Every False Way

"Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way." -- Psalm 119:128

Do I though? Do I really hate EVERY false way? Or are there some "false ways" that I really like? Are there "false ways" that I benefit from or enjoy the fruits of so I keep quiet about them and go on taking advantage of them for my personal gain?

These days it seems everyone has their favorite cause. We adopt them like pets from a shelter, put them on a fancy leash with a shiny collar and walk them around town so everyone can see what authentic, deeply caring, socially conscious people we are. We desktop activists hit the "like" button for our favorite issues -- women's rights, gay rights, animal rights, pro-life, pro-choice, save the rain forest, protect the environment, boycott companies with reckless disregard for the size of their carbon footprint, global warming, racial injustices, immigration reform and refugees seeking asylum, MAGA...

One thing is clear: We all know something has gone horribly wrong with this world. And most of us would agree that it largely has to do with humans. But where we miss it, IMHO, is that we have become really good at pointing the finger at everyone else and blaming them for the mess we are in (echoes of Eden... "It's the woman... no, it was YOU who gave her to me... No, it was the snake!"), seldom considering the hundreds of ways we are every bit as stupid and selfish. For every pet cause we like to feel righteously indignant about, we have a pet hypocrisy we sneak scraps to under the table. We all have them -- blind spots we just can't recognize (or won't) because it feeds our desire for pleasure, comfort, safety and security, meaning and purpose. 

David issues a challenge here to our carefully constructed fortress of righteous solitude: IF you truly consider ALL God's precepts to be right, THEN you must hate EVERY false way. No exceptions. You may not hold back any for yourself, or keep a couple in your pocket for special occasions. Everything false must go. Everything that the filter of God's revealed Truth doesn't allow through.

• Things that we rely n to make us feel safe other than the Truth that He is our only safe place, our only rock, refuge, shield, shelter, hiding place.
  

• Things that we delight in other than His beauty and glory. All that we consider beautiful or desirable is only an echo of the Beautiful One who created it, so why would we allow our worship to terminate on the creation rather than the Creator?

• Things we look to for our identity, affirmation, and worth other than the love God has for us, the delight He takes in us, the precious blood of His only begotten Son, as that of a spotless Lamb, which He poured out completely -- not a drop withheld from us! 

Hating every false way means letting go of some things we would rather hold on to; it means admitting you have been wrong about something you could have sworn you were right about, and now all your friends will think you're crazy.

Look, there's nothing wrong with standing up, speaking out, and acting on behalf of a worthwhile cause. Scripture teaches that those who truly know God will delight in what delights Him -- justice for the voiceless and vulnerable, the poor and powerless, the overlooked and outcast. Those who love God will hate the abuse of power by the dominant over the marginalized minority. They will abhor the corruption of justice, bought and sold at the expense of the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the sick and disabled. He expects those who bear His name to act on their behalf IN HIS NAME precisely because it is His name we bear and its authority we are called to wield wisely.

So... real talk...for me personally: Do I really care about the systemic, institutionalized racialization of America, of the nearly invisible and almost imperceptible cancer of white supremacy that disadvantages blacks and other minorities with patriotic zeal?

OR...

Do I just want to appear "woke" to my ministry peers? I can read the books and learn the lingo, but if I truly "consider all Your precepts to be right," what will I actually DO abut it? Do I really hate EVERY false way enough to put my reputation and relationships at risk in order to stand up, speak out, and act on behalf of black and minority Americans, many of whom hate me just because I'm white?

Will I "hate the false way" of demonizing those whose sexual desires are different than mine, labeling them as a group to be hated or a problem to be solved rather than seeing them as human beings in need of compassion? I don't have to compromise my belief in what the Bible teaches about gender, sexuality, or marriage to just simply see another person as a human with a soul and treat them with dignity and respect. Will I even bother to get to know him or her before I stick them in a cage in my brain, lock the door, label the cage and walk away?

Will I "hate every false way" when it comes to justice for the immigrant, the refugee, the oppressed asylum seekers trying to make a better life for their families, even though almost every other white evangelical sees them as a liberal political issue to be debated dispassionately, as if they weren't humans with souls?

