Suffering in Silence

The story sounds something you might see on the TV news or a made-for-TV movie, but it happened to people we knew and loved. One of our former members came home from work to find that her whole family was dead. Her husband had shot and killed their two teen-aged children and then turned the gun on himself. The interviews with friends and neighbors we saw on the news were identical to the interviews we've all seen after similar tragedies before.  "They were a quiet family that kept to themselves." "He really seemed to adore his kids."  "I never dreamed that anything was wrong."    No motive was ever found for this senseless tragedy, but there was a reason somewhere. Something was going on behind closed doors or hidden deep within this man’s heart. And if someone would have only known, then maybe they could have helped him. But it seems that whatever the demons he was wrestling with, he chose to wrestle alone. He suffered in silence.

 Many people made the same choice. This morning I ran across a headline that I couldn't believe at first-- “More Americans Commit Suicide than are Killed in Car Crashes.” The headline, carried in multiple news outlets, was based on a study in American Journal of Public Health. The good news is that this statistic is partly true because the number of traffic fatalities has taken a radical dip. But the idea that more people kill themselves on purpose than are killed by accident on our highways is very surprising. Too many of us are way too proficient at keeping our pain and struggles hidden. We develop defense mechanisms to mask or deny our pain. We don’t want anyone to know that we don’t have the ideal family. We don’t want anyone to know that we aren't the ideal person. Sure, it is natural not to want to air all our dirty linen for the world to see. But this radical privacy that we have developed leads us to insulate ourselves from seeking the help we need from others. We want to keep our skeletons safely hidden in the closet. We may struggle with secret sin, failing marriage, wavering faith… and then invest our energy into keeping the problem safely hidden from others. We suffer in silence rather than reaching out for help and for healing.

 This is the "natural" response… as opposed to the "spiritual" response. Paul tells those who are spiritual to make themselves available to help those in the middle of struggle—

Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. (Gal 6:1, NCV) 

True spirituality is the willingness to involved to help with the struggles of our brothers and sisters. The spiritual person is not some hermit monk who lives above the cares and concerns of this world; being spiritual is about making oneself available to get hands dirty in muck and mire of other people's lives. And that also means that being "spiritual" is about making ourselves vulnerable and accountable to others as we invite them into our mess to help us. God doesn't want us to suffer in silence. He invites you to “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7, NLT). And one way God works to take all our “worries and cares” is through His people that He puts in our lives.

A Servant's Heart

Evidently Tim Tebow, out-spoken Christian and famous back-up quarterback, has created something of a controversy. Again. He was recently interviewed by Vogue (so you could guess that this was not about the mechanics of running the Wildcat option offense in the NFL). He was asked about football, like his supposed rivalry with starting Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (there evidently isn't one, "I can say that honestly I’m rooting for him to do his best").  No what raised eyebrows was the answer to a question about the future Mrs. Tebow-

Obviously looks play a big part. Being attracted to someone plays a big part, but there's also so much more than that for me. It's about finding someone sweet and kind – and that has a servant's heart. It's about finding a girl who likes me for me, and not because of what I do or who I am or the name.

So was it bad for him to admit that he was so shallow that he was looking for someone who was attractive? There's nothing wrong marrying someone who is drop-dead gorgeous; I did! (Of course, I am thankful my wife didn't have the same hang-ups on physical attractiveness).  So what's the problem here? Well, it was OBVIOUSLY sexist and chauvinistic for Tebow to suggest that his future wife have "a servant's heart." That is the same things, of course, as saying he wants someone who is subservient and servile. The secular press decided "servant’s heart" means he wants a wife with no mind of her own who bakes cookies and does what he tells her. As one critic put it

He basically made it seem like he wants some hot woman who dropped straight from 50 Shades Of Grey and will do what he wants and not talk back and certainly not mention that he is currently sitting on the bench 

OK, never mind that earlier in the interview Tebow said that he had "been blessed to have an amazing mom and two amazing sisters-so they set a very high standard." Never mind that he said "I want to have a life that can help people" (in other words, he wants a servant's heart). The fact that he was looking for a girl with a "servant’s heart" proves that he has a twisted, patriarchal view of women.

No, what it means is that he has a Christian view of life and marriage. Jesus told his followers that He Himself "did not come to be served but to serve" and that "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave" (See Matt 20:26-28). Paul said, "serve one another humbly in love" (Gal 5:13). Peter tells disciples "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace" (1 Pet 4:10). Having a servant's heart is something that all Christian's should want to have.

So when Tim Tebow suggests to his interviewer that he is looking for a wife with a servant’s heart, he is simply saying that wants to marry a Christian. Good for you, brother! Keep on looking and keep on praying—one day you’ll find her. Just one word of advice during your search, Tim. Keep your shirt on!

In the Beginning...

It seems like every time you turn around there is some new English translation of the Bible being released.  I don't know why we have to have so many Bible translations.  I mean, if the NIV was good enough for Peter and Paul, why can't we just be happy with that?  Of course, I don't just use the NIV; every time I open my computer Bible, seven different translations open with it... and two different versions of the NIV! The more, the merrier, I always say.  Actually, what I always say is that the best Bible translation for anyone is the one they are the most likely to read.  I love the NLT-- not because I use it much (though it is one of the seven on my computer Bible). I love it because it's the version my wife reads and enjoys every day.

 Today, I received an unsolicited email advertisement (OK, it was spam;) for a new Bible translation called "The Voice." The translation is published by Thomas Nelson and was produced by a committee of 120 scholars. It is a modern, dynamic equivalence translation, which means it seeks to best translate each thought in the Bible rather than making a close word for word rendering. That makes it very readable, supposedly on a Middle School reading level. It also has some unique characteristics that make it, well, unique among Bibles. It renders conversations in a dialogue, screenplay style. So that Genesis 3 reads:

"Adam (pointing at the woman): It was she! The woman You gave me as a companion put the fruit in my hands, and I ate it. 

“God (to the woman): What have you done? 

“Eve: It was the serpent! He tricked me, and I ate.” 

