"Why doesn't God answer my prayer?"

Reading in the Grand Story this morning from Isaiah...

"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear." (Isaiah 59:1-2)

What goes through our minds when we pray and it feels like God doesn't hear us, or when we beg God to do something for us and it seems like He doesn't come through? How do we interpret that? What do we think about God in that moment? That He doesn't care about me? Doesn't love me? Doesn't exist? Does it even cross our minds that the problem is with us and not God? Is that a category that we even think in?

Proverbs 19:3 is a familiar interpretation on the silence of God and our reactions to it: "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD." (NLT) But scripture says it's not that God can't or won't act on our behalf; it's because we are living and asking at cross purposes with Him. God has a purpose: to draw people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people to Himself through Jesus Christ and make them a Kingdom. That's what the whole Bible is about, start to finish. That is Plan A, and there is no Plan B.

But that is not our purpose. Our purpose is to live as comfortably as possible for as long as possible, surrounded only by people who will tell us how great we are -- even if it cost us our freedom, our humanity, or our very lives. The apostle James says the source of our broken relationships and jacked up lives is this very thing: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:1-4)

"Enemies of God." That's what our sin makes us. And then we have the gall to be indignant when God doesn't answer our selfish prayers and grant us our three wishes. Like He owes us something! Ha! He owes us something, alright. Thank God, Jesus took what we are owed on Himself on the cross, and left it in the grave when He rose from the dead!

New category to pray in: Change what I want, God. Sync my heart to Yours. Align my life to Your purposes. "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" (Psalm 119:36) You can't expect the power of God on your behalf apart from the purpose of God. The PURPOSE of the POWER of God on your behalf is to bring about the Kingdom of God IN YOU. "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:20-21)

On this mountain...

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Great news from the Grand Story this morning... Isaiah prophecies:

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 25:6-8)

"On this mountain." What mountain is this and where can I get me some of that? Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem which is situated high on a mountain in Israel. The same site where Abraham offered his only son and God spared Isaac by sending a substitute to take his place. ON the same mountain where David paid the full price of the threshing floor because he would not offer sacrifices to God which cost him nothing, and where the sacrifice he offered saved the nation from the penalty of sin. On the same mountain where Solomon built the Temple to be the place where God chose to gather His people and be present among them, in their midst. On this mountain Jesus, the Word made flesh, would be the substitute sacrifice, would pay the full price for our sin, and where He will return to dwell among us as our King.

"For ALL peoples." No matter who you are, where you've come from, or what you've done. This feast is available to you.

"He will swallow up... death." The veil that is spread over us all. All lay under the curse brought about by our rebellion against God. But the death and resurrection of Christ defeated it forever and made a way for us back to the life we were intended to live all along.

"God will wipe away tears from all the faces..." All the pain and hurt and suffering, sickness, disease... gone. All the shame, guilt, tragic consequences of selfish lives, the cumulative effect our brokenness has wreaked on the earth... wiped away. Jesus echoes this promise in His revelation to the Apostle John: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' ' (Revelation 21:3-4)

"for the LORD has spoken." This is the best part. He promised. And He never breaks a promise. Not one word of His promises has ever failed. I know some who refuse to believe it. But He never promised we would never experience pain or suffering. He never promised we would not have to face the consequences of our selfishness. He never promised bad things wouldn't happen.

But He did promise that He would defeat death, lift the curse, and make all things new. He promised that the coming kingdom, for those who believe His promise, would be so great that all the tragedy and horror of centuries of human cruelty and evil has wrought would seem like "momentary, light affliction" by comparison (2 Cor. 4:17). Paul said they weren't even worth bothering to compare at all! (Rom. 8:18) God promised that we would be so comforted and healed and restored in the coming Kingdom that "the former things will not be remembered." (Isa. 65:17)

How good would something have to be to make the cumulative suffering of human history seem like nothing more than a dim memory? I don't think we have the capacity to even imagine it. So instead we are faced with a choice: believe the Promise and live like it's true, or give up in despair and make a god out of whatever you can find laying around that will numb the pain until you die.

I have made my choice. I believe the Promise. I've made my home "on this mountain." I hope to see you there!

So nobody is singing at your church? It may not be the music....

Just read yet another blog railing against modern worship music and why people don't sing at church anymore... *sigh*..... here we go...