Will I "hate the false way" of hypocrisy when it comes to the militant right-wing conservative party line on abortion rights? Yes, abortion is murder, no question. Yes, it must be stopped, I agree. But are we false to the truth by mobilizing in the millions for the rights of UN-born children while, at the same time, turning a blind eye to the ALREADY-born children flooding our foster care system in America? Why is there a foster care crisis in this country with more churches than Starbucks? Why do Christians in America not step up and eliminate this crisis overnight by taking in these children who, remember, were once unborn and to be protected at all costs?

Father, "I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies." It's a crazy world and I need wisdom to sift through the lies and the spin, to know what's true and hate what's false. Begin with me, right here, in my own heart. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Stooping is the New Standing

 The following is an excerpt from my personal journal dated July 4, 2015.

“…but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” (Luke 4:11-12, ESV)

     The resurrection of Jesus Christ still seems like an “idle tale” to many “...and they did not believe.” In our cynical, reality-obsessed culture, we gravitate towards the gritty. We are suspicious of happy endings. Real life isn’t tied up neatly with pretty ribbons and bows. The resurrection seems to us like a fairy-tale finish to an otherwise powerful and poignant tragedy. It’s too good to be true, so we dismiss it as false.

     The disciples apparently felt the same way. Jesus was dead. That was real. They saw it. They knew it to be true. It must have seemed a cruel joke in poor taste for these women to come barging in with wild, “idle tales” of a risen Jesus. Yet there was one man among them who dared hope their words were true, enough to get up and go see for himself. 

     Peter’s last encounter with Jesus ended badly. Betrayal. Vehement denial that he even knew Jesus. Cowardly self-protection at the expense of His Lord. Worst of all, Jesus had known him better than he knew himself. He told Peter he would do this.

     But He also said, “When you return…” He knew Peter would deny Him, yet offered him hope that there was a way back. So when Jesus was killed on the cross, that hope had died. Jesus was gone and Peter never got the chance to make it right again before He was killed.

     Until today. If He was alive, then maybe… He got up and literally ran to the tomb. And here’s the part I personally love in the text, the specific word picture Luke uses: “stooping and looking in.” To stoop means to bow down, to get low. It means to make yourself smaller so you can enter. It’s a humbling of self. Had Peter refused to make himself lower, all he would have seen was the stony outside of a garden tomb. But “stooping and looking in, he saw…” There is a whole different perspective awaiting the one who will stoop and look in. You have to want it bad enough. Peter did.

     Ordinarily, it would be nothing special for a person to bend down in order to see into a small, low space. But there was more going on inside Peter. The action was pregnant with spiritual implication. Peter, whose pride and self-preserving instincts wouldn’t let him risk his own safety to identify with Jesus just a few nights earlier, now had to lower himself to peer into a tomb to know if there was any hope for him beyond his own death.

     Did he see Jesus? No, and that’s a good thing. If Jesus had been in the tomb, then all hope for redemption was lost – for Peter and for us. Instead, he saw the shell of empty grave clothes laying there, no body to fill them, as if to shout, “I couldn’t hold Him! He is too strong! I was no match for Jesus!”

     Maybe the reason the story seems like an “idle tale” to so many is because they will not stop to look in for themselves. Maybe they are afraid of what they will see if they do. If they dare get low in front of all their peers and take a hard, honest look inside that tomb, it might really be empty. And if it really is empty, then Jesus might actually be alive. And if Jesus rose from the dead, then He has claims on their lives that they cannot shake. No, it’s too risky. Better to stay home with the scoffers. It’s safer that way.

     Safer. At least until the sky cracks wide, and that Risen Jesus returns in triumph to claim His place as rightful King over all. The those who rejected Him, who refused to stoop and lower themselves, who dared not look inside for fear of what they would – or would not  -- find there, they will cry out for the mountains to fall on them and for the rocks to cover them. Anything to escape the penetrating gaze of that “Idle Tale” turned “True Story.” For them there will be nothing left but the wrath of a Holy God who did everything in His power to save them except force them to love Him.

