Hollow

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.” Amos 5:21-23

Prophets have a hard job. God tells them what to say, and then they have to stand up in front of people and say it. And the message that God gives them is rarely, “Great job, folks! Keep it up!”

Even so, these particular verses from Amos seem harsh. Imagine if your preacher stood up in the pulpit and said, “This is what God has told me to say to you: ‘I hate, I despise your potlucks and your worship services. Even though you offer Me your tithe and your offering, I will not accept them. Take away from Me the noise your praise songs and hymns, for I will not hear the melody of your pianos, organs, guitars or drums.”

It sure sounds like God hates church! Why would He hate church? What God hates is hollow worship – where people just go through the motions. I think we’ve probably all done that from time to time. Maybe we’ve had a really rough week, so we come to church and we stand when the congregation stands, kneel when everybody kneels, we may even talk to people we know. We sit through the whole service but we leave without ever being mentally or spiritually touched by anything that went on. If anybody asked us what the message was, we probably couldn’t tell them.

Imagine though, if that went on for so long, that we accept that as how things should be. We’re just going through the motions – we look like Christians, we act like Christians, we even think we are Christians, but we have so relationship with God at all. And that’s what God hates – hollow Christians.

Amos was talking to the Jews of his time. Jesus said pretty much the same things to the Jews of His time.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:23-28

The scribes and the Pharisees were hollow just like their worship. They made sure they did all the right things, wore the right clothes, and ate all the right foods, but it was all for show. In their hearts they were terrible people who took advantage of people who sincerely were seeking God.

John Boykin explains in his column, “The Gospel of Coincidence.”

“What was so bad about [the Pharisees'] hypocrisy? If we think of it as consisting merely in their teaching or pretending one thing while in fact practicing something contradictory, we will miss Jesus' main point. What He nailed them for was that they were using God and the things of God as a means to some other end. That's what was insidious about the Pharisees' example. ‘They do all their deeds to be noticed by men’ (Matthew 23:5). ... Theirs was a problem of priorities: their first priority was social status, to which end God was but a means. What greater affront to God could there be? Better to ignore Him altogether than to exploit Him as a means to something else you value more highly.”[1]

Why are we Christians? Why do we go to the church we do? Is coming to church mainly our social event of the week? Are we more concerned about what we wear than what we hear from the pulpit? Do we worry more about the form of worship than actually worshipping? And what difference does it make, anyway? Isn’t it more important that we’re there than not being involved at all?

“Jesus spoke as one having knowledge and authority. The denunciation he uttered against the Jews condemned their formalism and hypocrisy. His scathing rebukes and denunciation of formalism have the same force today as they had in the days of the scribes and Pharisees, and apply to those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. The God of infinite holiness cannot accept external service as spiritual worship. Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and truth, or their service is vain. There must be reality in the religious ceremonies, or they are simply pretensions, hollow abominations. But though Jesus rebuked the priests and religious teachers for their formalism and hypocrisy, yet how forbearing and tender were his lessons to the poor, the oppressed, the afflicted, and discouraged. The priests and rulers, the scribes and Pharisees, destroyed the living pastures, and defiled the well-springs of the water of life. By their false precepts they confused the understanding, and clouded that which was clear. They misrepresented God by their hardness of heart, by their impurity, pride, and selfishness. They made God altogether such a one as themselves. Their imagination was darkened and polluted by their wicked works. Because of their religious degeneracy they could discern nothing that pertained to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Through rejecting the messages of mercy brought to them by the Lord of light and glory, they became, in their stubborn resistance, past feeling. They had evidence in abundance of the divine character and mission of Christ, and increased evidence would only have increased their guilt. Thinking themselves to be wise, they became fools. As men do today, so they did then, and used the very intellect that God had given them to brand with falsehood his eternal truth.” (E.G. White, Sabbath School Worker, December 1, 1894)

So, what’s it going to be for us? Are we going to take our lead from the Pharisees or from Jesus? Will we allow the vessel to become more important to us than the contents? Are we going to worry more about how people are dressed at church than that they’re at church at all? Are we going to come to church to meet our friends or to meet with God? Are we going to let the formality of our church service get between God and a searching heart?

God is longing to meet us and inhabit our worship. Let’s not let our worship be hollow anymore. Let’s not wait to hear, “Woe unto you!” Let’s fill our hearts and minds with the spirit of praise.

