that David describes…In times like these we feel that we are too tired to do those many countless things that urgently need to be done. We are

·      too tired to get out of bed and get dressed
·      too worn out to get into the car and go to work
·      to exhausted to get the kids off to school
·      too weary to clean the house
·      too depressed to go to church
·      too burdened to read the Bible
·      too sluggish even to pray

Perhaps the only thing you can pray is the prayer David utters in verse 3: ‘How long, O Lord, how long?’…If there is a turning point in this psalm, this is certainly it. It is when David, whether by training, habit, or sheer discipline, called upon the name of the Lord. Learn from David at this point. In times of victory, call upon God. Praise him. In times of defeat, call upon God. Ask for help. In times of temptation, call upon God. Seek deliverance. In the dark night of the soul, call upon God. Request light. God is our pathway through the darkness. He is our one sure hope in life and in death. He is our hope even when we are unaware of his presence.”[3]

5No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?

            I want to address v. 5 separately for a number of reasons. It divides the psalm in half structurally but also between the presumed causes for David’s distress. In the verses the precede v. 5 David is laboring with the consequences of either his sin, someone else’s sin, or maybe even because of some unknown illness. In the verses following v. 5, David reveals that part of his struggle is the result of attacks from those who oppose him. However, the main reason I want to address v. 5 separately is because it is real. And by real I mean I’ve used this approach with God countless times. Haven’t you? What good is going to school and working hard if I can’t do better in class? What good is having a job if I’m treated like garbage every day? Why did you lead me to marriage just so my spouse could abuse me or even leave me? What’s the point of trying to be a faithful ministry leader if no one is following? We bargain with God in the same way that David is bargaining with God. Do you want to know what David is saying here? ‘God, you’re darn lucky to have me as a king and if you don’t do something to help me out here then who could you possibly find to replace me.’ David is saying that somehow God would be less God if we weren’t around to praise Him. I’m not trying to be critical of David, I have been in this place. Pain and sorrow have a way of distorting our perception of reality. Instead of understanding David’s words as the words of an arrogant king, understand them as the words of a desperate man in unrelenting pain resulting from the circumstances of his life. Pain and struggle can keep us from relating to God in ways other than how we were meant to relate to Him. We were meant to relate to God with a spirit of praise and worship. However, “if, as the psalmist suggests, the chief role of humans is to remember and praise God, how is it possible to do that in the midst of personal pain and suffering? It is especially difficult when all the voices around us undermine our confidence—either with words that are too negative or with those that are too positive.”[4]

6I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.

            I have been through times in my life when I have been so exhausted that I could barely put two cogent thoughts together. Do you want to know the worst times of day? Nighttime. At least during the day I could drown out my struggles with noise and activity. But not at night; when it came time to sleep, the storms of life seemed to rage the strongest. Pain and sorrow chased sleep away and often in its place left tears—tears of pain, tears of sorrow, tears of fear, tears of guilt, tears of regret, tears of anger. Often where words fail; where prayers are nothing more than primal groans, tears are never in short supply. In vv. 6-7 the picture that David paints of his deep anguish is graphic when he says his bed is flooded from another night of endless weeping. What David is saying is equivalent to the English idiom, “I’m crying my eyes out.” It is clearly intended to be hyperbole but it doesn’t seem that way to some of you who feel like your drowning in tears. David reveals that part of his sorrow is the result of being relentlessly pursued by his enemies. It can be hard to relate to David in this respect because we exert significant energy trying not to make enemies. But for a Christian, there is a reason that Jesus says we are to take up our cross every day and follow Him. Christians have enemies—enemies who want to silence their witness; enemies who want them to compromise their character; enemies who want them to renounce their confession; enemies who, in some cases, want to kill them. The relentless physical, mental, and emotional onslaught by enemies can be exhausting; exhausting to the point of just wanting to give up. David was at the breaking point when he says that his eyes were growing week and failing because of the persistent attacks by his enemies. Because of his anguish and sorrow, David is exhausted yet rest eluded him as it so often does for so many of us when there is nothing left but tears. “As for most sufferers, it was in the long watches of the night, when silence and loneliness increase and the warmth of human companionship is absent, that the pain and the grief reached their darkest point. It is possible that this psalm reflects the time of morning prayer, when the memory of the long night was still vivid and the thought of another night was appalling.”[5]