It's interesting how many people want to put the blame on the worship leaders, musicians, the volume of the music, the style of the music, etc. Bla bla bla bla blaa. Frankly, I'm a little sick of it. There is one really major reason why more people don't participate in corporate praise that nobody ever mentions, and it has nothing to do with music: nobody is preaching about it from the Bible.

Despite the fact that singing is commanded in the scriptures repeatedly, and that music plays a crucial part in biblical congregational worship, almost no one ever teaches it as a mandatory spiritual discipline. It's hardly mentioned and when it is it is relegated to an optional expression for those who enjoy it. That is not what you see in the scriptures. It is not optional. There are nearly fifty verses in the Bible that directly command believers to sing praises to God, as well as four hundred references to singing in corporate worship. Ephesians 5:19 says Christians should be in the practice of "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart." Notice it never mentions musical style or personal preference. It never excuses anyone who doesn't like the volume level or the spectator-style layout of the auditorium (never mind the fact that almost every concert ever is set up with the band on a stage and the audience facing them; it never seems to discourage anyone from singing along if they really want to).

In our church almost everyone sings because we teach singing as a command of scripture and an expression of love and joy. They may not like every song but they love every expression of adoration towards Christ and are eager to participate. Why? Because the leadership values it and has taught the congregation to value it from the scriptures.

Take Colossians 3:16 for example, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Sounds like a command to me, with all the same authority of the Word of God behind it as any other command. I wonder if we taught obedience in the area of congregational singing from the pulpit the same way we teach obedience in the area of tithing or praying or sexual purity, we just might see some people begin take it more seriously.

If people aren't singing at your church, it might not be because the music is too loud. It might not be that no one knows the songs (it takes like 5 seconds to learn a pop song off the radio; I think we can handle a new chorus or two every now and then). But it just might be because the leadership of your church doesn't teach it as a command to be obeyed. Maybe we should quit blaming the band and the worship leader and start looking to the pulpit for a change.

(ok, deep breath.) I'm good now. Whew. For more on this perspective, here is a great blog on the biblical approach to congregational singing.

A Place At The Table: The Gospel According to... Mephibosheth?!?

Week 18, Day 2…. Love this beautiful picture of the gospel in the story of Mephibosheth…

“And David said to him, ‘Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.’ And [Mephibosheth] paid homage and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ … So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.” (2 Sam. 9:7-8, 13)

The story of Mephibosheth begins back in 2 Samuel 4:4: “Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who as crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.”

The name literally meant “dispeller of shame,” and it carried within it the idea of a breath of air blowing away shame and humiliation, specifically as it related to idol worship. In 1 Chronicles 8:34, his name is recorded as Merib-baal, meaning “grapples with or struggles against Baal,” a pagan deity that was commonly worshipped in that region. Both names suggest that idol worship had brought shame and humiliation to Israel, and maybe Jonathan had hoped that his heritage would be to one day put an end to that shame and restore Israel to the pure worship of God again. Whatever the reason, Mephibosheth’s very name invoked hope for the future.

That day in the nursery when he was five, all hope must have seemed lost. One minute, he is the son of a prince, the grandson of the King, in the line to assume the throne. The future seemed bright and certain. The next a messenger from Jezreel is announcing that his father and grandfather have been killed in battle. His nurse knows the chaos that will come in the wake of this news: there will be a mad scramble for power. Death and bloodshed in a desperate grab for power by relatives and kinsmen. And there is David. The sworn enemy of Saul. Rumor has it that God has chosen him to be king over Israel. Surely, he will come and put to death any that stand in his way.

In fear, the nurse snatches little Mephibosheth up, hurriedly packs a few things she will need in hiding, and runs from the nursery. What happens next is a blur; all she knows is she is falling. Hard. Mephibosheth is injured. Both feet are crippled by the accident. He will never walk again. In a culture where the strength of a man to work his field and tend his flock is everything, Mephibosheth’s bright future, all the hopes and dreams of his father for him, crumble into ashes.

Mephibosheth. Dispeller of Shame. His own name must have become a cruel joke to him, and it probably felt like gravel in his mouth whenever he spoke it. How many times he must have heard it on the lips of others and thought, “Dispeller of Shame? Ha! Dispeller of Hope, is more like it.” So for years, Mephibosheth lives in humiliation, depending on the pity and charity of others, unable to contribute to the work, hding out, living in constant fear that his identity as a Saul’s grandson might be discovered and he be put to death. Maybe it would be better that way, he might have thought. After all, I am already as good as dead. A dead dog in the street. No one will even miss me, except those to whom I have become a burden, and they will probably be relieved.

