As I go through my day I interact with a variety of people. Bankers, real estate people, retired folks, youth, up-and-coming young people, children, parents, sales people ... every kind of person you can think of. They all think that the world as they see it is reality. Then I read about a man God calls "his servant Job." In the oldest book, the oldest story and maybe the most complex theology in the Bible. The story of Job cries out over the centuries saying, "Open your eyes ... see the world with the clarity of God's eyes ... there is more than meets our human eyes."
C. S. Lewis understood this when he wrote an amazing story called "The Great Divorce." In this story the characters live in a place much like "The Matrix" of our modern movie. They survive in a world that has a simple structure ... if you can imagine it you can have it. Problem is, 'it' is always of low and diminishing quality. The houses are alright but soon the owner longs for a better one. The neighborhoods are alright but soon the resident begins to imagine a place where the grass is greener. The neighbors are fine until you get to know them. You find they all have problems. So you move out to the next neighborhood, always 'better' and always not quite enough. This is Lewis' description of hell. A bus arrives that will take everyone who boards to heaven. When they arrive in heaven the fireworks begin. It seems heaven is real ... too real for the likes of the ghostly crew on the bus. The grass is so hard it hurts their feet. The water is so hard the wraith-like hell dwellers can walk on it. But that's not the worst thing. The people of heaven are real. They speak truth. They live out love and forgiveness. They are better than no one and are, in their heavenly form, so beautiful it is hard to look at them. They can enjoy the reality and stark beauty of heaven because they buy into what God has told them. They really believe the stuff people today call mythical, "good philosophy" and 'story.' At the end of the bus trip all but one of the wraiths get back on the bus. They cannot deal with reality ... it is too transparent and they don't like it one bit.
Job is a story of a good man having his view of God transformed. He enters righteous, proud, demanding an audience with God. He departs broken, silent and humble, seeing a true and Holy God in a clarity that completely disarms Job. Maybe if the people I see every day would see God in His Holiness, they would do what Job does ... place their hand over their mouth, just listening to God speak through His Word, His creation and His power. I too will place my hand over my mouth. I will listen and watch for the reality of God to happen all around me. May I have eyes to see and ears to hear! Pastor Randy
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Who is Wiser?
Last week we asked if your 'god' was bigger than you? This week we will follow suit with another question ... is your God wiser than you, your friends, your news sources or the ads you see on TV?
On the surface you would, of course, answer YES! But how do you answer the question in how you live your life? I will be speaking, today, to a world that has become obsessed with all the wrong things. I will be pleading with people who think their political perspective has the right answers. I will be reasoning with folks who think God is on their side.
Solomon, and his writings from Proverbs, are part of the Bible called "wisdom literature." It is God's Spirit-breathed advice for all people that will benefit them each and every day. I have marveled when science or modern psychology arrives at a 'truth' that they have discovered from years of research and case-studies. I usually can recall that truth from God's Word in Proverbs. I can assure you that God is smarter and wiser than me!
One reason I believe this issue is a problem of great magnitude is that watching any 30-minute segment of news or other TV will yield the following ... explicit sexual references, Betty White being 'cute' by making a suggestive sexual remark, a commercial or news report about how one of our political parties is following the 'true' American way, demeaning of adults by children, young people being portrayed as mindless party animals, and the newest/best/necessary device that will change your life. I could go on. Proverbs, on the other hand, provides guidance that, if applied, will truly change your life for the better. You will prosper, life a fuller life, have self-respect, have integrity/dignity, be more content and have perspective on where you have been and where you are going. You must decide whether you want this life for yourself and for your children. You must choose whether you will happen to life or whether life will happen to you. You must evaluate whether your 'god' is really God and whether He is wiser than you. Choices, choices ... which way will you go?
On the surface you would, of course, answer YES! But how do you answer the question in how you live your life? I will be speaking, today, to a world that has become obsessed with all the wrong things. I will be pleading with people who think their political perspective has the right answers. I will be reasoning with folks who think God is on their side.
Solomon, and his writings from Proverbs, are part of the Bible called "wisdom literature." It is God's Spirit-breathed advice for all people that will benefit them each and every day. I have marveled when science or modern psychology arrives at a 'truth' that they have discovered from years of research and case-studies. I usually can recall that truth from God's Word in Proverbs. I can assure you that God is smarter and wiser than me!
One reason I believe this issue is a problem of great magnitude is that watching any 30-minute segment of news or other TV will yield the following ... explicit sexual references, Betty White being 'cute' by making a suggestive sexual remark, a commercial or news report about how one of our political parties is following the 'true' American way, demeaning of adults by children, young people being portrayed as mindless party animals, and the newest/best/necessary device that will change your life. I could go on. Proverbs, on the other hand, provides guidance that, if applied, will truly change your life for the better. You will prosper, life a fuller life, have self-respect, have integrity/dignity, be more content and have perspective on where you have been and where you are going. You must decide whether you want this life for yourself and for your children. You must choose whether you will happen to life or whether life will happen to you. You must evaluate whether your 'god' is really God and whether He is wiser than you. Choices, choices ... which way will you go?
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Who is Bigger?