     For the Christ follower, stooping is the new standing. It is a permanent position of humility before a glorious Savior. Jesus stooped far lower than He asks any of us to do. Yet stoop we must. Lower ourselves we must. If we want to see for ourselves what is true and live a life of freedom, hope, and victory, then we must do it from the stooping position.

Feeling all "misty" this morning...

 

 

Reading in James this morning...

"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." (James 4:13-17, ESV)

There are two important facts about being a human on planet earth that James reminds us of:

1. Our days are numbered. Literally.
2. We have no idea what that number is.

I have no idea if this is my last day on earth or not. The coffee I sip now could be the last cup I ever taste. The good-morning kiss I just gave my wife a few moments ago could be the last kiss we ever enjoy. The sentence I am hastily scribbling across the page of my journal may be the last thing I ever write. I simply do not know the number of my days.

So to live as if I did know, or as if it didn't matter, or even worse, as if God did not have a say in how I spent my numbered days is actually evil, arrogant, and sinful. James calls it "arrogant boasting" because we do not stop to ask God what He wants to do with our lives. Planning our futures -- even in the short term -- without seeking the Lord's will is actually "evil." It actually works against what is good and right and true.

That's why James says, "Hey, if you know you are a mist, and if you know you are subject to the sovereignty of God, and if you know you ought to ask Him what He wants to do with the number of your days -- and yet you spend it pursuing your own plans without a thought to His plans or purposes, then you are sinning against God." We are basically giving Him the middle finger as we run off to do whatever for a few years before launching out into eternity. And then we get to stand before Him and explain why our plans were somehow better. (Cue Dust in the Wind by Kansas...)

Father, what do you have for me this day? If it is my last day, let me live it purposefully for Your glory. Use me to tell someone the good news of the love of Christ. All my plans and hopes and dreams I yield to Your gracious, sovereign will. I am a mist, here for a little while, then gone and eventually forgotten even by my own great-grandchildren. I am only two generations away from being forgotten entirely by my own family!

God, help me to live in light of the glorious reality that this mist may only last a little while, but in Your hands it can accomplish something eternally significant in Your Kingdom. I am Your, Father. Live through me today, in Jesus' name.

So I came across this in Proverbs...

"To do justice AND righteousness is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." 
(Proverbs 21:3, ESV. Emphasis mine)

     In scripture, righteousness and justice are always mentioned together. Like conjoined twins they are inseparable. They are two sides of a single coin; both are necessary for the coin to be of any worth.

     Justice is big these days among young evangelicals. They are understandably sick of the apathy, sick of the lazy church sitting in pews and singing dry, dusty hymns while the world goes to hell all around them, sick of the hypocrisy of claiming the title: Jesus-follower" but not actually following Jesus into the world to heal the sick, care for the poor, touch the leper, and love the outcast. There is a lot to admire about the "social justice" movement in the church these days. The world is dying to see if there is an ounce of authenticity left in Western Christianity. But there is a caution to be taken if we are to follow Jesus into the world: Justice is never far from righteousness. Never. Ever.

     Many want to cast off the holiness of God in the name of His justice. Some would feed hungry stomachs with bread, but starve their souls of the Bread of Life in the process. They want to reach out and embrace the marginalized and outcast, but not require repentance from sin. They cast off God's unflinching call to purity and holy living because, after all, who are we to tell anyone how they should live? Aren't we all sinners? Isn't everyone broken in one way or another? We imagine that enough efforts to promote justice will somehow excuse us from the demands of righteousness.

     In fairness, the vast majority of American Christians have done the inverse: we have reduced the gospel to a set of doctrinal statements and a moral code of conduct: "If you agree to the truth of these statements, and can manage to avoid these particular sins (usually sexual in nature), then you are a Christian." Meanwhile, the cries of the oppressed and impoverished largely go unheeded. They can barely be heard above our state-of-the-art sound systems in our multi-million dollar facilities. Justice is re-labeled "Missions"and left to those who "feel called" to it. (BTW, you don't "feel called;" you ARE called. You either listen and obey or you don't.)

