Operation: Discipleship

This will almost certainly shock most of you who know me, but I want to be a runner. Crazy, right? For those who don’t know me, I should tell you that I am not (nor have I ever been) built for speed…or even for slow. I have never been an athlete of any kind, but when I watch people run, I want to run too.

There’s a problem, though. Well, there are several, but one of the most significant ones is that nobody can just lace up their running shoes, step out their front door and start running. It takes careful practice and training so that the runner can reach their goal without injury.

So, there’s this program called C25K (Couch to 5 Kilometers) that claims to be able to take someone who has never trained to run and gradually build them up until they can run in a five kilometer event over a nine week period. When I read about the program I got really excited. It starts out having the person walk a certain amount of time and gradually adds in intervals of running. The week’s assignment, for example, is 

“Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.”[1]

I read through the nine week plan and decided to start the next week … and immediately hit my first road block. I couldn’t run for a full 60 seconds. That’s ok, I thought, everybody starts somewhere, if I have to, I’ll just repeat the first week, until I can run for 60 seconds at a stretch.

So, after about a week and a half, after asking everyone I knew who I thought might know something about how to run, I finally succeeded in running for a full 60 second stretch. At which point, I ran straight into the next road block – 90 seconds of walking was nowhere near enough time for me to recover enough to do it again – and certainly not for a total for 20 minutes.

I lasted about three weeks, at which point I got terribly discouraged and quit. I realized something very important. Wanting to run, reading about running, having the program on my phone and listening to someone tell me how to run, and actually trying to run are not enough, for me anyway. Without a living, breathing coach, teacher or mentor to help me and encouragement, I’m just banging my head against a wall.

That’s when something else occurred to me. How often do we tell people who want to improve their Christian experience to read such-and-such book or listen to this preacher, or follow this study schedule? We might even try that method ourselves.

Now, I realize that my analogy breaks down here because we have the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us into a saving relationship with Jesus. Even so, how often have we started a Bible reading plan or other type of study program, only to get bogged down and discouraged after a couple of weeks of trying to do it on our own? 

“Atul Gawande, a distinguished Harvard surgeon and author, argues that everyone needs a coach. After working eight years as a surgeon, he realized that his operating room success had slowly reached a plateau. Soon after that realization, he attended a medical meeting and had an afternoon free, and tried to track down someone to play in a game of tennis. Finally, he went to the local tennis club and was told that he could practice his ground strokes only if he paid for a lesson and hit with the club pro.
“Gawande writes what happened next: ‘He was in his early twenties, a recent graduate who'd played on his college team. We hit back and forth for a while. He went easy on me at first, and then started running me around. I served a few points, and the tennis coach in him came out. "You know," he said, "you could get more power from your serve." I was dubious. My serve had always been the best part of my game. But I listened. He had me pay attention to my feet as I served, and I gradually recognized that my legs weren't really underneath me when I swung my racquet up into the air.
“‘My right leg dragged a few inches behind my body …. With a few minutes of tinkering, he'd added at least ten miles an hour to my serve.’
“Not long afterward, Gawande was watching tennis star Rafael Nadal playing a tournament match on TV.
“‘The camera flashed to his coach, and the obvious struck me as interesting: even Rafael Nadal has a coach. Nearly every élite tennis player in the world does …. But doctors don't. I'd paid to have a kid just out of college look at my serve. So why did I find it inconceivable to pay someone to come into my operating room and coach me on my surgical technique?
Coaching operates from the premise that “no matter how well prepared people are in their formative years, few can achieve and maintain their best performance on their own.”’
“The apostle Paul knew that we need coaches in living as Christians. Watch me, he said. And let me give you some pointers. We learn by seeing truth lived out and modeled. We learn by imitation. Some things are caught, not taught. Some things are caught and taught.”[2]

The writer of Hebrews was led by the Holy Spirit to remind us that we need fellowship with people who believe the same way we do so that we can “hold tightly without wavering.”

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25 (NLT)

Just like learning to run is a process, following Jesus is a process. Nobody wakes up one morning and runs five kilometers without training. As Christians we grow closer to Jesus as we study and share our experience with others –almost never in isolation.

There are some things we just can’t completely learn by just reading about them. I thought of it this week as my mom and I made candy together.

There’s something about candy like caramel and English toffee and divinity that goes beyond a recipe. It’s something that you have to learn by watching someone who has done it before and then practice while they watch you.