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[1] John Boykin, The Gospel of Coincidence, Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 5

Prodigal and Prostitute

“Forgiving the unforgivable is hard. So was the cross: hard words, hard wood, hard nails.”
William S. Stoddard

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8

You probably remember a man named Ted Kaczynski – the Unabomber. He’s the man who used to send mail bombs to people he didn’t like. He’s been in jail now for many years, but this week I read something I hadn’t known before.

After Kaczynski was put in prison, his mother, Wanda was interviewed by someone associated with the Chicago Tribune. She told the reporter that she wrote letters to her son, Ted, every month. She shared her most recent letter at that time with the reporter.

"I want you to know, Ted, that when a child is born, the parents give them the gift of unconditional love for a lifetime. This is true of you. No matter what happens, my love for you will be there for a lifetime. Love, Mother."

It must have been heartbreaking for her to write those letters because Ted had testified during his trial that she was a horrible person. In fact, he refused to even look at her as she sat in the courtroom. In spite of that, Wanda Kaczynski, wrote a letter to him every month telling him that she loved him.  That story reminds me of a couple of other stories.

One of the stories is in the book of Hosea, God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. God gives people of Israel a living object lesson that demonstrates how they are treating God. They repeatedly wander away from God, spiritually, to worship the idols and false gods of the people who live around them. But, like Hosea, God is not only willing to forgive and take His people back over and over again, He’s willing to go and find them and lead them back to their true beliefs over and over again.

Can you imagine how difficulty that must have been for Hosea as he watched the woman he’d married destroying herself – not just once or twice either?

Have you ever know someone who repeatedly hurt themselves? Yes, most of us know someone who smokes or doesn’t exercise or overeats and those are self-destructive behaviors. But I’m talking about something more immediate.

Several of the folks I work with have a problem with picking at or pulling on their skin until they’ve made actual sores that hurt and bleed and potentially could become infected. One man has bitten his hands so many times that he wears braces to protect him from himself. One woman wears gloves all the time because without them she will pick at the skin around her fingernails until every finger is bleeding and sore. Even though these individuals know the pain that will come from their behavior, they continue to do it.

As staff, we often look at these individuals, shake our heads and ask, “Why don’t they just quit doing that? It must hurt. Why don’t they stop?” And then we clean, disinfect and bandage … and try to keep them from hurting themselves again.

When we read the Old Testament, we ask ourselves the same questions about the Israelites. “Why did they keep moving away from God and breaking His rules? Couldn’t they see that they were just going to end up being taken captive again?”

And yet, we very rarely ask those questions about our own behavior. “Why do I keep picking TV over reading my Bible? Why don’t I spend more time with God? Don’t I know that I’m damaging my relationship with God?”

Sin is self-destructive behavior that tears up our hearts and our spirits and separates us from God. But it doesn’t just hurt us. It hurts God, too. Even before we feel the pain of guilt and remorse, our behavior has broken God’s heart.

The other story I thought of was the parable that Jesus told about the prodigal son. Where Hosea chose someone who was already living a self-destructive lifestyle and, as an example of God’s redemption, loved her in spite of her behavior; in the story of the prodigal son, he was at least aware of his father’s love for him whether he chose to accept it or not.

 “… He did not know that the best place in the world is home; for the home atmosphere had become disagreeable to him, because he could not be as independent as he desired. Any place looked better to him than home. Evil companions helped to plunge him deeper and deeper into sin, and a false excitement was kept up, and he imagined that he was happy in being free from all restraint. He had no one now to say: ‘Do not do that; for you will do injury to yourself. Do this, because it is right.’ But when his means failed, and he was obliged to take time to consider, he found himself without the bare necessities of life; and, to make his situation more trying, a famine had come upon the land.
“Starvation stared him in the face, and he joined himself to a citizen of the place. He was sent to do the most menial of work,—to feed the swine. Although this to a Jew was the most disreputable of callings, yet he was willing to do anything, so great was his need. Miserable and suffering, he sat in the fields doing his task. Because he had been unwilling to submit to the restraint of home, he now had the place of the lowest of servants. He had left home for liberty, but his liberty had been turned into the lowest of drudgery. (E.G. White, Signs of the Times, January 29, 1894)

When the prodigal son finally decides he’s had enough and makes up his mind to go home, his father is there waiting for him and welcomes him back even though the son probably still smells like pigs. The father doesn’t care – his son has come home.

The question is, does God love anyone of us any less if we don’t come back to Him? The Israelites, as a nation, ultimately and finally rejected God…did He quit loving them?