You can imagine what he must have felt the day the messengers from King David showed up at his house, asking for him – by name! He must have thought, This is it. I’m dead. The day I have dreaded for so long has finally come. He can hardly believe his ears when he hears why they have come. David doesn’t want to kill him; David wants to show him kindness for the sake of his father.

His head must have been spinning when David called his name: “Mephibosheth!” Dispeller of the Shame of Israel. Bringer of Hope. Somehow it didn’t sound like a cruel joke anymore when he said it. “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan…” Because of a sacred promise, a covenant between David and Mephibosheth’s father, the King wants to take all the love and kindness he had for Jonathan and give it to him! He had nothing to offer David. And David certainly didn’t owe him anything. By all rights, David should have had him slain as the blood relative of his bitter enemy and rival to the throne. Ha! The throne! Sure, as long as I can get somebody to carry me up and sit me on it!

David continued,”… and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father…” Could this really be happening? All that was lost is being restored to him, even though he no longer has any rightful claim to it, much less the power to make such a claim. And here is David simply handing it to him. And for no other reason that because it pleased him to do it!

But David wasn’t finished. “…and you shall eat at my table always.” This last bit must have been almost too much for Mephibosheth to bear. King David had already been extravagantly generous in honoring his covenant with his father Jonathan as if it had been with him directly, in giving back to him all the land that was lost to their family, in letting him live! It would have been more than Mephibosheth could have ever dreamed possible if David had sent him away with all of that and had never seen or spoken to him again. But instead, David gives him a place with him, a seat of honor, at his table, beside him, always!

I don’t want to rush past this and miss this, because this is, I believe, where the gospel shines most clearly in this story. David wanted Mephibosheth to be with him always.  He wanted to get to know him, to dwell with him, for him to be like one of his own sons. For the first time since that horrible accident all those years ago, Mephibosheth must have felt wanted!

It must have undone him completely. Scripture records his response to this overwhelming of David: “And [Mephibosheth] paid homage” – in the original Hebrew it literally means to prostrate, to fall down on your face in submission before someone – “and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ “ All those years of living in fear and hiding who he really was, of feeling the weight of shame and humiliation, of having no hope for his future, and of feeling like a burden to a family to whom he didn’t belong, all that just melted away like waking up from a bad dream. Almost in echo of the day his future was suddenly snatched away from him and he was plunged into a nightmare, he found himself suddenly living in the King’s palace, eating at his table, accepted as a friend and member of his own family. It’s called grace. Undeserved favor. Unconditional love and kindness. For no other reason that because it pleases the King to do so.

This is one of my favorite stories in scripture because it my story, too – Our story.We are Mephibosheth. Helpless. Hopeless. “strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 4:12) But like Mephibosheth, we are the recipients of astonishing grace, based on a blood covenant made long ago, before we were born. Not for our own sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ and His blood shed for us, we are welcomed into the family of the King, and given a place at His table – always!

Paul describes our part in this story well: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph.2:1-9)

Our sin had alienated us. We were enemies of the King, living in rebellion. Our selfishness had crippled us, made us unable to walk in the way we were meant to. We had no power to save ourselves. No future to give us hope. We were “dead dogs” for all intents and purposes. “But God” – two of the sweetest words in scripture – showed us unfathomable grace for Jesus’ sake. And here is the part I love most: “so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

In the coming ages. Though we may feel like Mephibosheth today, there is a new King in town, and His Kingdom is coming even now. In that Kingdom we have been given a seat at the table. “Because of the great love with which He loved us.” Take that to heart today, friend. Trust in the kindness of Jesus. He wants you to be with Him so bad, not even death could stop him. Let the truth of that sink in today and truly be a Dispeller of Shame.

David's Worship Band

Week 17, Day 4 of the Grand Story…. David assembles a worship band…

“David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy…"
(1 Chronicles 15:16)

When it came time to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, David assembled a team of singers and musicians to accompany it. The ark represented the very presence of God Himself among the people, which is the end goal of the entire redemptive plan of God. This was an occasion of significant joy to the Israelite people. The presence of God was everything. It was their identity. It was what set them apart from every other nation on earth. It had been gone from the center of their culture for some twenty years. Now it was being restored to its proper place: the very center of their entire lives.