That’s how I believe being a Christian is. Jesus didn’t send His followers off to study the scriptures by themselves. He ate, slept, and lived with them for three and a half years. He talked to them and taught them and demonstrated to them the way that He wanted them to live. Then, Jesus’ disciples walked with, ate with, and taught the next generation of Christians and so on.

Don’t try to tough it out alone. This week, let’s pray that Jesus will show us each (if we don’t already have one) a mentor/friend/guide from whom we can learn to be better followers of Jesus, and someone we can encourage and walk beside as they grow into a more mature Christian.

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[1] Cool Running, http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/index.shtml

[2] Tim Jones, Nashville, Tennessee; source: Atul Gawande, "Personal Best," The New Yorker (10-3-11)

Filling the Empty Chair

Maybe you’ve experienced something like this: You are talking with someone when suddenly they openly yawn and look at their watch. How did you interpret those actions? Can you remember how you felt at that moment? Were you hurt? insulted? enraged? How did you react? How do you wish you had reacted?

What about this: You’re discussing ideas with a colleague and while you’re speaking you think you see them just barely roll their eyes in response to something you’ve said? How do you go on from there – as co-workers?

As a teacher I knew that seeing a student do something like that in class made me angry, but I usually assigned the actions to rudeness and generally poor upbringing, did my best to ignore it and move on. This week, however, I learned that in many cases it’s not just rudeness, it’s actually an expression of contempt for the other person.

These psychologist watched the interactions of married couples as they talked to each other and then predicted the success of the marriages. The psychologists were able to make correct predictions after just three to five minutes. It turns out it had very little to do with what the couples talked about or even their tone of voice. The predictions were based on minute, seemingly incidental signs of contempt – a little, almost imperceptible eye roll, or a mostly concealed yawn, for example.

Now think of our own behavior during worship and Bible study, sometimes…what kind of prognosis would those psychologists be able to make about the health of our relationship with God? Have we forgotten why we come to church? What does it mean if we’re bored in church or if we keep putting off Bible study?

How can we excuse those behaviors, especially when the Bible tells us to “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”? Revelation 14:7

OK, we know that none of the behaviors we’ve talked about so far demonstrate fearing or glorifying God, what would fearing and glorifying God look like? I found what I think is an excellent picture:

“To live in fear of God means that we live before God and the rest of reality in such a way that there is never contempt within us. We take nothing for granted, everything as a gift. We have respect. We are always poised for surprise before the mystery of God, others, and ourselves.
“All boredom and contempt is an infallible sign that we have fallen out of a healthy fear of God.”[1]

What do you think? Is living in fear of God a good thing? Is it the same as being afraid of God? I don’t believe it is.

“Jerry Bridges, in his book The Joy of Fearing God, describes the healthy tension between loving and fearing God:
“In the physical realm there are two opposing forces called ‘centrifugal’ and ‘centripetal.’ Centrifugal force tends to pull away from a center of rotation, while centripetal force pulls toward the center.
“A stone whirled about on the end of a string exerts centrifugal force on the string, while the string exerts centripetal force on the stone. Take away one and the other immediately disappears.
“These two opposing forces can help us understand something of the fear of God. The centrifugal force represents the attributes of God such as his holiness and sovereignty that cause us to bow in awe and self-abasement before him. They hold us reverently distant from the one who, by the simple power of his word, created the universe out of nothing. The centripetal force represents the love of God. It surrounds us with grace and mercy and draws us with cords of love into the Father's warm embrace. To exercise a proper fear of God we must understand and respond to both these forces.”[2]

How do those opposing forces play out in our relationship to God?

“To grow in wisdom and love is not to lose all fear of God; it is to change our fear of God. It is to pass from the servile fear of the slave, the fear of punishment, to the loving reverence of the son, fearing to offend his father, and in the end to the purely selfless fear of the lover, the fear of hurting what you love.”[3]

Most of us will agree that God is always with us, but sometimes I believe this becomes more of a theory than a reality. Our picture of God becomes skewed by our interactions with the world around us. We begin to see God as distant and uninvolved with the everyday details of our lives. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. God wants to be included and involved in every aspect of our lives.

So, with that in mind, let’s do an experiment this week: Try to do things that will help you imagine Jesus’ physical presence with you. Can you think of concrete things you can do to help?

If you eat around the dinner table, maybe you could set a place for Jesus. When you sit down to watch TV or use the computer, maybe you could pull a chair near where you are sitting. If you’re reading something, maybe you could read it out loud and imagine that Jesus is right there listening. Is there something you could do at work to help you imagine that Jesus is right there with you?