     But the truth is that Jesus requires both. The Proverb above doesn't say, "Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord, but justice is optional." Nor does it say, "To do justice is better than righteousness." It says that both together were more acceptable to Yahweh than merely superficial religious ceremony. Why? Because they are the metric of our spiritual maturity. They are the barometer of our hearts -- where they are, what they desire, how we regard the Lord.

     Righteousness is how we live before God. It measures our moral choices as they flow from the affections of our hearts. Like water that will seep through and rise to its own level, what -- and who -- we really love will be revealed by how we live. God is very concerned with what our hearts desire and how we go after it. There are ways to live that promote human flourishing in every area -- physically, materially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And there are ways to live that destroy us, sometimes quickly and obviously, but more often quietly over a lifetime, like a slow poison working its way through our bodies, shutting it down one system at a time until we stop living.

     Morality is what we think of most when we talk about righteousness but it is actually much more than that. It's not rule-keeping; it's loving God more than we love ourselves and trusting that His commands are an expression of His love and protection towards us. Righteousness deals more with our relationship to God, while justice is more about how we treat other people because of our relationship to God.

Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     Jesus said this was the sum of the whole Law and Prophets: "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (righteousness), and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (justice)." He told His followers to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     You cannot claim a zeal for justice and embrace or accept something God calls sin. You are not being just towards those who are trapped in that self-destructive lifestyle, misleading them to believe they are safe from the wrath of God and penalty of their sin. Nor are you being just towards God by treating His Word and His holiness as something that can be casually dismissed whenever it's expedient or unpopular.

     Conversely, you cannot claim a zeal for righteousness -- holding up your morality and doctrinal positions as evidence -- if that never results in action taken to oppose oppression, injustice, exploitation, corruption, or abuses of power. What kind of righteousness leaves the helpless undefended, the hungry unfed, the naked unclothed, the sick uncared for, and the captive left to rot in captivity?

     The Proverb is saying, "Don't look at your religious service as the metric of how well your relationship with God is going. Rather, look at the interplay of both righteous living before a holy God and compassionate justice towards those made in His image. That's what God is really after." James affirms this in his letter:

     "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27, ESV. Emphasis mine.)

     Justice AND righteousness. Never one without the other.

     Father, help me to live a life pleasing to You. I fear there are days when not only do I not do both, but some days that I do neither. God, make me more like Jesus, who loved You more than life itself and expressed it by loving others. In Jesus' name I ask these things. Amen!

   

His way is through the sea...

 The following is an entry from my personal journal dated August 30, 2015.


"Your way was through the sea, Your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen." -- Psalm 77:19, ESV

     The psalmist is a man in trouble.

     He emphasizes, not once but twice, in verse 1 that he is crying aloud. Not praying silently or murmuring under his breath. He is shouting his prayer to God! His is a desperate situation. There seems to be no way out. He can't sleep. He can't speak (v. 4). He is so troubled that it is literally debilitating.

     So what does he do? I love these next few verses. They are so raw, so honest, so unflinching...

"I said, 'Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.' Then my spirit made a diligent search: ..."

     This desperate man makes a diligent search in the deepest places of his being. He asks a series of questions to himself. He is grappling with how to interpret his circumstances. He is taking what he has always believed to be true about God and holding it up to what he is experiencing and asking the really hard question: "Is it really true?" Was it just a nice little faith, a quaint set of beliefs for when times were good? Or does it stand up in the storm? If I could sum up his questions in verses 7-9, I would say it like this: "Has God given up on me? Does He care?"
 
     What follows is nothing short of amazing. God answers his question. Not audibly. Not in a miraculous show of thunder and fire from heaven. In the deepest places of his soul, the Spirit of God whispers, "Remember..." 

     And that is exactly what he does. He rehearses the things God has done in the past when everything seemed hopeless and, by all appearances, God had abandoned His people. In pondering these things one particular story comes to his mind: the parting of the red Sea to deliver Israel from the Egyptian army.