That's kinda interesting... and it might get a little annoying after awhile. One of the criticism that has been thrown around the internet, "This Bible doesn't have "Jesus Christ" in it. No, it has "Jesus the Anointed," which is a TRANSLATION of the Greek word "Christos." King James and those who followed him transliterated Christos into English. so, contrary to what you may have heard, no the Voice does not remove Jesus Christ from the Bible. In the same way, Psalm 23 begins “The Eternal is my shepherd …” Horrors? Well, "The Lord" really stand in place of YHWH, the covenant name of God, the name Moses was given when God said, "I am that I am." So is "Eternal" not one way translate that? Of course. Is it annoying that it goes out of its way to be different? Of course. Anyway, here is a good feel for how different "The Voice" really is, a video of John 1:1-18 based on "The Voice." And of course, it starts "Before time itself was measured, the Voice was speaking..."

 

Before a Fall

The Bible has a lot to say warning us against the dangers of our pride. When Solomon lists things that God hates, he begins his list with “haughty eyes.” (Prov 6:17). Literally this expression is “high eyes,” but "haughty" works. The same word is used in Numbers 15:30 for “sins defiantly” (NIV) or “with high hand” (ESV) or “brazenly” (NLT). When we lift our eyes, we are to see God-- not raise them in arrogance and defiance. Many of the Proverbs warn us about the dangers of pride (see Prov 8:13, 11:2, 16:18, 29:23). And our reading today from Amos begins with a scathing denunciation of the pride of Israel, “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it” (Amos 6:8). “Pride goes before a fall” (Prov 16:18) and Israel was going to fall big time!

The problem as Amos presents it is really “the disease of ease,” that led to a proud complacency, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria" (Amos 6:1). Amos attacks the rich, privileged class who are totally clueless about God and “at ease in Zion” (KJV). This was a time of great prosperity, and Israel did what you do in boom times and bull markets— they assumed it would last! And so the rich basked in their arrogance and ignore the sufferings of others and the call of God.

Our present economic darkness was caused in large part by huge banks and investment companies lending money (and the rest of us borrowing it) like the boom time would last forever. And it never does. I recall seeing a 60 Minutes piece on a bank in Iceland that continued to thrive despite the bust. Why? It is totally run by women, and the theory is that women are more social and tend to act based on what’s best for whole group.  This particular bank did not make all the bold, risky, get-rich-quick moves that caused the economic collapse in much of the banking world. After all, it wasn't “Lehman Sisters” that went bust!

Why did Israel act like they thought the good times would roll on forever? Pride! Amos points them the to the examples of the city-states that Israel had captured (Amos 6:2-3). Those cities thought that they would last forever as well. Their arrogance led them to think that there wouldn't be a price to pay. And if those cities thought they would never have to pay the piper, why did Israel think they were protected? Israel’s pride blinded her to her own vulnerability.  That same pride led Israel to be unconcerned about anything or anyone else. Amos is known as the prophet of social justice for sermons like this. (Amos 6:4-6)

4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches.
       You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.
5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

What a picture of a prideful, self-absorbed and self-centered people... that sounds too much like too many people today.  These were the rich and important people who only had time for rich and important things. And they didn't care about the people round them not about the things of God. Their pride blinded them to everything except themselves. That is what is what pride does; that is why pride goes before a fall.

Boy, it's a good thing Amos was talking to 8th century B.C. Israel.  This would be scary if it had any application to our country or our church!

In the Year That King Uzziah Died...

Personally, I don't like books or movies that make use a of the literary device of the "flashback." You know what I’m talking about— they start the story then jump back in time (maybe several times) and then flash-forward to the present and then back again a couple of times so that you never quite sure whether your reading what is happening, what has happened or what will happen. I like stories that start at the beginning, end at the end, and have the middle in the middle. Well, some authors don’t write that way… authors like Isaiah (whose book we started reading together yesterday). Isaiah’s book is organized into oracles or sermons that are not presented in chronological order. There are a lot of flashbacks and (Isaiah is a prophet after all) flash-forwards.

Today’s reading in Isaiah 6 flashes back to tell the beginning of Isaiah’s career as a prophet.  Isaiah call as a prophet was a vision of God high and exalted with His robe filling the temple and angelic seraphs flying above covering both their faces and their feet (you don’t show the king your face or your feet... you bow) crying “Holy, holy, holy” as their voices shake the temple. And all that was just Isaiah’s first day on the job!

But it is important that we don’t miss the flashback. Isaiah dates his call, “In the year that King Uzziah died” (which would have been 740 BC or so). With this impressive vision of God to describe, why does Isaiah bother to date the flashback? The point here really isn't the date so much as the fact that this was the year that King Uzziah died. Uzziah was the greatest and most powerful of Judah's kings since the time of David and Solomon. He raised and equipped a large and powerful army (2 Chron 26:11ff) and built great war machines for his archers (2 Chron 26:15a). Uzziah defeated the Philistines and exacted tribute from the Ammonites. The fame of King Uzziah spread all the way to Egypt (2 Chron 26:8b). Judah didn't have many politically powerful kings after David and Solomon, so the death of the great King Uzziah would have been devastating. What was going to happen now that the great king was gone?  That’s why Isaiah vision of the exalted God was dated "in the year King Uzziah died."

You see, before Isaiah could fill the role of prophet, he had to know which king was really the King. Isaiah's faith could not be in kings like Uzziah; his faith had to begin with God Himself. The Jews would have seen Uzziah's throne more clearly than they could see the throne of God. And when the great king died, they wondered whether their world had fallen apart. And we make the same mistake! When we put our trust in the things of this world, then what happens when those things let us down? If Isaiah was writing today, he might begin his book with something like...

• “In year of the great recession following the banking collapse...”
• “In the year that the Twin Towers were destroyed…”
• “In the year that that Republican or Democrat was elected…”
• Or more personally, "In the year that I got cancer..."

No matter what it is that happens that seems to make our world fall apart, what is important is that we  continue to see the Lord, high and exalted. His throne is above all thrones, and his rule is sovereign and supreme. He is the One who rules over all creation as the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. If we with Isaiah will see the Lord high and exalted, then we will never be so wowed or worried by the things of this earth. When we truly see the Great God, we won’t take ourselves or our desires so seriously. If we see God high and exalted, then we cry out with the seraphs, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.” And we say with Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!”

Eleven Years Ago...

Eleven years ago, four hijacked jetliners crashed and our world was changed-- the Twin Towers were destroyed, the Pentagon was attacked, and a third attack was thwarted and a fourth plane lost. At the end of the day, more than 3000 innocent people were dead, and with them died the unstated but widely held view that terrorism was something that happened in the Middle East and we read about in Time or watched on CNN.