How do you think your actions will change during this experiment? Would you feel comfortable watching some of the things you watch on TV if Jesus was sitting next to you? Would you visit the same websites if Jesus was looking over your shoulder? Would your reading material change if Jesus was listening to you read? If you imagined Jesus working beside you, would your behavior at work be the same? Would you treat the people with whom you work any differently? Would your conversations be any different?

Remember the song we learned in Cradle Roll and Kindergarten – “Oh be careful little hands what you do. Oh be careful little feet where you go. Oh be careful little ears what you hear. Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little lips what you say. For our Father up above is looking down in love.”

God isn’t distant or disinterested. He wants to eat with us, sit with us while we’re relaxing, be included in our work, our play, and our relationships, our laughter and crying, our heartbreaks and joys.

Let’s make sure we leave room for Jesus in our lives.

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[1] Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2004), p. 117; submitted by Kevin Miller, vice president, Christianity Today International

[2] Jerry Bridges, The Joy of Fearing God (Waterbrook Press, 1997)

[3] Gerald Vann, The Divine Pity (Scepter Publishers, 2007)

Holiness 101

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:13-16

Peter doesn’t mess around, does he? He says exactly what he means and doesn’t leave any room for misunderstanding – “Be holy.” Isn’t it weird, then, that in this day and age, when somebody says someone is holy, it usually doesn’t sound like a compliment. “Look at him. Doesn’t he think he’s all holy?”

The problem is, as will everything else in this sinful world, the enemy has worked hard to make sure that the qualities that God asks for have been twisted and misused until they don’t resemble their true definition any more.

Thankfully, God prepared for that and made sure we had some examples. One of the best of which is His relationship with the Israelites through His sanctuary.

Every part of the Sanctuary was a symbol for God’s desire to be in the midst of His children and to be involved in their daily lives.

If you had asked the Israelites of Moses’ time, David’s time, or even Jesus’ time, what percentage of their lives was “religious,” they probably would have looked at you like you didn’t have any idea what you were talking about. Religion wasn’t just a percentage of their lives. Being a Jew was their whole existence. It was their national identity, their religious identity, what they ate, where they lived, and who they married. It was even part of how they washed their hands. The problem is, with a few notable exceptions, the Jews became bogged down in their own rules and traditions instead of allowing God to set them free.

One of those exceptions was King David. Over and over again, in the Psalms, we can read David’s desire to meet with God in His Sanctuary. Psalm 27 encapsulates how David feels about the Sanctuary, specifically in verses 4-13:

“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek:That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me. Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.”

David’s desire to experience that closeness with God that the Sanctuary represented consumed his life. Yes, we all know that David made some horrific mistakes, but He never lost his hunger for God. And God recognized and honored David for that – being called a man after God’s own heart should be something for which we all strive.

So, how can we find and maintain that “sanctuary relationship” with God? How can we “be holy?”

Well, we have to decide whether we’re going to admire Jesus or are we going to follow Him. Although those two things may sound similar, in this context, they are quite different.

“If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite—to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of ‘followers’ and ‘disciples.’”[1]

Many of the people who came after Jesus turned out to be admirers – they left Him when things weren’t easy anymore. David didn’t turn back from his love of God, even when he spent years hiding from King Saul or when some of his own sons turned against him and his family was torn apart.

Many of us want to experience the feel good times with Jesus but aren’t committed to sticking around when things get rough.

“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him in the humiliation of the cross.”[2]

 Being holy isn’t just being a Christian, going to church on a certain day or however many times a week. It isn’t praying before meals or reading our Bibles for a certain number of minutes every day. We can’t be holy sometimes and then sometimes not. Being holy is not about a particular denomination or how religious you are. Being holy isn’t a part of our lives, it has to be our identity in Jesus Christ. 

Does that mean we are exempt from making, sometimes, horrific mistakes? Afraid not. But we will, like David, center our lives on our God, our Savior and Redeemer, and our Best Friend.

“Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself: my own will shall become yours.’”[3]

That is my prayer. Is it yours?

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[1] Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and theologian (1813–1855)

[2] Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ; found in: Tony Lane, Timeless Witness (Hendrickson, 2004), p. 188

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 2001), p. 196-197 

One Habit of Highly Effective Christians

How often do/should you pray? How long do/should you pray? Can you pray too much? What do/should you pray about? Is it possible to pray wrong? Are there certain words/phrases you need to use? What if you feel like God’s not listening? If God knows everything, why do I need to pray? Do I have to kneel every time I pray? What if you don’t have time to pray? Does praying really make any difference anyway?