            There is a radical shift in David’s attitude and outlook in vv. 8-10. This is the David that is so familiar to us. To this point we witnessed a man in pain and anguish; a man who has been beaten down by life; a man who has hit rock bottom. Life at the bottom can be lonely and miserable. And to this point David has been looking up from the bottom calling to God for help and wondering how long he would have to endure the misery while God seemed silent and unmoved. But now we see a very different man, we see the young man who courageously struck down a fierce giant with just five smooth stones and a sling. That David called on God to be his courage and strength and he succeed where hardened military fighters quivered in fear inside their tents. Here again we see a courageous David who acknowledges that God has heard his cries for help and has granted him a reprieve from his anguish. The sight of a renewed David discouraged his enemies and sent them scurrying much like the Philistine army ran in fear when David displayed the severed head of their leader Goliath for them to consider. Many of you know the feeling of renewal after a long season of constant pain, sorrow, and disappointment, when it seems that God has finally answered your prayers and provided much needed relief. “Despite the signs of long delay, Yahweh does hear the psalmist’s plea and will deliver him…The psalmist returns to the enemies with confidence that they will be ashamed by being proven wrong. Yahweh will deliver the psalmist, and the opponents will receive a public comeuppance…As a result of Yahweh’s faithfulness, the enemies will not be defeated or destroyed, instead, they will be ashamed and dismayed and made to withdraw in sudden disgrace…The psalmist’s rejection of the evildoers is not so much a rejection of them as it is a refusal to accept their negative message. Their resultant shame and dismay affirm Yahweh’s power and will to save in the face of prolonged suffering and divine silence.”[6]

Application

            It would be wrong to characterize pain, suffering, or persecution as “good” even though God can use any of it for our ultimate good and to accomplish His will. To do that is to diminish the sense of wrongness we intuitively know exists in the world. There is nothing noble or courageous about ignoring or refusing to admit we are suffering for some reason. That isn’t a godly response to pain and suffering. Instead, a godly response is to cry out to God and seek Him in our suffering. If there is anything good about pain and suffering, it is that it forces us to rely desperately on God’s mercy and love. I have counseled two kinds of people experiencing wild and raging storms in their respective lives. One tries to understand God while being battered by the storms of life yet he isn’t willing to commit to anchor his life to God and the other has his life firmly lashed to God as his rock. Both suffer terribly during the storm but only one usually survives the storm—the one whose lifeline was anchored to God while the other is blown from one storm to the next still trying to understand God in the midst of each storm. Here’s something I can promise you will experience in this life—storms! We tend to think that “other people” have their life figured out because they always seem to be living under blue skies and sunshine. But don’t let appearances deceive you. Most people have an uncanny ability to hide the storms that pummel their lives. Everyone, at some point, will find themselves in the middle of some violent storm; the death of someone close; severe illness; marriage infidelity; substance abuse by a child; financial collapse, or some moral failure on our own part or on the part of someone else. The only thing that will be important during those days is being certain that our lives are firmly anchored to God. I was talking to a friend recently who is in the midst of just such a violent storm and he asked me a great question. He asked, “What if this isn’t just a season of my life? What if this is my life?” I’m sure he knew I didn’t have an answer to that question and I’m not even sure the question was directed at me. I wonder if what he was really asking was, “How long, O Lord, how long?” It’s a question that only God can answer and I’m thankful that my friend has anchored his life to God who is an immoveable rock. Do you want to know how I know that? He said something very revealing to me this week when he said, “On days when my heart can’t sing, it will hum.” Unlike Chippie who simply sat and stared after being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, held under a running faucet to get cleaned up and then dried off with a hair dryer, we have an opportunity to sing or hum to God even while we are In The Eye Of The Storm.

            Remember that the Psalms are not a running narrative. Instead, they are prayers or hymns. I am well aware that during the storms of life, it can be almost impossible to utter a word of prayer. Our thoughts are jumbled; our emotions are raw; every part of our body groans in pain. At that point all we’re hoping to do is make it to tomorrow. This is where the Psalms can play a vital role in helping us endure the tempest that rages all around us. Let the Psalms, whether this one or some other one, be your personal prayer. That’s why they are included in the Bible. When you can’t bring yourself to read any other parts of the Bible, the Psalms can become your voice. The psalmist’s cries become your own and the psalmist’s tears mix with yours. The Psalms can be a cherished companion during the lonely and dark days and nights In The Eye Of The Storm.



[1] Max Lucado, In The Eye Of The Storm, (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1991), p. 11.
[2] Willem A. VanGemeren, gen. ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), pp. 443-444.
[3] James Mongomery Boice, Psalms, Vol. 1, Psalms 1-41, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), pp. 53-55.
[4] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, Vol. 1—The NIV Applicaation Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p. 186.
[5] Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 1-50—Word Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), pp. 93-94.
[6] Wilson, Psalms, Vol. 1, pp. 182; 185.