     If you go back and read the story in Exodus, the people of Israel were freaking out. Behind them, the armies of the largest, most powerful kingdom in the world were bearing down on them, intent on slaughtering every single one of them. In front of them was the impenetrable barrier of the Red Sea. They were trapped, it seemed, with no way out.

     Ah, that's the magic word: way. 

     God's specialty is making a way where there is none. It's His signature move, ultimately perfected in the resurrection of Jesus. The psalmist remembers this and it dawns on him like an epiphany: "Your way was through the sea, Your path was through the great waters..." Key word: through.

     When the Israelites in Exodus 14 saw their predicament, they did exactly what the psalmist did: they cried aloud. "What have you done, Moses?! Have you brought us here to die? What's the matter, there weren't enough graves in Egypt, so you hadda lure us out here so they could kill us?!" All their questions amount to one big misinterpretation: There is no way. We are doomed. God has given up on us.

     Moses' response to their questions is beyond epic. It's so epic that Bible publishers should just go ahead and pre-highlight it for people...

"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. (Now you see them; now you don't!) The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

     Freaking awesome. "God's got this! Your part is to shut up an watch!"

     Then God did something no one expected. He took no way and made it The Way! He took the very thing that trapped them and turned it into the escape route. He took a wall and made it a door.

     When the psalmist remembers this his heart is lightened. That changes everything! Maybe the reason God has not delivered him from his troubles is because they are the very thing He is working through to bring true freedom and deliverance.

     "Your footprints were not seen..." We may not be able to distinguish a clear set of footprints to track the movement of God, but that doesn't mean that He isn't working. Verse 20 reminds us that "You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Then the psalm abruptly ends. Boom. Over. No neat wrap up or summary or conclusion statement. In the words of the great Stan Lee, "'Nuff said!"

     God didn't deliver from trouble; He delivered through trouble. And though His footprints were not visible to the naked eye, His direction and provision were obvious in Moses and Aaron.

     Why? Why does God make a way through  instead of just avoiding the trouble to start with? The answer to that question is in what He said to Moses at the Red Sea:

"... I will get glory over Pharoah and all his hosts, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharoah, his chariots, and his horsemen." (Exodus 14:17-18)

     When the psalmist reflects on the story of God's deliverance through the Red Sea, he makes an astute observation that I completely missed on the first reading -- God led them there on purpose! "You led Your people like a flock..." It was no accident that they ended up at the Red Sea. God led them there "by the hand of Moses and Aaron," knowing full well that Pharoah's armies would come charging after them and trap them against the waters. Here's the crazy thing: It was God's plan to do that the whole time! Why? Why would He do something like that? That seems so.... mean.

     We often misinterpret our circumstances because we are working at cross purposes with God. We are not interested in what He is doing or why. We just want out.

     We are looking to return to comfort as quickly as possible.
     God is looking to make Himself known to the nations.
     We are interested only in our pleasure.
     He is interested only in His glory.

     Knowing God's agenda in advance puts us at a remarkable advantage over our "day of trouble." Endurance is made effective by knowing the end to which we are suffering. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before Him." How we handle the "day of trouble" will reveal whether we are on the Kingdom plan, or if we have a plan all our own we are trying to get God to endorse.

     The psalmist, the Israelites, and I all have something in common: In the "day of trouble" when we are so desperate that we can't sleep or speak and we cry out to God, "Why have you abandoned me?!" -- we forget stuff. And we need to remember. We need to remember that God's way is through, not from or around or over or under. We need to remember that we don't always see His footprints but we can trust that He is leading us.

     The question then is: Are we following? Am I yielding to His leadership by submitting to godly leaders He has placed over me with a proven track record of walking with God and experiencing His power? Am I so busy trying to find a way out or around the "day of trouble" that I am missing "the salvation of the LORD" that runs right through it? Am I so busy complaining that I can't hear God saying, "You have only to be silent."?