Have you ever asked any or all of those questions? I have. I really struggle with the particulars of prayer. It’s not that I don’t pray, I do. The problem, for me, is that I’m pretty sure I’m missing some important component.

True confession time – I have a really hard time doing anything on a set schedule. It’s not that I don’t try or don’t want to keep a schedule. I really do! I make schedules and lists for myself all the time. I just rarely follow them, even though I know that certain things, (exercise, Bible study, cleaning, and prayer, for example) cannot be done correctly without scheduling them.

It’s not that I don’t want to do those things, I do. I know they’re all important. And it’s not that I don’t ever do those things, I do, just not regularly or often enough to really get the benefit of having done them.

I remember reading a story some time ago of an 85 year old woman how got trapped in an elevator for four nights and three days. She was all alone – no one else in the building and no signal for her cell phone. Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? She came to the conclusion that she could either panic or pray. She chose to pray and turn the elevator into her own prayer closet.

When the woman was interviewed later she actually said that she had felt God’s presences with her giving her both strength and joy. She said that she felt like the whole experience was a gift from God to provide her with an opportunity to develop a closer relationship with Him.

Isn’t that amazing? I really covet that kind of a relationship with God. I’m fairly certain, though, that the woman had spent many years before being trapped in that elevation, keeping appointments to spend time alone talking with God. That’s different than what Ron Halvorsen calls “crisis praying.”

“We usually don’t say much about prayer, and we don’t pray much, until a crisis comes into our life. Aunt Tillie is sick, so you go on your knees and you pray for the next few days that Aunt Tillie will get well. Or Uncle John. Or someone in the church is sick. That’s crisis praying. When you are sick, have you noticed that you pray more than you did before you got sick? That’s crisis praying. It still works, but is not as effective as the continual spirit of prayer.”[1]

Praying in a crisis is a good thing, but it shouldn’t be the only time we pray. And I think it can kind of mislead us, give us a sense that we are praying, so everything’s ok with our prayer lives. And can you imagine if the woman trapped in the elevator only had that kind of prayer experience? After the first few hours in the elevator, with no signs of rescue, she may have come to the conclusion that God wasn’t listening and given up.

When I was teaching, quite a few of our “classroom management” techniques involved learning the difference between “reactive” and “proactive.” You probably know the difference – reactive is dealing with each crisis as it comes along, while proactive is working in such a way that many of the crises don’t happen in the first place. The proactive route takes more time to begin with, but almost always works better than reacting to every little emergency as it comes along. I believe that prayer can be looked at much the same way. Like Halvorsen says, “That’s crisis praying. It still works, but is not as effective as the continual spirit of prayer.”

Another author describes the importance of prayer as the key to success in any field of endeavor.

“Some things make you successful whatever path you take-whether you're on the ‘mommy track’ or in a full-time career outside the home. You need to be with God daily. You need to be in constant prayer. You need to incorporate God's Word into your life, constantly evaluating your life to make sure you are following God's lead.” [2]

That’s proactive praying – being with God daily. Do you remember when you or your kids were taking some kind of music lessons? The question was always, “How often do we have to practice?” and the answer was, “You only have to practice on the days that you eat.” How often do we need to pray? On the days we eat would be a good place to start, but probably the time we spend in prayer needs to increase to the point that it’s almost like breathing, don’t you think?

“Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. ‘The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.’ James 5:11. His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. ‘He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.’ Psalm 147:3. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watch care, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.” (Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 100)

Ron Halvorsen describes prayer as 

“not what you say, it’s who you are. You see, prayer is your experience. It’s the breath of your soul. You don’t grab a breath at church, and then hold it until next week. And you don’t have to hit yourself on the head and say, ‘Breathe,Halvorsen!’
“No, it’s automatic. You see, once you come into that experience with God, you come in that experience with Jesus, you are with Him always in what you think.”[3]

The question is, how do I get to the point that talking to Jesus is a part of everything I do? I need to stop just reacting with crisis prayers and start, with the help of the Holy Spirit, building the spiritual discipline of personal prayer, worship and bible study time into each day so that when the crises do come, I can see them as opportunities to draw closer to God.

Where do we start? Sing it with me:

Into my heart, 
Into my heart, 
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. 
Come in today, come in to stay, 
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

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[1] Ron Halvorsen, It Is Written Script: 1241 The Power of Prayer ©2012 It Is Written International Television

[2] Kay Coles James, Marriage Partnership, Vol. 11, no. 2.