Alan Jackson's song asks, “Where were you when the world stopped turning?” Most of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing that day. That was the first day that Elaine Denman was to start a counseling ministry in our church building once a week. We spent all morning in the teen classroom completely transfixed by the TV. We were watching when the second plane hit and when each of the towers fell. No work was done that day; a lot of prayers were prayed. The world didn’t really stop turning, but it was changed forever.

The last war fought on American soil was the Civil War. (Regardless of what my kids think of my rapidly advancing age, I don’t remember a lot about that war.). Every war since then has been fought, to use the words of a Word War I era song-- “Over There”

Over there, over there, send the word, send the word over thereThat the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,The drums rum-tumming ev'rywhere.So prepare, say a pray'r, send the word, send the word to beware.We'll be over, we're coming over, and we won't come back till it's over, over there

After September 11, war didn't seem to be just fought "over there." This new kind of war fought by extreme fundamentalists against us and our way of life was now being fought over here. It was a new war against a new enemy that didn't fight fair. This was an enemy without an army, uniform or country that turned our planes into bombs and used our own freedoms toagainst us to bring their terror to our shores. This was an enemy that seemed to be everywhere, and seemed to be nowhere. Ironically, our response to 9-11 was to launch a "War on Terror" that has once again sent brave men and women to fight “over there.”

What has changed in the eleven years since 9-11?  Has the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made the world a safer place?  That depends on who you ask, but the world doesn't feel safer.  But then the world never has been a safe place, has it?  One thing that hasn't changed is this-- despite how the nations may "conspire" or "rage," (Psa 2:1), God is still sovereign. Psalm 47:8 is just as true today as it was when the sons of Korah wrote it so long ago, “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.” We live in a fallen world where the evil choices of evil people hurt the innocent. That is not exactly a new development in the history of the world. Jesus said to those who came to arrest him, “But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53, NLT). But just as Jesus looked to God in that time of darkness, so we look to God and his power today. We pray for His peace. We pray His justice. We pray for His will. We pray for His mercy. And we pray for His coming. Peace on earth will always be the impossible dream until the Prince of Peace returns.


(updated repost of blog written 9-11-2008)

What a Great Day!

There’s an old joke about the little boy drawing a picture in Sunday School. The teacher asked him what he was drawing; he said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher smiled and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” The little boy answered, “Well, they will when I’m done!”

I felt like a little bit that yesterday before our first “Baby Dedication Service.” Someone could well have asked me, “What exactly does a baby dedication service at Denbigh look like?” I would have answered, “I don’t know; I’ll you when we are done!” We have never done a baby dedication service before (though I've done a private service when requested by parents).  We've talked about it, but it never went any further than that. Well, Jenn Glaspell really, really wanted to dedicate Willa to God before the church, and she started talking to some of the other young parents and soon the ball started rolling. Thanks Jennifer!

And I think it was, one of the best services that we've ever had! Nine young sets of parents stood before the church and promised to raise their child in the training and instruction of the Lord, the love of God and the fellowship of His family. The church stood with them and promised to stand with them as one of our shepherds prayed over us.  Of course, the hard part now is translating the church service into real life. But then, that’s the hard part after every Sunday service, isn’t it?

And if yesterday wasn't special enough already, Andrew King came forward confessing his faith in Jesus and was immersed into Jesus Christ.  Yesterday was Andrew’s physical birthday; he was born in 2003, a week before Hurricane Isabel slammed into Virginia and took out power in our area for well over a week (Will and Michele ran off with him to Roanoke... wimps). And September 9 is also Andrew re-birthday. It was great that his parents and grandparents were all here to share in Andrew's big day.  So nine babies were dedicated to God by their parents and Andrew dedicated himself to God... 10 is a good Biblical number!

Yesterday was also the kickoff of our 2012-2013 Body Life Small Group season. If each of our groups was only half as enjoyable as our group over at at Bes and Sam Hoxha's last night, then we’ll have a great season! Our rather diverse group (including a college student, a college professor and two of the babies dedicated yesterday) had a great discussion and really seemed to enjoy each other.  OK, the fact that Sam cooked us a great meal for us didn't hurt either!

Yesterday was a great day!  We give glory to the One who made it!

And Fell Down in Worship

In our reading from 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat was having one of those days when it was not fun to be king. There was an alliance of Edomites, Moabites and a bunch of other-ites were massing to attack Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat knew he was totally out-manned and out-gunned. True to his character, Jehoshaphat (no he didn’t jump) bowed down in prayer and praise. His Temple prayer (see 2 Cron 20:6-12) was pretty basic stuff--

• He recognizes the past and God's power to save 
• He explains the distress being suffered in the present, 
• He asks God to intervene and rescue his people. 

There is nothing earthshaking about the form and format of this prayer.  What is powerful is his faith, and faith seen most clearly in his last line, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (20:12)

Have you ever prayed like Jehoshaphat? You don't really know what to do, so you pray? You don’t really know what to say, but you pray anyway? You just pray and let God be God. When the going gets tough, we're more apt to do something-- figure it out, call a meeting, commission a study. Don’t just stand there, do something. Well Jehoshaphat does something. He prays.

Jehoshaphat gets his answer through Jahaziel, a descendant of Asaph (the writer of many of the Psalms). Jahaziel told Jehoshaphat that the battle belongs to the Lord (see 2 Chron 20:15-17). God, not Jehoshaphat, would fight and win the battle. Oh, the king wouldn’t be sitting around twiddling his thumbs-- he must bravely march out to face the enemy. But Jehoshaphat would not be the power that would secure victory. He was to rather look to God and God would fight the battle. And as it happened, God threw the enemy into a great confusion and they destroyed each other. Jehoshaphat and his men simply walked in and picked up the spoils of war. And what was the response of Jehoshaphat and Judah to the goodness and graciousness of God? Worship!

Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD. Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. (2 Chron 20:18–19)

Worship! It was immediate and unplanned— they just fell down. It was also planned and liturgical— led by the Levites. The form and format wasn't what made their worship powerful; it was their heart of gratitude for the goodness and salvation of God.