Who is bigger ... you or God? This should be an easy question but in the context of the Biblical story of David and the current story of our culture, it is not so simple. I want you to read 2 Samuel 11 and 12 and Psalm 51. Hear and feel the intrigue. Experience the deceit and the agony both bring to King David. We find here a good study of sin, consequences, a heart of repentance and a proper approach of unholy people to a holy God.
But that question should haunt us. If God is bigger than us, then we should logically put God first in our lives (not our checkbooks or our recreational opportunities). If God is bigger then His requirements should preside over our needs (not sex, food, or 'being fed' [baby birds need feeding]). If God is bigger then He should be our first thought when we face a decision (Would God like what I am doing?).
David's contrition in Psalm 51 expresses a right orientation of a sinful person to a pure and holy God. David understands that he has violated the plan and the path of someone bigger and more important than even his deepest desires or needs. David considers this betrayal and rebellion against God. He is mortified! He makes no excuses, offers no rationalization, gives no reasons for his action. He just owns his actions which, according to David, are against (in opposition to) God.
What if we felt this way about our own sin? What if we understood that each time we choose to sin, go against God's plan, or ignore God, we are saying that we (our will, our needs, our intellect, our 'life') are bigger and more important than the God we say we worship and love? What if we looked honestly at our own depravity rather than highlight the depravity of others? Wouldn't that free us to a pure, honest and open worship of God (I think this is true worship in Spirit and truth)?
As long as I am bigger than God, He is not the true Lord of my life and he is not really God at all.
But that question should haunt us. If God is bigger than us, then we should logically put God first in our lives (not our checkbooks or our recreational opportunities). If God is bigger then His requirements should preside over our needs (not sex, food, or 'being fed' [baby birds need feeding]). If God is bigger then He should be our first thought when we face a decision (Would God like what I am doing?).
David's contrition in Psalm 51 expresses a right orientation of a sinful person to a pure and holy God. David understands that he has violated the plan and the path of someone bigger and more important than even his deepest desires or needs. David considers this betrayal and rebellion against God. He is mortified! He makes no excuses, offers no rationalization, gives no reasons for his action. He just owns his actions which, according to David, are against (in opposition to) God.
What if we felt this way about our own sin? What if we understood that each time we choose to sin, go against God's plan, or ignore God, we are saying that we (our will, our needs, our intellect, our 'life') are bigger and more important than the God we say we worship and love? What if we looked honestly at our own depravity rather than highlight the depravity of others? Wouldn't that free us to a pure, honest and open worship of God (I think this is true worship in Spirit and truth)?
As long as I am bigger than God, He is not the true Lord of my life and he is not really God at all.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
An Ironic Event
I just spent the first part of this week at the Annual Conference of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. The event is filled with some preaching, some teaching, some reporting and a lot of voting (I have emailed updates to you if you are interested in knowing what happened). One thing that happens each year is the reading and approval of property resolutions from the Conference Board of Trustees. Just days before Pentecost (read Acts 2) we are invariably voting on the closure of several congregations that have been declared "legally dead." People still live near the building, life goes on outside of the 'structure' that we call a church ... but there is no life inside the structure. I always wonder what happened.
In a short blog, this week I want to put forward my take on what happens when a church closes. I believe the people inside the building have decided that they don't need to speak the language of the people outside the building. In the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 the disciples (especially Peter) come out of the upper room into the world of their time and begin telling the Gospel story. People heard it in their own language and thousands believed after that simple sermon. A few observations ... 1) the Holy Spirit did this work through the disciples after they left the safety of the upper room (God calls us to risk for the Gospel), 2) they spoke God's message with the boldness of those who were convicted themselves (God uses us when we follow His leading), 3) they spoke to any and all who would listen (no criteria for entry ... just come and hear). I think those churches that were closed had lost the ability to go out, tell the message with simplicity and risk it all for the God who saved them. It became about them ... not about God.
I will close with a question that I can answer with multiple examples for Good News ... I wonder how the closed churches would answer it. Here it is ... "Who, other than members of your congregation, would be harmed if suddenly your church was gone?" For Good News I think lots of folks ... for the closed churches, maybe nobody. That's my take ... Pastor Randy
In a short blog, this week I want to put forward my take on what happens when a church closes. I believe the people inside the building have decided that they don't need to speak the language of the people outside the building. In the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 the disciples (especially Peter) come out of the upper room into the world of their time and begin telling the Gospel story. People heard it in their own language and thousands believed after that simple sermon. A few observations ... 1) the Holy Spirit did this work through the disciples after they left the safety of the upper room (God calls us to risk for the Gospel), 2) they spoke God's message with the boldness of those who were convicted themselves (God uses us when we follow His leading), 3) they spoke to any and all who would listen (no criteria for entry ... just come and hear). I think those churches that were closed had lost the ability to go out, tell the message with simplicity and risk it all for the God who saved them. It became about them ... not about God.
I will close with a question that I can answer with multiple examples for Good News ... I wonder how the closed churches would answer it. Here it is ... "Who, other than members of your congregation, would be harmed if suddenly your church was gone?" For Good News I think lots of folks ... for the closed churches, maybe nobody. That's my take ... Pastor Randy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)