[3] Ron Halvorsen, It Is Written Script: 1241 The Power of Prayer ©2012 It Is Written International Television

Wax On - Wax Off

If you don’t understand this cultural reference, it’s from the movie, The Karate Kid. The main character in the movie is a teenage boy, Daniel who has just moved to town and is getting bullied. In order to stop it, he wants to learn karate. He meets up with the manager of his apartment building, Mr. Miyage who agrees to teach him. One requirement of this agreement is that Daniel must obey Mr. Miyage’s instructions even if they don’t seem to have anything to do with learning karate. Daniel agrees and the first thing Mr. Miyage does is hand Daniel a sponge and tells him to wash and wax his collection of classic cars. Mr. Miyago gives very specific instructions – one hand he’s to make wide circles to the right to put the wax on and with the other make wide circles to the left to take it off. He is also to breathe deeply, in through his nose and out through his mouth. Mr. Miyage watches him carefully and when Daniel forgets the instructions, Mr. Miyage calls out to him, “Wax on – Wax off,” while making the required motions.

“In the weeks that follow, Miyagi gives Daniel further chores to complete with similar instructions on technique: sanding a walkway that leads around Miyagi's backyard (landscaped to be a Japanese garden), staining the fence that surrounds his property and painting his house. With each new chore, Daniel's frustration grows at the seeming lack of any karate training and Miyagi's minimal praise of his work. One night, after finishing the painting of Miyagi's house, Daniel expresses his frustration to his teacher. Miyagi tells Daniel to show him how he washed and polished the cars. … and orders Daniel to show him the motions he'd been using to do the chores. Daniel quickly realizes that the chores … were also practice for defensive moves, exercises to build muscle tone and build his reflexes. After a few minutes of practice, Miyagi suddenly yells and throws several punches and kicks at Daniel, all of which Daniel blocks easily.”[1]

It turns out that what Daniel had been doing for all those weeks was building muscle and stamina, yes, but also created muscle memory. You may have heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect,” but really practice just builds muscle memory. Muscle memory is what helps us be able to ride a bike, even if we haven’t been on one in years, for example, or play the piano or type – excuse me, keyboard without looking at your hands.

Most of us count on muscle memory to be able to perform specific actions without having to think about it. I remember when we used to go ingathering (If you don’t know what that is, ask an Adventist older than 45.) Some of us would walk from door to door while some would ride in the back of a pick-up truck that drove slowly down the streets. The folks in the truck would be singing Christmas carols. I was always amazed that one of the carolers would bring along either her knitting or crocheting (I don’t remember which), and while she sang, her hands would be busy doing her needlework…in the dark! This same person could play the piano for church and carry on a conversation with someone at the same time...still boggles my mind!

Anyway, those are all the good things about doing something over and over until you don’t have to think about it anymore. There’s also a downside – you don’t have to think about it anymore and when that happens in your worship experience, you have a problem.

At the beginning of Zechariah 7, a delegation come to Jerusalem to ask the priests a question.

"Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev, when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the Lord, and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, saying, ‘Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?’
Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, ‘Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?”’” Zechariah 7:1-5

During all the time they had been in exile in Babylon, God’s people had fasted in the fourth month to remember when the walls of Jerusalem had been breached, in the fifth month to remember the destruction of the temple, in the seventh month for the Day of Atonement, and in the tenth month they fasted to mourn the siege against Jerusalem. The Day of Atonement was the only fast commanded by God through Moses.

Through Zechariah, God points the delegation to the purpose of their fasting. Were they just going through the motions? Were they thinking about the things the fasting was to commemorate? Or was it just one more thing to check off their To Do lists?

“According to the [New York] Times, people are paying as much as $3,484 a week to visit health spas where they go without food. One spa in Desert Hot Springs, California, is booked through October with a clientele that includes celebrities Ben Affleck and Courtney Love. Fashion designers and mortgage brokers have joined the fasting trend. Instead of stuffing themselves with steak and lobster, they subsist on apple-celery cocktails, herbal teas, laxatives, bee pollen, blended soups, and water mixed with squeezed lemons, Celtic Sea salt, and honey.
“… Fasters claim that a 4- to 30-day regimen not only helps them lose weight but has spiritual benefits, as well. ‘It used to be that people who came in to fast talked about weight loss,’ said Stephanie Paradise, owner of the New Age Health Spa in Neversink, N.Y. Now, she says, it's about ‘detoxing the mind, body and spirit.’
“Not all of the fasters are doing it for spiritual reasons, however. Natalia Rose, a nutritional consultant, appeals to their vanity. She organizes four-day fasting weekends for women that include motivational trips to a fashionable department store, to ‘remind them what it's all for.’”[2]

For the Jews, fasting wasn’t the point – remembering how God had led and taken care of them was.