Like Jehoshaphat, we cry out overwhelmed and powerless as we face an enemy we are too powerless and puny to defeat. Like Jehoshaphat, God fought and defeated that enemy for us, making him a spectacle at the cross (Col 2:15). And our only response is worship! Think of the last time that you were incredibly moved by worship. Was it songs? Prayers? Sermon? Or was it what God had been doing in your life? If we really realize how lost we are without God and how victorious we are because of God-- we worship. We don’t talk about worship; we don’t worry about the forms and formats. We just fall down and worship.

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat

Our reading today provided a great contrast in the directions taken by the two kingdom of divided Israel. In 1 Kings 15, we read of the illustrious carriers of Nabad, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and the rise of Ahab. Many of these guys shared the same basic plan for becoming king—kill the guy on the throne and take his seat. (When we get frustrated with the bloodletting during our election process, we need to remember the old method for succession of power). Contrast that to the stability in Judah during the reign of good King Jehoshaphat who "followed the ways of his father David before him" (2 Chron 17:3). The first thing that came to mind after I read the text was, "Funny, but he never seemed to do a lot of jumping." I remember Officer Toody (Joe E. Ross) on the old “Car 54 Where Are You?” TV show kept saying “Jumping Jehoshaphat!” (See the clip if you are too young to get the reference).



So no, Jehoshaphat didn’t do a lot of jumping. But aside from that, three things came to mind from today’s reading. First, Jehoshaphat was that rare righteous king who followed in the footsteps of his father Asa, who was also a righteous king. Judah holy kings like Hezekiah and Josiah had fathers who were scoundrels and produced sons who were scoundrels. In fact, the reforms of both Hezekiah and Josiah were impressive largely because of how their predecessors drove the country into the ground. Not so, Jehoshaphat. His reforms simply followed in the footsteps of his father Asa.

Second, Jehoshaphat was so consistent in his righteous reforms that people around him took notice. The Chronicler writes, "The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not go to war against Jehoshaphat" (2 Chron. 17:10). The next verse describes the tribute paid to him by the Philistines. The righteousness and reforms of Jehoshaphat were not just political expediencies that went skin deep; they were real and relevant and people tended to notice.

Third, Jehoshaphat was not content to just follow the law of God himself, he was careful to teach it to his people. The text says, "In the third year of his reign he sent his officials… to teach in the towns of Judah… They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people." (2 Chron. 17:7,9). Rather than pass laws to force compliance of the people, he sent teachers with the “Book of the Law” to teach the people what God actually said.

And for a time, it worked. For a time, the nation of Judah followed God and God’s people were faithful to His ways. Jehoshaphat was able to teach the law of God to the people because FIRST he was known to follow it himself. Unlike Constantine and countless over rulers, Jehoshaphat did not use religion in order to establish his control over the people. He was dedicated to God and the ways of God, and as a result he was able to teach it to the people.

Do we want to be able to share the ways of God with people today? The first step is to be completely dedicated to following it in our own lives. How can we hope to teach the culture about the sacredness of traditional marriage if our divorce rate matches theirs? How can we say much about the importance of sexual purity if our marriages are broken by adultery? We will gain a hearing for the gospel in our secular, post-Christian culture only after that culture sees that our gospel changes lives-- our lives. Jehoshaphat didn’t use politics to push his religious agenda, and he was the king! No, he lived it first. Then he taught it to others. Jumping Jehoshaphat, that makes sense!

Jugglers of the World...

In 1847, John Sutter was busy establishing himself as a land baron in California. Sutter hired a man named James Marshall to build a saw mill on his property near Coloma. During the construction project, Marshall found a shiny nugget in the stream where the saw mill was to be built. He didn't think too much about it (he had a saw mill to build), but the news of his discovery swept across country. There's gold in them thar' hills!  The California Gold Rush of 1949 became the greatest migration of people in our history. One sleepy little village grew from about 1000 people in 1848 to more than 20,000 people by 1850! (That little village is San Francisco). People totally abandoned their lives back east to get their piece of the golden rock in California. Opportunity doesn’t knock but once. When you find something of incredible valuable, then you give up everything else in order to make it your own.

Jesus told a little story that sounds a lot like that. It’s also about a great treasure, this one buried in the ground rather than in a stream in California. It’s a story, frankly, that bothers me. A lot.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matthew 13:44)

It was fairly common in Bible times for people hide valuables in jars buried in the ground. According to Barclay, an old Rabbinic proverb stated that, “The only safe place for money is the earth.” And that is likely the background of the parable. People buried their treasure during times of danger (outbreaks of robbers or perilous political times) and would retrieve them when the danger was over. But what if the danger never was over? What if the treasurer owner died?  What if he simply forgot where he left the treasure? Finders keepers!

Jesus’ parable is of a man who comes across such a treasure hidden in a field. He puts it back where he found it and then immediately sells everything he owns so that he can buy the field (and the treasure). Treasure is so valuable that he is willing to sell everything to have it! Well, that raises some pretty interesting ethical questions, doesn’t it? Is it really ethical to buy a field like this? Should he not have tried to find the owner? Those aren’t the point of the story.  And this also isn't my problem with the parable.

The point of the story is that if we recognize the kingdom of God for the treasure it is then we will joyfully  give up all that we have in order to possess the treasure. All of the treasures of this earth pale into insignificance compared to treasures of the kingdom of God. And THIS is my problem with the parable. Not a problem with the interpretation of the parable; a problem with its application. I’m not sure I’m very good at joyfully giving up the things of earth to more firmly gain a hold on the kingdom of God. I think I spend too much time trying to juggle two different sets of treasure. I can’t really hold onto both… so I juggle. I spend some time trying to keep up the bowling pins or spinning plates of the world... and then I steal some time for the things of the kingdom.  Maybe I can't grasp fully the kingdom of God because so much of the time my hands are full of the things of this world.

The guy in Jesus' story gave up everything to possess the treasure that was truly treasure.  May God give me the grace to let drop the things of this earth so that I can take a firmer hold on the kingdom of God.  How about you? Are you a juggler too?

Worshiper Renewal

"I like my song writers good and dead!" That’s what I heard someone say in response to some of the contemporary songs we were beginning to sing. I wanted to say that they also preferred their worship "good and dead," but I didn't. It’s OK to like old songs. I suspect that our “Anceint of Days” God sees all our music as pretty much "new music."  The God who is "yesterday, today and forever," sees everything as pretty much contemporary. Sure, I prefer contemporary music, but I don't blame that on God.