To celebrate appropriately, David commanded a worship team be assembled. I want everyone to notice this: He established the percussion section FIRST! Guess what? God likes drums in worship. And He wants them played loudly. If you don’t like that, guess who has to adjust? (I didn’t write the Bible; I’m just showing you what it says.) Next he brought in guitars. He even designated lead guitarists! Six of them! There was a horn section, too. And a musical director who “understood” how to arrange it all. (1 Chron. 15:19-24)

David’s job description for the worship band was simple: “play loudly on musical instruments… to raise sounds of joy.” The volume of the music is directly tied to the hearts of the people. Consistently throughout scripture, when the people were overwhelmed with the greatness of God, they declared that His praise by making a loud and joyful noise. It was believed that it was due Him – that He deserved it by right – and to withhold it was an offense.

Look, everybody has an opinion when it comes to church music. We all have our preferences and tastes. The problem is when we kid ourselves that what we think actually matters. It just doesn’t. What we ought to be asking is, What does kind of worship music does God like? Does He have a preference? Because if He does, and if we elevate our traditions and opinions and preferences over His direct commands, then whatever else we think we are doing, we are not worshiping. We are merely singing religious songs about God to make ourselves feel better.

David knew worship music. He was not only a man after God’s own heart (God’s words, not man’s), but he wrote a significant portion of the worship music we find in scripture. David seemed to know what God wanted from our worship music, and it can be summed up in one word: LOUD. Not for the sake of being loud, or trying to be relevant to the culture of the day, but because loud is what joy sounds like, based on the authority of scripture.

Christians have a lot to celebrate – more than anyone else in the history of the world, in fact. When people celebrate, they throw a party. So, because the Bible commands it, Sunday mornings at The Ridge will continue to be more like a wedding reception than a funeral.

Fearless

--> “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
David had plenty of reason to be afraid. Few men in history have had giants, kings, armies, even entire nations of people trying to kill him. Yet David didn’t let fear control his life. He knew it, felt it, but didn’t surrender to it. How was he able to withstand the daily terror of running for his life?

David’s confidence was in God, specifically expressed in Psalm 27 by three word pictures: light, salvation, and a stronghold. And because God was these three things to him, David had the confidence to say, “Whom shall I fear?” Why these three pictures? What do these three things have to do with David not being afraid of anyone or anything? 

To answer this question, I asked my small group what things they afraid of. Specifically I phrased it this way: “What are some fears that have marked your life to this point?” I had a hunch that their answers would reveal exactly why David trusted God for light, for salvation, and for a stronghold. 

My hunch paid off big time:

• “I fear I will disappoint my family, that I will fail as a father and a husband.”      “I’m afraid that something bad will happen to my kids.”
• “I sometimes wonder if God will really save me, or that I’ve messed up so bad He will abandon me.” 
• “I wonder if today will be the day I die.”
• “I worry… What if something happens to me that I can’t handle?”

As everyone shared, I jotted down generally the fear they expressed: failure, abandonment, security and safety, fear of the unknown. As I looked over the list, my suspicions were confirmed…

 

Next, I asked the group how people typically handled fear. I told them I didn’t want “Sunday school” answers here. We all know how we should handle fear, but how do we usually handle it? Sometimes we react in anger when we feel threatened and lash out. Other times we seek to control our surroundings by insulating and isolating against even the possibility of being hurt.

 

It got deep, I can tell you. We hit some nerves to be sure. The Holy Spirit was uncovering some things that needed to be faced and dealt with at the cross of Christ.

I turned to Psalm 27:1 and read the verse, “The LORD is my light and my salvation… the LORD is the stronghold of my life.” I asked the group, “Why those three things? Of all the ways David has described God to in the Psalms, what is it about these three descriptions that makes David be able to say, ‘I don’t have to fear anything or anyone’?’

 

I told the group my theory: I believed that all the fears we expressed fell into one of three categories – fear of the unknown, fear of harm or danger, and fear of being vulnerable and exposed. These three categories applied across the board: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. My hunch at the beginning was that these three word pictures David used – light, salvation, stronghold – addressed these three categories of fear perfectly.