Going to church every week, in and of itself, isn’t the point. Especially not if we’re just going through the motions or if we’re just going to see our friend and have social time.

Turning off the TV on Sabbath doesn’t make God happy if we sleep the day away or spend that time anxiously waiting for sundown so we can do what we really want to do.

Calling ourselves Christians doesn’t make God happy, especially if we’ve become just “Cultural Christians,” who look and act like Christians, but without any relationship to Jesus Christ. Cultural Christians are just going through the motions because that’s what their parents and friends do.

We need to make our relationship with Jesus a daily conscious choice and stop just going through the motions.

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[1] The Karate Kid, IMDb, Copyright © 1990-2013 IMDb.com, Inc., http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087538/synopsis

[2] Peter Larson, "Fashionable Fasting," the PRISM E-pistle (9-3-03); submitted by Marshall Shelley, Wheaton, Illinois

S.of the F. v. the G. R.

(Survival of the Fittest versus the Golden Rule)

Where does morality come from? How do humans decide how to behave? As a Christian, I would say that moral behavior is a product of my belief in a Creator God. But what if a person does not believe in God? What dictates his morality?

That’s a huge question. If people reject the Creatorship of God, then, if they’re honest with themselves, they also have to reject God’s pronouncement of what’s right and wrong. Some folks try to have it both ways by claiming that morality is a natural evolutionary step, but macro evolution, to my knowledge, says little about absolute rights and wrongs but quite abit about the importance of survival.

Terry Mattingly, senior fellow for journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, quotes from a sermon by Phillip E. Johnson called “Evolution and the Christian Faith.”

 “‘If there is no Creator who has a purpose for your life, then there is no such thing as sin, … ‘Sin would mean that you are in a wrong relationship to your Creator. Well, you can't be in the wrong relationship with the particles. They don't care. So you don't need a Savior to save you from the consequences of your wrong relationship with the particles.’”Mattingly then concludes, “When you give away creation, you have given away everything.”[1]

That’s a pretty harsh conclusion, isn’t it? But I don’t believe we can deny the truth of it when we look around at what has happened in society since the theory of evolution has become the popular way to explain the existence of our world.

Evolution teaches that only the strongest, healthiest, and smartest survive, a concept that is completely incompatible with the concept of the Golden Rule.

“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

Surprisingly, I’ve found that the Golden Rule is harder to teach than you might think. I mean, out of context, many people wouldn’t immediately assume that it was a text from the Bible. You could say it was just a good rule to live by. But in 20 plus years of teaching in one capacity or another, without the opportunity to back that statement up with a belief in God, it has little impact on individual behavior. The response I most often get when I try to explain the Golden Rule to one of my students is, “Why?” In fact, they often completely turn the whole concept around, “They’re not going to treat me the way I want to be treated, why should I be nice to them?”

You have to admit that by today’s standards, the Golden Rule is counter-intuitive.

The Golden Rule says, “Share.”

Survival of the Fittest says, “Take yours first and let the rest fend for themselves.

The Golden Rule says, “Lend a helping hand.”

Survival of the Fittest says, “If you can’t keep up, get out of the way.”

The Golden Rule says, “Look out for one another.”

Survival of the Fittest says, “Every man for himself.”

Counter-intuitive or not, our Creator has both told and demonstrated to us how we should behave as we represent Him.

“Your relation to God and your fellow men demands a change in your life. In the Sermon on the Mount the injunction of the world’s redeemer was: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” These words are of the highest value to us, a golden rule given us by which to measure our conduct. This is the true rule of honesty. Very much is comprehended in these words. We are here required to deal with our neighbors as we would wish them to deal with us were we in their circumstances.” (E.G. White, Testimonies of the Church, Volume 4, p. 359)

But without God, there are no such requirements. Facing each day without the belief that each of us is a special creation of the God of the universe, leaves each of us to find meaning and truth in our own way. And that has led to moral relativism and situational ethics – the belief that there is no absolute truth, no right and wrong and no consequences for poor choices.

Where does that leave us?

Well, according to William Watkins, it leaves us with ten core beliefs that govern the lives of those people today who claim there are no absolutes. (Try to wrap your brain around that!)

Anyway, here are The New Absolutes.