But then again, Psalms 149 (our reading today) begins with the call to "sing to the Lord a new song; his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.” There you have it in black and white—God loves contemporary praise. Maybe not. The call to "sing to the Lord a new song" appears six times in Psalms, once in Isaiah and twice in Revelation. And it is generally used to reflect a new order of things following God’s deliverance.

• Sometimes it appears as a general call to worship God, "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy." (Psalm 33:3)
  
• But it is also used following God's deliverance, "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God." (Psalm 40:3)
  
• In Isaiah, it is used of the restoration of Israel, "Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 42:10)
  
• In Revelation, praise in heaven is given in a new song, "And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders." (Revelation 14:3)

Basically, "sing a new song" is a call to worship God in a renewed way. When we come to see God and understand all He has done for us, then there is a renewed impetus to worship Him. Our hearts overflow, and we throw ourselves in praising Him for what he has done. And the way scripture puts that is that we “sing to the Lord a new song.” The call in scripture to sing a new song is a call for "worshiper renewal."

The psalm says a lot about worship, but notice how it ends, "May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands" (v. 6). Being the people of God meant that Israel executed God’s judgments against the nations; they served God with a sword in their hand. But don’t get bogged down in the details; the point here is service. After calling Israel to a renewed worship of God, the psalmist then reminds them to serve. With the praise of God on their lips, they were then led to serve God. There is a connection between the life of worship and the life of service. What we do when we assemble as a church is connected to the life of service we lead when we are not assembled. The two aren’t the same, but they go hand-in-hand. If we give God exuberant and heartfelt praise while we are here, then we are better able to serve when we leave.  On the other hand, if we serve God by serving others in our daily lives, then we are more motivated to worship with the saints.

Here is the nexus between worship and service. Israel was to live with God's praise on their lips and the sword of service in their hands. They could not do one without the other. The same is true for us. We must combine hearts that give God praise and hands that give him service. We can't do one without the other. If we fail to sincerely and exuberantly worship God, then we will not be as motivated to serve God. In the same way, we aren't serving God as we should in our daily lives, then we won't be motivated to worship Him. Worship renewal is not tweaking the externals to make our assemblies more exciting or relevant (or more traditional and faithful to the "old paths").  We are to continually renew our hearts as we encounter God in a worship that prepares and inspires us to go out into His world and serve Him.

To Hell in a Handbasket...

From our “to-hell-in-a-handbasket” department... It was reported today that the Damson Dene Hotel in England’s picturesque Lake District was replacing its traditional Gideon Bibles in each room with a copy of the popular “adult” (“adult” as in “pornographic”) novel Fifty Shades of Grey.”  The hotel, which was ironically bought from a Methodist group several years ago, decided that having Gideon Bibles around was “wholly inappropriate” in our postmodern, secular society.  What better way to be “appropriate” than to provide free of charge a widely popular smut novel?  Jonathan Denby (not Denbigh), the hotel’s owner remarked, “Everybody is reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation.”  But then Denby quickly added that he himself had not read the book.  Well, maybe now he can get a room and read it.

We do live in a postmodern, post-Christian, secular society.  One of the things that means is that we can forget the nod and special treatment that our culture once gave the church.  When I was a kid (granted, a long time ago), we didn't have school events on Wednesday nights because that was church night for many of the students and the school didn't want to interfere.  Well that has gone the way of the dodo bird, hasn't it.  People in our culture no longer just accept the Bible as the “The Good Book.” It is just one book among many.  People no longer describe good manners and helpfulness as “the Christian thing to do.”  In fact, they may be more likely to see waving a hateful sign and telling people they are going to hell as “the Christian thing to do.”  The Christian faith is going to have to compete in the marketplace of ideas with a host of other and conflicting ideas.  And in that marketplace, putting a pornographic novel in the nightstands of hotels is just as likely as putting a Bible there.

So how are we going to get people to take the Christian faith seriously today?  There is only one way.  And it’s not wringing our hands and shouting “Woe is we” as we complain about how our society is going to hell in a handbasket.  No, what Christians have to do today is to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and go out and live the joyous, triumphant, expectant and praise-filled life that Christianity was and is designed to be.  We are to reflect and replicate as best we can the life and teaching of the most amazing, gracious, loving, accepting and positive person the world has ever produced… because He was the power that produced the world.  The way we get people to take faith seriously today is to live it as it was meant to be lived. 

Oh sure, people died in the arena for doing that in the first century.  So what’s your point?

Idlewild 2012

Another year at Camp Idlewild is in the books. Every year I decide that I'm getting too old for such things; in fact, this year I had decided that this was my last. But then God saw to it that I had 24 middle-schoolers (12 boys and 12 girls) who were cooperative, enthusiastic, good-natured, well-mannered and just plain fun... how could I go out with a group like that? Also, I had a crack staff of volunteers that made the week smooth as silk. And maybe a redesigned staff quarters (that we nicknamed "The Taj Mahal") made "roughing-it" at camp not really rough at all. It was a great week; thanks to all the campers and staff that made it so. Here is a sampling from the week--



The theme this year was "Heroes of the Faith." The classes each day looked at different Old Testament characters who had to trust in God during difficult times. My favorite moment from class was when Keri relabeled a can of tuna fish as "Cat Food" and then challenged the boys to try it (which, surprisingly, they fought for the chance to do). Point: Job (or Moses or one of the other heroes of the faith) had to endure some things that were yucky on the outside but they trusted God to get them through it (the boys were disappointed when they found out that the cat food wasn't really cat food). The winning cabin skit (from Boys Cabin #1) retold in Idlewild fashion the story of Moses, one of our heroes of the faith--



In the evening devotionals, we looked-- not at God's heroes from the Old Testament, but his rules. The kids learned the Ten Commandments in order and we looked at several and tried to make applications to their lives. The kids were super attentive during these 30 minutes at the end of a long, tiring and hot day; I sometimes had a hard time getting through all my material because of all the (mostly) good comments they were making. Here is Girl's Cabin One reminding us of what Jesus really wants from us--