Light.  
What does light do? It illuminates. It reveals. It exposes. It dispels darkness. When you walk into a dark room, you have no idea what you are walking into until you turn on the light. As soon as the light comes on, you can see what’s there, you can know the truth about your situation. Because God is his Light, David can know what’s really true – about his life, about himself, about God. He doesn’t have to try to figure it out himself, always wondering and second-guessing, “Did I make the right decision? Did I do the right thing?” He can know what’s true and walk in the security of that knowledge: “Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.” (Ps. 27:11)

 

If one of our greatest areas of fear is the unknown, God will be our Light and reveal the truth. We don’t have to fear not knowing anymore! Jesus told His disciples, ““I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life… If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:12, 31-32) Free from what? Fear and the bondage it brings! Look, Christ faced down death and won. If we put our trust in Him, “of whom shall we be afraid?”

 

Salvation. 
What is salvation? The dictionary defines salvation as “a source or means of being saved from harm, ruin, or loss.” In Psalm 27 David describes the things that threaten to harm him – assailing enemies, armies encamped against him, war and violence, false witnesses defaming his character, even being abandoned by his own parents. If anyone needed saving, it was David!

 

But what was David’s reaction to all this? “My heart shall not fear… yet I will be confident.” (Ps. 27:3) David’s confidence was not in his own strategy or skill or ability. David’s confidence was in God. “The LORD is my salvation.”

 

One of the greatest fears we all share is the fear of being destroyed with no one to rescue. We fear death, we dear harm, we fear destruction. And not just physical threats; some have gotten into such an overwhelming financial burden of debt, they fear it will destroy them and their family. Some are held in bondage to addictions to food, drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, money, success, that they are ruining their lives and see no way out. Others are being destroyed from the inside out by their own bodies, racked with sickness, disease, or infirmity. We need a Savior! “The LORD is my salvation.”

 

Now does God always heal in this life? Does God always make our difficult circumstances go away? No. But God offers salvation nonetheless – not always from something, but always through something. We have the sure promise of a Holy God that this life is not all there is. Those who trust in Him will see the Kingdom, where there is no more sorrow, sickness, pain, or suffering. Forever.

 

When the apostle Paul was addressing the suffering of persecuted Christians in the first century church, he encouraged them with this truth:

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:7-9, 16-18)

David expressed it this way, 

“[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living!

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.” (Ps. 27:13-14, Amplified)

The Lord IS our salvation, both in this life and the life to come. Let the world do its worst. In mercy God will deliver us, or in mercy He will sustain us in the midst of our suffering. But the Kingdom is coming. And those who trust Him will be there. “Whom shall I fear?”
 

Stronghold. 
A stronghold is a fortress. High walls and ample defenses. It is stocked with provision and built for protection. Inside it, we are safe from all enemies.

 

Another area of fear we all share is of being exposed and vulnerable. We fear revealing our true selves to anyone because they might reject us, and that rejection is too painful. We all find that out the hard way, don’t we? Our response is to retreat into a fortress of our own making. Like Adam and Eve, we will build it out of whatever is laying around – sticks, leaves, debris. Fragile things these homemade strongholds.

 

The truth is – if you really want to get down to it – is that we don’t know how to build a stronghold; we only now how to build a prison. But we call it a stronghold because it seems to work. It keeps out everything that might hurt us and protects us from being exposed for ho we are. What we don’t realize is that we aren’t keeping anything out, we are just keeping ourselves locked inside.

 

This expresses itself in a number of ways in our lives: 

·      The Poser: a carefully crafted persona that we think everyone will like because we have believed the lie that the true us – the one God made for His glory – is not good enough. We dare not risk rejection of our truest self, so we invent one based on what we think the culture (or our friends or parents or whoever) want us to be. The problem is that it is a lie. Lies take an enormous amount of spiritual, emotional, and mental energy to keep up. Eventually, they collapse under the weight of our own lives and the result is devastation.

·     The Tyrant. This is the person who seeks to control everything and everyone as a means of protecting himself from pain. If he can foresee and prepare himself against every possible eventuality and possibility of hurt, and take the necessary steps to prevent it, then maybe he will not have his worst fears come true. The over-protective parent. The domineering husband. The domineering wife. The manipulative friend. The demanding boss. The workaholic. These are just a few of the self-made strongholds that become prisons of fear.

·      The Loner. It stands to reason that if I never open my life to anyone then no one can hurt me. I can never fail if I never risk. I can never be rejected if I never offer. So he checks out. Life just rolls by and he passively watches from the sidelines, numb to its pleasures as well as its pain. He seeks to preserve his life by never living it. When he gets to the end of it, he realizes what he has done and lunches into eternity in utter despair.