In the final verses of Hosea, we read the promises of God through Hosea that confirm His love for not only the Jews, but all of humanity…no matter what.

I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, And lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, And grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.  “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’ I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.
“Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.” Hosea 14:5-9 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39

Chicken vs. Egg?

I can remember really puzzling over that question, wondering how a person could actually know which came first. I believe I was well into my teens before I realized that, for a Christian who believed in the six days of Creation, it was a no-brainer.

The God Who created the world in six real, twenty-four hour days did everything in a carefully ordered way. He didn’t just start creating things willy-nilly – He followed a meticulously thought out plan. How do I know? Because 7,000 plus years since the Fall of Adam and Eve, the world is still so orderly that almost every part of it can be described in mathematical formulas.

Do you realize that almost everything in our world can be described by a single set of numbers? They’re called the Fibonacci numbers and the visual equivalent, the Golden Mean and is a sequence of numbers, starting with 0, 1 and continuing 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Each new number equals the two numbers before it. This is only the first few numbers – they go on forever, but the ratio is 1.618033988749895… The whole concept gets pretty math heavy and I get pretty lost, but when I can see that rose petals wrap around their stem using that pattern, sea shells follow the Golden spiral, and so many things in nature contain the same ratio over and over again, I’m led to the conclusion that God laid out our world along very strict guidelines.

“John Polkinghorne, a theoretical physicist and a minister, claims that the equations that guide physics point to a Creator. Polkinhorne said, ‘Physicists are deeply impressed with the order of the world. It is rationally beautiful and structured, and the feeling that there is a mind behind it is a very natural feeling to have …. I think the feeling of wonder, which is fundamental to the experience of physicists … is fundamentally a religious experience, whether people recognize it or not.’”[1]

In Genesis 1, God worked from general to specific. He didn’t create an living thing until He had created a place where it could survive.

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.” Genesis 1:9-13

The whole Genesis account of Creation shows a thoughtful and concerned Creator who carefully built a beautiful home for His creations. Not even a blade of grass was created until the system to keep it alive was in place.

On the other hand, we have the theories of Charles Darwin built around his research on the Galapagos Islands. His ideas involve natural selection and don’t describe any logic or purpose just an on-going struggle for survival. If God were to use a theory like the one described by Darwin, He would have to be described as careless, wasteful and cruel to just pitch ideas for creatures out into the planet and see which ones survived.

That would be like me deciding to plant a garden in my backyard so I just gathered up a whole bunch of seed of all different kinds and just pitched them out into the yard. Then I just watched to see what would come up. I didn’t prepare the ground for the seeds or make sure the seeds went into the right kind of soil or in the right amount of sunlight. I didn’t worry about whether or not the seeds could even grow in my area of the country. If the plants made it, great, but if the weeds took over and none of them made it, that’s ok too. In my backyard, that would mean I’d end up with very little of anything edible, just Johnson grass and sticker burs. I would have wasted a lot of seeds.

Anyway, how would you feel about God if He was so indifferent about how things went on His planet? Would you be interested in worshipping Him? or praying to Him?

I believe that the way we picture Creation has everything to do with the way we picture God.

“Some theologians argue that God is not indifferent to natural evil, but, rather, God is limited in His very nature so that He is good but limited in power. Hence, while He desires to do something about the pain and suffering in the world, He is unable.
“A second option offered asserts that while God is all-powerful, His greatest desire is the complete freedom of the cosmos to self-create and self-determine. This freedom is said to be more important to God than imposing some kind of order or design on the universe. Advocates of this view tend to express God as being in a power-sharing relationship with the universe, with the universe participating in its own creation.
“A third option is Deism. In this view, God launches all the natural processes and then absents Himself like a disinterested, absentee landlord. While this God may have all power, He shows little or no personal interest in the affairs of humankind. In this construct, God is highly unlikely to personally interact or intervene with any particularity in the affairs of earth’s history.”[2]

What a blessing to know that our God is not limited in any way, that He maintains His control over the universe, and that He cares about each and every one of us.

I know I end with John 3:16-17 often, but I just don’t believe we can be reminded enough of how involved God wants to be in every aspect of our lives and that, more than anything else, He wants to spend eternity with us. Take just a couple more seconds and really read and think about every word. Each one was written just for you and for me.