Thank you, God, for this great reminder. Help me to remember in my day of trouble that Your way is THROUGH the sea, Your path is THROUGH the great waters, even though your footprints may remain unseen. You lead Your people like a shepherd leads his sheep. By Your grace, make me to trust Your promises. Help me to look for the ways You are getting glory and making Yourself known in my day of trouble. Help me endure for the joy set before me, of knowing You are leading me and bringing Your Kingdom through me. In Jesus' precious and holy name I pray this today.

Where are you looking for Jesus?

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." (Luke 24:5-6)

We must always be very careful where we are seeking Jesus: among the dead or the living.

Seeking Jesus among the dead means to relegate Him and His words to the ancient wisdom of a historic figure, beneficial but optional and largely irrelevant to the issues of modern living. Seeking a living Jesus is an altogether different prospect -- one which acknowledges His mastery over death, His power over life, and His absolute authority over everything. A dead Jesus can be admired, quoted, and then easily dismissed, like an accessory to be adorned when it matches your particular outfit that day. But a living Jesus is a Lord and King, and demands our absolute devotion and total surrender. Which one we seek at any given moment says far more about us than about Him.

Love this quote from John Irving's novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany:

 "Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool cab feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don't believe in the resurrection, you're not a believer."

Following Jesus... at a distance.

Read this yesterday in the Grand Story from Luke 22 and it caught my eye...

"Then they seized [Jesus] and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance." (Luke 22:54)

Peter was "following at a distance." What does that mean? 

Peter was following Jesus, no doubt about it, and in every sense of the word. He had devoted the last three years of his life to becoming a Christ follower. He had left his career, left the comforts of home, left the security of a steady paycheck to follow a rabbi from Nazareth of all places. He was all in, no question.

But when Jesus was arrested and led away to be tried by a kangaroo court and executed, Peter followed "at a distance." By putting some space between himself and this now very unpopular Jesus, he hoped to escape notice, to blend in. "Aren't you one of his followers, too?" The question must had made his blood turn to ice in his veins even as he warmed himself by the fire that night. "Who, me? No... no, I'm not, I... I don't even know the guy."

Following Jesus is not what people do who want to blend in. It's not where you go to be under the radar. It frequently places you in the cross-hairs in the war of cultures. This is the guy who said, "Don't think that I came to bring peace; I came to bring a sword that will divide even families against each other."(Matt. 10:34) All over this one issue: who He really is. 

Because if He is who He said He is, then we are obligated to take seriously that what He says is true. And He makes some pretty bold and unpopular claims on our lives, loves, dreams, desires, money, relationships... If He is who He claimed to be, He has the right to tell us how to live. And that's not popular. Following a guy like that can get you crucified.

As a result, many Christ followers can find themselves "following at a distance." When the predominant views of the culture we live in pinch us between following Jesus faithfully and falling into line with the majority, the temptation to blend in can be strong. Will we try to slide in unnoticed next to those who warm themselves around the fires of sophistication and enlightenment, or will we fearlessly but humbly acknowledge Christ as King, and His Word as the unchangeable authority over every area of life?

Acceptance and approval have been a distraction for the modern church for decades now, and is to blame for much of its anemia. The Bible's unflinching stance on controversial issues like marriage, sexuality, parenting, and abortion (just to name a few) makes it pretty near impossible to court the approval of the culture and maintain faithfulness to Christ. In fact, Jesus promised His disciples that to follow Him was to invite the hatred of pretty much the rest of the world. (John 15:18-19) 2000 years of worldwide persecution, which continues to escalate right up to this very day, would prove Him right. To put it bluntly, the cross just isn't cool. It wasn't then, it isn't now, and it never will be. 

Every time we distance ourselves from Christ by backing off what He said to make it more palatable, or water down the scriptures to avoid being vilified in the press, or remain silent on an issue that demands we stand up and speak the truth even at great cost, it is a betrayal. We are abandoning Jesus to suffer alone at precisely the point we are called to "share in the fellowship of His sufferings."(Phil.3:10, NASB)

"And immediately while [Peter] was speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord... And he went out and wept bitterly." (Luke 22: 61-62)

The story does have a happy ending. Jesus rises from the dead. Peter is forgiven and restored and reaffirmed by Jesus. Later, he would be crucified himself for his refusal to ever follow at a distance again. But even so... I bet he never, ever forgot that look from Jesus that night. In fact, I'd wager it was precisely the memory of that look, seared into his mind and burned into his heart, that brought him to his own cross finally. And into the Kingdom where he could see that face again, and see those eyes, but with a different expression altogether.