“(1) Religion interferes with freedom and must be banished from the public square.(2) Human life is valuable only as long as it is wanted.(3) Marriage is a human contract made between any two people, and can be terminated for any reason.(4) Family is any grouping of two or more people.(5) Sexual intercourse is permissible regardless of marital status.(6) All forms of sexual activity are moral as long as they occur between consenting adults.(7) Women are oppressed by men and must liberate themselves.(8) People of color should receive preferential treatment.(9) Non-Western societies and other oppressed peoples and their heritage should be studied and valued above Western civilization.(10) Only viewpoints deemed politically correct should be tolerated and encouraged to prevail.”[2]

Call me old fashioned or simple minded, but I prefer God’s Absolutes. God absolutely created each of us, loves each of us and wants to spend eternity with each of us. You know where I’m going with this:

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” John 3:16-17

Now that’s an absolute, I can live with!

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[1] Terry Mattingly, senior fellow for journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, from his column "Phillip E. Johnson”

[2] William Watkins, The New Absolutes (Bethany House, 1996)

Mary or Martha?

How many times have we heard the story of Mary and Martha?  Jesus is visiting and Martha is rushing around making sure everything is just right and then she realizes that Mary is not helping but sitting with Jesus like one of their guests.  Martha gets upset and wants Jesus to tell Mary to get up and help, but He doesn't.  In fact, He pretty much tells Martha that she should be sitting with Mary.

Have you ever had a hard time with that story?  I have.  Maybe because I have always wanted to be more Martha-like in general...and maybe because I've always kind of mis-read the story itself.  I've always felt that Jesus was telling Martha that she was doing the wrong thing by making sure dinner made it to the table and all.  It wasn't until right now that I realized that Jesus was not so much telling Martha she was altogether wrong but that Mary was altogether right (at that particular moment).

I guess my point is that if all we ever did was sit and study, nothing in the way of Gospel sharing or soul winning would ever get done.  But we have to have the quiet time getting to know Jesus and building that relationship first, or our attempts at sharing Jesus will fail.

If you look back at the beginning of Luke chapter 10, we see Jesus sending out the seventy apostles or missionaries or whatever for the first time.

“After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
“Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” Luke 10:1-2

The first verse says, “After these things...”  Well I looked back at chapter nine and most of that chapter is Jesus showing the disciples who He really is and what His mission really is.  Then He sends them out to spread the good news.  They couldn't have been effective witnesses for Jesus if they hadn't spent that time learning about Him and getting to know Him.

Something else that I don't believe I fully understood about the the Mary and Martha story is that Mary is not just sitting and listening; she's not being passive in any way.  She is trying to soak up every word and every truth that Jesus is speaking.  She's drinking in His truth because she doesn't want to forget anything.

How many of us study our Bibles like that – trying to wrap our brains around every little tidbit of truth and hang onto it?  How often do we pray to get closer to Jesus instead of to ask Him to get us out of our latest tangle?  When was the last time we prayed and then waited to hear what Jesus had to say to us, instead of a quick prayer: “Thank you for another day; keep me safe.  Amen”?

Maybe it's only me, but it's not so much the physical busyness but the mental static that keeps me from “sitting at the feet of Jesus” and, consequently, stunts my ability to witness for Him. 

“Be still, and know that I am God...” Psalm 46:10

“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” Psalm 37:7

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,...” 2 Thessalonians 1:7

Jesus wasn't telling Martha she shouldn't be serving but that she shouldn't be worrying and fussing over things that were temporary.

Think about Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  How many hours/days do some of us spend planning and shopping and cooking because we want everything to be just right?  And how long does the meal itself last? Thirty minutes, tops!  And then you have to start cleaning up...yech!

"'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'" Luke 10:41-42

Have we chosen that better part that can't be taken away from us?  Have we filled our hearts and mind with Jesus?  Or are we still rushing around (physically or mentally) worried and upset?

I think that I've always gotten distracted by the visuals of Mary and Martha...Mary sitting quietly; Martha rushing back and forth.  But this isn't about movement or non-movement.  I know I can be sitting absolutely still, but my mind is going every which way, trying to figure out the solution to this, wondering about that, worrying about this other thing.  Or, I could be going through all the motions of my day, which might be physically hectic or demanding, but as long as my mind is fixed on Jesus, I can be calm and at rest.

We have to be the best of both Mary and Martha to be able to spread the good news about Jesus.  First, we have to learn to sit quietly with Jesus and learn the truth about Him, but then we have to share what we've learned.

“All who work for God should have the Martha and the Mary attributes blended--a willingness to minister and a sincere love of the truth.”--E.G. White,Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 118.

“Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
Oh, what words I hear Him say!
Happy place! so near, so precious!
May it find me there each day;
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
I would look upon the past;
For His love has been so gracious,
It has won my heart at last.”