Two weeks before camp started, I had no male counselors (always the hardest position to fill); I ended up with four and let one of them stay home (he was going as a counselor the next week and needed to conserve his energy). Thanks to Ethan Bynum, Jerrod Tatum and Will Respess for stepping up... and keeping Roger and I out of the cabins! Here is Girls Cabin #2 reminding us that we need to be careful what we hope for and focus on things that last--



The weather was HOT, hitting 100 once and hovering nearby most of the week. But the weather was for the most part dry, which made it easy to stay on schedule. As great as the camp facility is (and it was in great shape this year-- the pool was perfect and the new staff quarters and girls bath house were great), there is really not much to do at camp when it rains. We did have a real frog-strangling gulley-washer the last afternoon and evening, but we got through it. Here is Boys Cabin #2 telling us what to do and not do in a thunderstorm--



My one request from the board for a facility change would be to re-position the volleyball court back under the trees in the shade. It was too hot much of the time on some days that physical activity was dangerous. But it seemed 15 degrees cooler in the shade. Back in the olden days, the volleyball court under the trees served as the functional center of the camp-- when there wasn't anything organized going on, the kids played volleyball under the trees where it was cool )and the net was lower and the court smaller than regulation)... or they say on the benches around the volleyball court and talked. I would like to bring that back.

It was a great week. If you didn't get a chance to go to camp this year, start making plans for next year. I am.

I Don't Have a Clue!

One of my teachers in college used to tell us never to “preach your doubts.” This is similar to warning trial lawyers never to ask questions in court that you don’t already know the answer to. Preachers aren't to raise issues or questions in a sermon for which they have no answers because that will just confuse and frustrate people. Maybe that's why some people think that preachers know everything about the Bible; we aren't allowed to bring up the multitude of questions for which we have no answers.

Does that same principle apply to blogs? Is it OK to raise questions in my blog that I don’t have answers for? Well, that is precisely what I'm going to do this morning. Because I don’t have a clue in what is going on in our daily Bible reading from 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. Here’s my summary of the story—

David angers God by conducting a census of fighting age men. David finally realizes (too late) that this was a bad idea and repents and God offers David his choice of punishments—3 years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plague. David chooses the plague and 70,000 people died… and David realizes he made the wrong choice.

The story ends with David offering sacrifices of repentance on the threshing floor he bought from Araunah, the site upon which Solomon would later build the Temple (2 Chr 3:1). So what’s the problem with this story? From my limited and perplexed perspective, there are plenty of questions here.

• First, we aren't ever told why this census was such a horrible sin. Moses had been commanded to do that very thing in preparation for the conquest of Canaan (Exo 20:12). Maybe the census shows a lack of trust in God?  Later David resists another census because “the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky” (1 Chron 27:23).  But we aren't told.
  
• Second, who was it exactly that incited David to take this census? In 2 Samuel, the idea seems to come from God, “the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah” (24:1). In 1 Chronicles, the idea comes from Satan, “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel” (21:1).  Sure, David made the decision, but did the temptation come from God or Satan?
  
• Third, Joab (himself no spiritual giant) instantly knew that this census was a bad idea and tries to talk David out of the plan. OK, that a little our of character for him, but then why in 1 Chron 27:24, is it Joab that begins his own effort to count the fighting men?
  
• Fourth, does the punishment fit the crime? David commits adultery and murders his faithful servant to cover up that sin, and the punishment was the death of a child and constant turmoil within David’s family. But here David counts his army and the punishment is 70,000 deaths of innocent and ignorant people? Maybe it’s just me, but something seems a little out of kilter there.

God is God and God is All-Sovereign. One of the fringe benefits in being God is that you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.  Maybe the point of stories like this is to remove the fiction that we have allowed ourselves to buy into that we can reduce the Bible to neat and simple stories that fit nicely together with one another and with our theological understandings. God is too massive for us to understand, even in these stories that He has left for us. These stories speak to us of the One who lives in unapproachable light, and thus they sometimes jostle against one another in ways that don’t fully make sense to us. Should that surprise us? Or should it rather surprise us if those stories fit together too neatly and nicely so that we would wonder if they were really about God?

Second Verse Different from the First...

Our reading for today from Psalm 95 should sound very familiar to many of us. Not because we read the Psalms so much that we have them memorized but because we sing them so much we have part of them memorized. Several of the praise songs we sing from time to time come from Psalm 95. In fact one of them is cleverly titled "Psalm 95" (Music by Jason Hill, Dick Dalzell and words by God)

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord
Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving (and extol)
And extol him with music and song...

Actually that song is Psalm 95:1-5 word for word out of the NIV.  So you might not like the song, but it's hard to complain much about the lyrics! The same is true for the song "Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down" by Dave Doherty. He picks up where Hill and Dalzell leave off in Psalm 95:6-7a

Come let us worship and bow downLet us kneel before the Lord, our God our Maker.For He is our God,And we are the people of His pastureAnd the sheep of His hand,    And the sheep of His hand.

These two songs are very different (the first is way uptempo, the second is slow and reflective) but they come (almost) word for world from Psalm 95. They also share in common the fact that ignore the second verse and stern warning of the Psalm--

Today, if only you would hear his voice,8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

So maybe that part of the psalm is just harder to put to music; it is definitely not happy-clappy. But the message of this part of the psalm must be important because that is the part that is picked up and used by the writer of Hebrews... twice (Heb 3:7-11, 4:3).

God is "the Rock of salvation" and we are "the people of his pasture" not because of what and how we sing on Sundays. The stern warning here is not to harden our hearts as Israel did at Meribah and Massah when they complained against Moses because they did not trust God to provide them water in the wilderness. They complained about the hardships of the journey and did not trust God to provide for them. You see, if we really believe that God is our Rock (from where water comes) and that we are the people of his pasture (thus taken care of by Him), then we will not have hard harts and become discouraged by the difficulties of our journey. That generation of Jew did not enter the rest of Promised Land because they didn't trust God on the journey.

It's one thing to sing the praise songs on Sunday. We need to sing them because they remind us of who God is and what God does. But those songs have meaning only if they lead us to trust and obey God daily as we live through the wilderness that can be our lives. We need to sing that last verse of Psalm 95, because that verse is the point.

A Hundred Nails in Your Tire?

9 I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth. (Psalm 57:9-11)

Sometimes we all feel like the service station guy who is the subject of one of those little "true life experience" blurbs at the bottom of the page of Reader Digest.