 

David sang,

“For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.” (Ps. 27:5-6)

So how does that work? What is the difference between hiding in a prison we made and a fortress God provides?

 

The best answer I have ever seen is in 1 John 4:16-18)

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

John draws a direct correlation between the love God has for us and our fear. What he is saying is essentially this: “Look, if God knows the truth about you – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and still loves you in spite of all that, what do you care what anyone else thinks about you? If you don’t have to fear the rejection of God at the judgment because of what Christ has done for you , then why would you fear the judgment or rejection of anyone else? Who else matters?”

 

We can live freely, love openly, and offer our true selves with wild abandon, because in Christ we are accepted by the God who knows us best and loves us anyway. His love is the stronghold of our lives where fear is kept out by His perfect love. The key that opens the fortress to us is in the word abide. We don’t use that word much in our culture. A modern translation might be “to move in an live there.” We make it our home. We settle there and stay. How? Glad you asked…

 

Look again at 1 John 4:16: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” A lot of us have heard that Jesus loves us.  Many even accept intellectually the possibility that that might even be true. But it’s something else altogether to truly believe it. Belief always results in a change of some kind. If we say we believe something, we must either adjust our lives to align with that belief or else admit that we don’t really believe it after all.

 

To believe the love that God has for us – to rest the full weight of our lives on it – is to move into a new neighborhood. We pack our things and leave behind that homemade shack of sticks we have called our fortress, and move into the sprawling freedom of being loved and accepted in Christ. Now make no mistake, there is work to be done. There are things that are going to have to change. That’s why John said that His love must be “perfected” in us, meaning it has to be gradually brought to its maturity, its intended state. That’s a life-long, ongoing process. But it is also an expression of His love because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Heb. 12:6) His correction means He loves you and has accepted you!

 

So it doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks, or how they react to your truest you. If you are in Christ, He will be your defender. The LORD is the stronghold of your life. You are now free to live, to love, and to offer all you were created to offer. Fearlessly.

 

Isn’t that good news? Don’t we all want that kind of life? Can I say with David, “Because the LORD is my light, my salvation, and my stronghold, I don’t have to live in fear anymore!”

HD or SD? Depends on your perspective...

Week 15, Day 3 of the Grand Story... reading in Psalm 73 about why God allows evil to seemingly prosper...

"For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works." (Ps. 73:27-28, NASB emphasis mine)

One of the difficulties we have in puzzling out why God allows evil to continue is in our very definitions of "good" and "evil." We tend to define these terms in relation to the effects we experience in the immediate moment. If it brings harm or pain or discomfort or death, we call it "evil." If it brings happiness, pleasure, comfort, prosperity, or good feelings, we call it "good." We can't for the life of us figure out why God seems to allow "evil" and withhold "good" from so many people.

It's a bit like HD versus Standard Definition. There is a standard definition we all assume about many things -- life, death, right, wrong, good, and evil. But there is something missing from the picture. We are settling for less than there is available. There is a clearer view available. God says, 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9, ESV)

God has a "Higher Definition" than the Standard Definition" we are used to.

God defines "good" and "evil" in terms of distance from Him, from His heart. "Those who are far" from God perish. They miss what life is all about. They are born, live, and die completely cut off from why they were even created. Is there anything more evil than that?

Conversely, the Psalmist says, "the nearness of God is my good." Scripture defines "good" as that which brings us nearer to God. Many of the things we think of as "good" might actually pull us farther away from God -- success, prosperity, comfort, certain pleasurable experiences. Likewise, much of what we call "evil," particularly in terms of suffering, can actually turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us because of the "nearness of God" we experience in those times. I am speaking here from personal experience, not just sappy Hallmark-card sentimentality. The testing of my faith has proven to produce good things in me every single time.

I am not saying that suffering and pain are good things. Please don't misunderstand me. What I am saying is anything that results in us being increasingly more like Jesus should be considered "good." I don't expect everyone to agree with me here, or share my convictions. That's okay. Even the Psalmist said, "When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight... UNTIL I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end." (Ps. 73:16-17, NASB) Sometimes how we see things depends on where we are standing. Until we come into the "sanctuary of God" -- into His presence and get His perspective -- our view will be limited to our own understanding. We will be seeing in standard def instead of HD.