“By faith Abraham…”

I’ve thought a lot about Abram/Abraham. He is an amazing man of God. Think about him for a minute. Can you imagine leaving your family, your friends and your livelihood on the strength of a…of a what? See, that’s my problem right there. The Bible says that God appeared to Abram and told him to leave everything he knew. Well, for the most part, I know that people don’t see God these days, but I hear people say pretty often that God has told them to do this or that thing. If you ask these people if they heard an actual voice, they will say they didn’t hear an audible voice (because we have medication for people who hear voices that nobody else hears, right?). These people will say that they had an impression or a thought and they knew it was “God’s Voice”. My question is, “How did they know?”

OK, OK, I know, if the impression is to buy a lunch for the homeless guy on the corner or to sponsor a missionary trip, that makes total sense. But what do you do when that impression is to quit your job? or sell your house and move into a trailer? or anything else that doesn’t seem to make sense? How do I know that it’s God telling me to do that thing? Maybe I’ve just lost my mind.

I have to say that, in retrospect, I have seen God’s leading in my life. But, while I’m in the midst of day-to-day life, I can’t say that I feel with any certainty God is leading in my life. I’m not saying that I don’t KNOW with every fiber of my being that He’s there; I believe that He is always with me and leading me. But sometimes I don’t feel it, and sometimes, I’m not sure that I’m following His leading. And that’s my point. How do I know that I am doing what God wants me to do?

Some of you will remember the slogan of the ‘70’s – “If it feels good, do it!” I hear people who apply that theory to finding the will of God. You’ll know that you are walking with God when your path opens up, and it’s clear sailing. There are others who say just the opposite: If you run into one roadblock after another, you must be in God’s will because Satan is trying to side track you. So…which is it?

Last May, my family and I planned a trip to go visit my brother and his family up near Ft. Worth for Memorial Day. My son was going to preach in my brother’s church. In preparation, I took my car in to be checked over for the trip. The mechanic calls and says that there is something major wrong, but he can’t figure it out. The car was all taken apart and wouldn’t be ready in time for our trip. We decided to rent an SUV and go on with the trip. Thursday afternoon, I picked up the car. It was soooo nice!

We were leaving on Friday afternoon. I needed to do a bunch of stuff before we left, so I was out running errands in the morning. One of the first things I did was to take some stuff here to the church so that it would be there for Sabbath. I pulled up, grabbed the stuff and my church keys and ran into the building. I dropped the things I had brought, wrote a quick note, and ran back to the car…only to find the driver’s side window bashed in and my purse gone. A lot of you have probably had similar experiences and can remember that initial feeling of complete and total disbelief. Followed almost immediately anger, frustration and panic… I know, guys, that doesn’t seem such a big deal, but my purse was BRAND NEW!! No, really, the actual purse was the least of my worries. I carry everything in my purse – checkbook, credit cards, cell phone, cash (thankfully not much), my social security card and both of my sons’ cards as well, my medication, spare car keys, library cards, and, horror of horrors, my make-up!

The point of this whole story is that my first thought was, “God doesn’t want us to take this trip.” And my second thought was, “Satan doesn’t want us to take this trip.” Or, maybe it was neither. Maybe, it was just one of those random happenings with no cosmic importance attached to it.

So, where does that leave us on the big decisions like jobs, houses, and marriage? I’ve met people who have prayed for help and wisdom and received amazing answers to their prayers. They’ve asked for a sign and received an unmistakable, undeniable sign from God. Others have turned to the Bible and God has led them to the exact scripture that they need to read at that moment. What a blessing! I have to admit that I can’t think of any times that I have experienced such concrete information. And, as I think of it, I think that finding the will of God is more of a relationship issue than anything else. What I mean is, I can’t go along following my own way until I think I need God’s help. I can open my Bible over and over again, and I can read a bunch of verses/chapters, but I don’t think my answer will be there. Especially if I haven’t been reading my Bible every day to begin with.

Abraham had that kind of relationship with God. He left everything he knew because God asked him to. He didn’t even know where God was taking him! Abraham knew the sound of God’s voice (whether or not it was audible to anyone else). Even so, Abraham had a couple of fairly significant lapses of faith. Even though he talked to God, he struggled like we do. Abraham walked with God step by step, every minute of everyday, and he still made mistakes and had crises of faith. That gives me so much hope.

I want to learn to recognize the sound of God’s voice in my heart. I want to know His voice so well that whatever He asks of me, I will do it – without question. I want to recognize God’s leading in every situation, and not get God’s directions mixed up with Satan’s misdirections.