Martha: Distraction, Anxiety, and the One Thing

Reading in the Grand Story about Martha and Mary...
"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.' " (Luke 10:38-42)

I've heard a lot of different takes on this story in my time. The latest trend has been to rush to the defense of Martha and make her heroic or misunderstood. But Jesus understood her perfectly and He addressed the problem in no uncertain terms: "Martha, you are distracted."

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines distraction as "something that makes it difficult to think or pay attention." There is nothing wrong with serving people. In fact, it's an earmark of a true disciple of Christ. Most church leaders would probably agree they would love a church full of Marthas. The problem is that Martha wasn't serving out of obedience to anything her Lord had told her to do. He was speaking. He was teaching them. It wasn't time for scurrying and working and serving. It was time for being still and listening. Martha couldn't see that because she was distracted.

What distracted her? Jesus named two specific things: anxiety and trouble. Martha was a worrier, and she was annoyed and irritated that she was the only one who seemed to be worried. The original Greek word for "troubled" is where we get the English word "turbulence." In the modern vernacular we would say she was "in a tizzy." Why? What had her worried? The key is in her request to Jesus: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me." Did you catch that? "I'm the only one doing anything! If I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done, and then where would we all be?" I have a sneaking suspicion that even if Mary did try to help, Martha would just go behind her and re-do everything she did, all the while muttering under her breath about how if you want anything done right you just have to do it yourself.

It's easy to fall into the Martha trap. It's the classic case of an over-exaggerated sense of our own importance. I have seen it creep into ministries that started off doing good work, but  slowly, over time, they became a little world unto themselves thinking, "We are the only ones doing real ministry. Nothing else is as important as what we are doing." There began to be an attitude of contempt towards other ministries. Other ways of serving. Other styles of worship. Other approaches to preaching. Other denominations. Other people. Until we are all alone in our minds. The only ones who matter. Busyness is not so much about activity as it is the posture of our hearts.

Look, nobody asked Martha to do anything. Not from what I read in the text. Jesus simply responded to her invitation to use her house as a place to teach. It was her idea to complicate it with a bunch of extra service. Like so many churches that busy themselves with a million programs and events and activities, cleverly marketed and catering to every demographic imaginable. Jesus said, "One thing is necessary." Everything else is a distraction. But how would we ever know if that's true. We refuse to try. "No, Jesus, you don't understand. People expect it. They want it. If we don't offer it, they will just go somewhere else. Then what will happen to our church?" And then we wear ourselves out (and our volunteers) chasing every idea that pops into our heads about how church ought to be.

"One thing is necessary." Apparently, stillness is required for listening. Like the mirror-surface of a calm lake, I can only perfectly reflect an image if I am perfectly still and peaceful.

God, help me today to stay focused on that One Thing, and may all other distractions fall away. Keep pride from seducing me into believing I am indispensable or alone in my work. Let me only busy myself with those things that You have told me to do. teach me to be still and listen. For Your glory, and in the name of Jesus. Amen.

How to know if your spirit has been "stirred"

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia… Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred…” (Ezra 1: 1, 5)

The Hebrew word translated “stirred” literally means to awaken. Not stirred as in mixing two things in a container, but stirred as in roused from sleep.

What does it look like when someone’s spirit has been “stirred up”? A person whose spirit has been stirred by God:

1.  Takes God at His Word. “Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of God of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God…And they kept the Feast of Booths as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule… “ (Ezra 3:2, 4)

For these men, the scriptures weren’t something nice to put on a coffee mug. They were the words of God given not as homilies or sentimental thoughts, but as commands for living in His presence. Obedience was not optional. And when it ran up against the popular opinions and customs of the culture, they didn’t back down. Even when it meant personal suffering, they took God’s Word seriously and obeyed it to the letter.