Shortly after I moved from Alaska to California, one of my studded snow tires went flat. The service-station attendant took one long look, shook his head and said, 'Mister, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’ve got over a hundred nails in your tire!

Some days your life can feel like your tire has gone flat, and then some days it feels more like you have a hundred nails in it. Life can be stressful, tense, difficult and trying... and those are the good days. Sometimes   we just feel totally overwhelmed. Just like David was in our reading from Psalm 57.

Read verse 4 and you think David is in the jungle surrounded by wild beasts. Read verse 6 and you think David is on the battlefield surrounded by enemies. But read verse 5 and you think David is in church! What gives? David is having a really, really bad day. The superscription suggests that he wrote this while in a cave hiding from Saul. His enemies were literally closing in around him, and so David cries out to God.  (We assume David writes the Psalm later while reflecting back on the case; crying out either in fear or worship is not recommended for those hiding out in caves!)

But something happens on the way to David's lament; his desperate cry for help becomes a deliberate cry of worship. What David needed at this difficult time of life was to know that God was near. And the way that we feel the nearness of God was through worship. So David the persecuted becomes David the worshipper. He first makes the decision to praise (verses 7-8) and then gives himself to praise (verses 9-11).

One thing is clear. David would not have understood the well-intentioned but wrong-headed notion that we sometimes express in our announcements or prayer that in order to really worship, we must  "leave behind the cares and concerns of this world."   Last Sunday, we even sang, "Lay your burden down, every care you carry..."  Do we have to do that before we can worship?  David didn't. He rather brought his cares and concerns to God and praised God despite them and because of them. His need for God because of those burdens drove him to praise God. Worship for David was the conduit that brought him into God's presence for healing and comfort. Maybe there is a lesson there for us. Has you life suffered a flat tire? Praise God!

The Bigfoot of the Bible

Every once in awhile, I like to invite a guest blogger to write a post on my blog.  Actually, what I like to do is just find a great blog somewhere and then cut and paste it here.  I like to do that for several reasons.  It's a lot easier than thinking up something new from scratch.  Also "guest blog" come with "plausible deniability."  If somepne doesn't like it, I can just blame the author and claim that I posted it just as an example of the goofy things people write.  And I think it's good occasional to have something deep, well-thought our and helpful on the blog.  Actually some one told me that my blog is both good and original-- unfortunately the part that is original isn't very good and the part that's good isn't original.  (In case your wondering, that line is good... so it isn't original).

I ran across the following article on The Christian Post and thought it was both good and original.  It was written by Greg Stier of Dare 2 Share Ministries.  Obviously, I'm posting it because I like it and I like it because I agree with him.  So, for what it's worth...

The Bigfoot of the Bible

"There will be plenty of people in hell who said the sinner's prayer." That's what I told the host of a nationally broadcasted Christian radio program when he tried to force a reluctant caller to "just say this prayer" to be saved. To the host's chagrin I intervened (and for some reason haven't been invited back since!)  A lot of bad theology is hidden behind the phrase, "Just say this prayer and you'll be saved." Think about these Scriptural realities:

• Jesus never led anyone through a sinner's prayer.

• The disciples didn't either.

• Nor did the Apostle Paul.

The Sinner's Prayer is the Bigfoot of the Bible, talked about a lot, but nowhere to be found. This yakking Yeti doesn't even leave a fake footprint.  Listen to this zinger Jesus shot in Matthew 7:21 about those who think they can just say the right words and be saved, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." And what is the Father's will? Jesus answers that question clearly in John 6:40, "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

Saying a prayer is not believing in Christ, believing in Christ is believing in Christ. Now, having said that, somebody may be expressing their faith in Jesus in the form of a prayer which is great! But just saying "the magic words" (aka "Lord! Lord!") doesn't save anyone. 

Many, "just say these words" defense attorneys turn to Romans 10:9,10 to make their case, "…if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.' But it's hard for me to believe that, if saying a prayer is essential for salvation, God would confine this command to just one passage of Scripture. And it's impossible for me to believe that, if saying a prayer is required for salvation, that some form of Sinner's Prayers wouldn't be sprinkled across the Gospels and the book of Acts. 

Actually, if you read Romans 10 in context, it has just as much to do with evangelism as it does salvation. Romans 10 is the "How will they hear without a preacher?" passage. Confessing that "Jesus is Lord" in this context was a way of preaching to friends, neighbors and relatives that you were now a follower of Jesus, that you now believed that "Jesus is Lord." This confession was considered heresy by the Jewish community (who believed only the Father, YAWHEW, was Lord) and treason by the Romans (who thought only Caesar was Lord.)   

This controversial confession accompanied public baptism in the closest river or lake and was very public in nature. This public confession of faith identified you as a Christian and steeled and sealed your faith and your fate (which could include being mocked, marginalized or murdered by angry neighbors!)  Believing in our hearts justifies us (declared us righteous in the eyes of God.) Proclaiming with our mouths saves us in the sanctificational sense of the word. In other words, our internal faith saves us from hell and confessing our faith verbally and publicly saves us from a stunted Christian walk. Faith gets us in the kingdom. Confession makes us more like the King because we are boldly identifying ourselves with Jesus! 

All this to say that I have no problem leading someone through a salvation prayer (and I do it a lot!) with this important caveat. I ALWAYS tell the person that saying a prayer doesn't save them, it's just a simple way of expressing their newfound faith in their newfound Savior to their newfound Father. 

No, the Bigfoot of the Bible is nowhere to be found. But what is found is a victorious Savior who died the death that we deserved then rose to offer us the new life we didn't. Let's put our focus and faith in the rock-solid reality of Jesus, not the legends of the mysterious and elusive sinner's prayer. 

If you agree then just say these words outloud to God…(just kidding!)

Accepting Everyone But Not Everything

The Pharisees didn't get it. They could not understand why Jesus was spending so much time with all those "tax collectors and sinners," the untouchable caste of their culture. You see, they believed that sin was something that was "caught," much the same way that one became ceremonially unclean by touching someone or something that ceremonially unclean. So why would any rabbi risk such contamination by eating with someone like Matthew and his collection of tax collectors and sinners? They didn't get it.

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31).