2.     Makes worship a priority. “… the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem… and they built the altar of the God of Israel… But the foundation of the temple was not yet laid.” (Ezra 3:1-2, 6)

These guys started offering sacrifices before the foundation of the actual temple was even started yet! They weren’t going to wait until the building was completed before they began worshipping; they knew they would never be able to complete the work without God. So they began regular worship every single day from the first day forward.

Gut check: What do we let keep us from making worship the first priority of our day, every day?

·      I have to get up early for work.

·      I have to work out.

·      I’m too tired.

·      It’s too hard.

·      I forget.

·      I get busy, distracted, stressed out with other responsibilities, etc.

How easily we forsake seeking the presence of God for other, lesser gods! How freely the excuses come! But let our world get rocked by some tragedy and suffering and we immediately expect God to drop everything and make our problems His first priority.

Look, I don’t want to be legalistic about it, but the reality is that if we don’t intentionally spend time in the presence of God at the earliest possible moment each day, we will most likely never get around to it at all. The root of the word worship is worth; the root of our worship is what God is worth to us. That’s why you never see worship without sacrifice. The only way of knowing the true worth of a thing is by seeing what someone is willing to give up to get it.

3.     Get generosity. “… everyone who made freewill offerings to the LORD… So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil…” (Ezra 3: 5, 7)

Let’s just cut the crap right here, right now. If you want to know where a man’s heart is, look at what he spends his money on. Period. Ignore the whiners and squealers who start squirming when the pastor mentions giving. If someone has to stand in front of you week after week and beg you to be generous towards the work of the Kingdom, you just flat don’t get it. Sorry, but it’s true.

If you really believed the gospel, if you really understood who Jesus is and what His death, resurrection, ascension, and return really mean for this world, your pastor would have to beg you to stop giving because the church would be overwhelmed. Ha! And monkeys might fly out of my… well, you get the idea.

Generosity is the natural response to grace. A person who has received so much, so lavishly, so undeserved should have no trouble at all showing generosity towards others in need of grace.

Why don’t I give away more? Why don’t I spend more time, energy, resources, focus on those around me? The flesh is that inward gravitational pull of the heart towards self-worship. And it never sleeps. It never rests or goes away or takes a break. The second we stop being intentional about focusing our hearts on Christ, it immediately starts drifting back towards self. Like a garden that must be weeded constantly or it will revert back to wilderness, so is the heart.

When God “stirs up” our spirits, we awaken to what’s really true. And they reveals what’s really important. And that fuels our choices. And those choices take us in a direction towards God and away from self. That direction will some day end at a destination. Generosity is one of the surest signs that you are headed in the right direction.

4.     Know how to party. There is this sick idea in the modern church that emotions are bad and should not be a part of worship. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that that’s not just wrong, it’s evil. It’s a lie from the pit of Hell. The Thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And what he has successfully stolen, killed, and destroyed in modern churches in America is authentic, heart-felt, emotional worship.

Look, the appropriate response to the Gospel is overwhelming joy. It’s shouting, singing to the top of your voice, dancing like a fool and not giving a rat’s hairy backside who is watching or what they think about it. “That’s not reverent,” someone may say. My good friend and mentor Johnny Hunt would respond, “Sir, that’s not reverence; that’s rigor mortise!”

There’s no disconnect between doctrine and emotion in the Bible. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not data to be stored, it’s Truth to be celebrated – with our whole hearts!  In Ezra 3:10-13, it says that when the people finally finished the foundation – not the building, mind you, just the foundation – that they were so overcome with what that meant for them as the people of God that “all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD… But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy., so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard very far away.”

Authentic worship always, always, ALWAYS involves emotion. Emotions are part of the very image of God we bear, they are a family resemblance. Emotions are only  harmful if they are inappropriately self-focused. They were created and given to us to be appropriate responses to a God-centered reality. Those whose hearts have been roused awake by the Spirit of the Living God know this to be true – and they are happy! (See what I did there?)