They didn't get Jesus' response either.  They didn't get that  Jesus was including THEM in the number of all those "sick" folks that Jesus had come to seek and save.  Jesus was trying to win everyone—publican and Pharisee alike. You know, given what we know about the Pharisees, we would likely point to all those times that Jesus ate at some Pharisee's house and ask, "Why does he spend so much time being chummy with all those Pharisees?" Jesus was trying to win everyone-- holy and unholy alike.  The Pharisees didn't get that they needed a doctor.

And I wonder if we have forgotten that the tax collectors needed the doctor too. Jesus didn't come to just call sinners (Matt 9:12). Jesus came to call them to repentance (Luke 5:31). No, Jesus never declared war on the sinners of his culture.  He never carried signs proclaimed God hates this or that sin or sinner.  Jesus was called the friend of sinners" (Matt 11:19), but He also called sinners to repentance.  Jesus accepted everyone, but he didn't accept everything. He accepted people and sat around the table with them so he could encourage them to repent.  Jesus remarked about how different was the public perception was between himself and John the Baptist (again, Matt 11:19), but their message was the exactly same, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matt 3:2, 4:12). Jesus didn't just accept sinners; He also called them to stop sinning (John 5:14, 8:11).

I wonder if in our rush to accept everyone (like Jesus) that we have failed to call everyone to repent (like Jesus). Kenda Creasy Dean in here book Almost Christian has coined the acronym “MTD.” She claims the actual religion taught in many (most) American churches today is not Christianity but Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Moralistic because it helps us to be basically good people. Therapeutic because it helps us to feel better about ourselves. And Deism because God largely stays out of our way. Dean refers to this as "pasteurized" Christianity where all the "transformative elements cooked out." In our rush to accept everybody we have accepted everything.

Christianity is about discipleship, about picking up the cross of Jesus and following him. It is about living as a counterculture in a world that is not our own as we look for "a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Heb 11:20). It about following Jesus "outside the camp, bearing the disgrace that he bore" (Heb 13:12). It is about standing against the prevailing values and ideals of this world because they stand opposed to the values and ideals of the kingdom of God.

We must accept everyone, but we cannot accept everything.  We must call everyone (including ourselves) to repentance.

Church: Are We Visiting or Living?

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
    Who may live on your holy hill? (Psalm 15:1)

There's a old saw about a plane that began to crash. Someone screamed, "Quick, someone do something religious!" So they passed the hat! This might be a sad commentary on the way that many non-church people see church. But maybe it also is a sad commentary on how many Christians feel as well. Because we understand the importance of worship and "going to church," we may come believe (or maybe act like we believe) that the essence of religion are the things that we do when we are at church. As long as one is a member of the right church and does the right things when they are at church, then they are serious about religion.

Psalms was the worship manual of ancient Israel and the hymn book of the early church. So when David writes a song asking, "Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary," we need to read it in the context of worship. True worship and true worshippers come from the context of a whole life lived in the presence of God. David does not ask, "Who may visit your sanctuary;" he asks "Who may live there?" In Psalm 15:2-5, he describes the kind of worshiper that God is seeking--

2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord,
who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept
a bribe against the innocent.

The essence of true worship for David was to be found in true worshippers who brought true hearts and lives before God. The spiritual and true worship that Jesus tells us the Father is seeking (John 4:23-24) comes from lives of holiness and integrity lived before God. David concludes, "He who does these things will never be shaken." The way that we live today at work, with our families and before the world is in essence preparation for the worship that we will share together on Sunday.

What Do We Stress?

Wednesday night we spent some time discussing our tendency to play religious games while missing the whole point of discipleship. We looked at Mark 12 and how the Jewish religious leaders tried to "game" Jesus into saying something they could use against him. They sent a combined delegation of Pharisees and Herodians to ask him about paying taxes so that no matter what answer Jesus gave, half the crowd would be angered. Then some Sadducees asked him about the resurrection, using a concocted hypothetical story that had probably been stumping the Pharisees for years. Finally, a legal expert stepped up and asked Jesus a question about the law. The point we might miss is that these expert religious practitioners were playing games of trivia pursuit after already deciding to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6, 12:12). Playing religious games while missing the whole point of religion-- literally missing God Himself!

Do we play religious games today while missing the point of discipleship? Well, there are some things that we do seem to emphasize much more than does God. For example, while the New Testament talks about "the assembly" of Christians, the details are never really fleshed out with any detail at all. But that's OK because we are more than willing to supply the details. Think about all that has been said and written (and shouted) about the right style, form and format of church music when the New Testament barely has enough material on music to make a good paragraph. We seem to be much more interested in how we do worship than God is.

On the other hand, God seems so obviously interested in some things to which the church barely gives lip-service. How much does the Bible say about unity, peace and harmony among believers? But then we'd rather fight over church music!

God goes to great lengths to emphasize unity. Look at the rather unique imagery of Psalm 133 (today's daily Bible reading) where David extols the the beauty of fellowship and unity. He affirms that it is good and pleasant when God’s family lives together in peace and harmony. This little Psalm is dripping (pun intended) with metaphors that emphasize this message of harmony. There are two types of anointing here that stress the sweetness of unity:

• Anointing of the Priest. Here the oil runs down Aaron’s beard and onto the collar his robe, joining the priest and the priestly robe. Though the sweetness of the oil isn't specifically mentioned, that seems to be the imagery here.
  
  
• Anointing of the Mountain. Here the dew of Mt. Hermon, the highest of the mountains in Palestine and one known for its moisture, falls on (and thus anoints) little Mt. Zion, the hill upon which Jerusalem sits. So the two mountains are joined by the anointing.

Maybe the focus of the Psalm is seen in the second couplet of verse 3,  “For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” It is God who takes the initiative to make unity possible. It is on Mt. Zion, at the Temple, in the presence of God that this blessing of unity is given. This sweetness of harmony is not possible when based solely on human power alone. Just think about how well people get along today in the region of Mt. Hermon and Mt. Zion! It was God who made unity possible in Israel. It is God who makes unity possible today. And that is Paul’s point in Ephesians 2:17—

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

Not only does God demand unity, He is working to bring it about in us. If we keep ourselves close to Him, then we will also stay close to all others who are seeking Him. When we come closer to the cross, we also come closer to each other! That’s why unity is no optional extra for those seeking the face of God. The closer you get to Him, the more you bump into to others seeking to get close to Him as well!