“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 3:16-17AMP

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[1] Pallab Ghosh, "Historic Hunt for 'God Particle,'" BBC News (9-10-08)

[2] Stephen Bauer, PhD, The Lesson in Brief and Learning Cycle, Lesson 2, Origins-Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide

Going Through the Motions

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 12.1.12

Have you ever gotten home from work but you don’t remember driving there? You’re on auto-pilot. It happens whenever we’ve done something so many times that our brain doesn’t really have to engage in what we’re doing to make it happen. It’s almost like our muscles just take over: tying our shoes, playing a musical instrument, typing.

You can probably think of lots of things that have become like that for you. You’ve seen, or maybe you are one of those folks who can knit or crochet so well that you don’t need to see what you’re doing. I used to wear contact lenses and sometimes I’d wake up in the night and not be able to remember if I’d taken my contacts off or not. Of course it was easy to find out – if I could see more than a foot away, then I needed to get up and take them out.

Anyway, being on auto-pilot is not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine if you had to think about every step you took, everywhere we walked? There was a time when most of us had to think of how to form every letter and how to spell every word when we wrote things down. When you sign something now, our hands pretty much knows what to do without our help.

Being on auto-pilot isn’t necessarily a good thing either, though – some folks, who’ve been married a really long time can say “I love you” without really thinking about it. Sometimes they might be talking to someone besides their spouse on the phone and they’ll end the conversation with “I love you” but the person on the phone is a business associate instead of their spouse. That can be pretty awkward.

Sometimes our worship can become so automatic that our brain disengages from it and we find ourselves just going through the motions. We go to church, stand up, sit down and kneel at all the right times, but we’re not actually involved in the worship service beyond just being a warm body sitting in the pew. We’re just there because it’s become a habit – just another thing we do in our lives.

Going through the motions can be particularly tragic when we’re talking about some of the really meaningful ceremonies of our worship service – baptism, foot-washing, and communion.

I know, I can hear you, “Hey, how can baptism become routine, I only do that once.” And you’re right, but sometimes our on-going experience of having been baptized can become stale. Remember how the church at Ephesus was described in Revelation?

“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Revelation 2:2-4

See? They were doing all the right things, but they were just going through the motions. The instructions for resolving that problem come in verse 5: 

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Revelation 2:5

Jesus also left us with a reminder of baptism to keep the experience more fixed in our minds. Just before the Last Supper, when He gathered with all 12 of the disciples in the upper room.

“Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?" John 13:3-12

Footwashing or the Ordinance of Humility as our church calls it, is a reminder that we fall daily into sin and that Jesus and His sacrifice are our only hope for salvation.

Footwashing is an important time within our church families to remind us of our baptism experience.

On that same evening, in that same upper room, Jesus also gave us Communion.

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29

Isn’t that an amazing promise – “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” We will be with Him in the kingdom!

Let’s not let Baptism, The Ordinance of Humility and the Communion Service become one more case of auto-pilot. Stay focused!

Meet me in Heaven

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 9.24.11

I’ve noticed that when we (meaning the Christians who I know) talk about our first day in Heaven, we usually describe an experience akin to a family reunion – looking for and finding family members and old friends, meeting our Bible heroes and peppering them with questions, meeting our guardian angels and getting the behind-the-scenes versions of our lives.  Don’t misunderstand, that all sounds amazing, and I believe we will get to do all of those things; I’m just not sure any of those things will be our priority.

It just occurred to me that instead of the ecstatically, joyful and noisy scene I just described, our first day in Heaven might be more of a take-our-breath-away kind of experience.

The group, MercyMe, sings a song that asks many of the same questions that I find myself asking when I try to picture my first meeting with Jesus.

“I can only imagine / What it will be like / When I walk / By your side / I can only imagine / What my eyes will see /When your face / Is before me / I can only imagine / … / Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel / Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still / Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall / Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all / I can only imagine / … / When that day comes / When I find myself / Standing in the Son / I can only imagine / When all I will do / Is forever / Forever worship You / I can only imagine / …”[1]

I’m really curious about what our worship will look like in Heaven.  Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time picturing it with my limited human experience.  Will we have structured worship services with opening prayer, special music, scripture reading, and then Jesus will speak?  Or will it be more of a concert setting:  Jesus steps out and the crowd goes wild?  Will we follow Him around like the people did when He was here on earth – wait outside His door all night so we can be the first in line in the morning? 

None of those really seem right, do they?  They’re all very earthly styles of worship.

What will worship in Heaven look like?  The book of Revelation actually gives us several examples.  Let’s have a look.

“Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.’
“Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:  “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:8-11

“And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’  Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’  Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:  ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’ The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”  Revelation 5:8-14

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’  All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’”  Revelation 7:9-12

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.’
“And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:  ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.  The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.’  Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.”  Revelation 11:15-19

Anybody else see a pattern emerging here?  There is nothing boring, passive or insipid about the worship described here.  Nobody here is sitting in the balcony texting his (or her) friends.  Nobody is dozing off or wondering what’s for lunch.  The worshipers here have no doubts about who God is and what He has done:  He is the Creator, the Messiah, the Lamb, the Redeemer.  He is the Eternal Commander who has won the battle between good and evil.  No being in the entire universe will ever question His God-ness or goodness ever again.

“Worship is bending low before our Maker, recognizing and acknowledging His holiness and our creatureliness. It is submitting to His sovereignty, responding to His majestic presence.”[2]

Yeah, I’ll “meet you in Heaven, and we’ll hold hands” and sing songs together, … eventually.  But at first I’m not sure we’ll even know that anyone else is there.  We’re only going to know that our Savior and Redeemer is there and He is going to be the only Person we can see.  “Pray that we all will be there.”

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[1] MercyMe, “I Can Only Imagine,” Almost There, 1999.

[2] Richard M. Davidson, Andrews University, Worship in the Old Testament, p. 3.

Name Your Price

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 9.3.11

You know in all those detective and cop shows, there’s often a bad guy who wants to make his troubles go away by paying someone large amounts of money.  When that someone refuses, the amount of money often goes up.  The good guy usually says something like, “I can’t be bought.”  To which the bad guy usually replies, “Everyone has a price.” 

Now, I don’t know how often bad guys try to bribe good guys in real life, but think about this for a second.  Isn’t that pretty much what Satan is doing?  He’s trying to find out what it will take for us to turn away from God.  He’s trying to find out what our price is.  Have you ever thought about what you’re willing to take to stop worshiping God the way He asks us to worship Him?

In Ezekiel 8, we read about some folks who had named their price, taken their pay off, and turned so far away from God that they were worshiping idols and pagan gods in God’s own house.  God took Ezekiel on a tour so that Ezekiel could write it down. 

“… On the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house. The elders of Judah were sitting there with me. The Lord and King put his powerful hand on me there … In visions God gave me, the Spirit took me to Jerusalem. He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the inner courtyard. The statue of a god was standing there. It made God very angry. … Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look toward the north.’ So I did. I saw a statue that made God angry. It was in the entrance of the gate north of the altar.  He said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what the people of Israel are doing here? They are doing things I hate very much. Those things will cause me to go far away from my temple. But you will see things I hate even more.’  Then he brought me to the entrance to the courtyard. … And I saw a door there. He continued, ‘Go through it. Look at the evil things they are doing here. I hate those things.’ … All over the walls were pictures of all kinds of crawling things and other animals. The Lord hates it when people worship those things. There were also carvings of all of the gods of the people of Israel.  In front of them stood 70 elders of Israel. …  Each elder was holding a shallow cup. A sweet-smelling cloud of incense was rising from the cups.  The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what the elders of Israel are doing in the dark? Each of them is in his own room worshiping his own god. They say, “The Lord doesn't see us. He has deserted the land.”’ He continued, ‘You will see them doing things I hate even more.’  Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord's house. I saw women sitting there. They were sobbing over the god Tammuz. The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing? You will see things I hate even more.’  Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord's house. About 25 men were there. They were at the entrance to the Lord's temple between the porch and the altar. Their backs were turned toward the temple. Their faces were turned toward the east. And they were bowing down to the sun.  He said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen all of that? The people of Judah are doing things here that I hate.’”  (most of) Ezekiel 8

I know, they didn’t leave God and start worshiping other gods all at once.  I’m sure it took several generations.  They took baby steps but look where they ended up!  It makes me think about how I worship God.  What compromise am I making that will make it easier for someone else to make another compromise?

Do you know that the churches in Europe are being turned into movie theaters and night clubs?  I realize they’re not “sacred” the way the Temple in the Bible was sacred, but it still seems kind of sacrilegious to me.

Here in the United States there are folks who believe that the fasted growing “religion” here isn’t really a religion, but sports.

Wait.  What? 

That’s right.

“‘Sport is America's newest and fastest-growing religion, far outdistancing whatever is in second place,’ says Charles S. Prebish, associate professor of religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. ‘...It is not merely “like” a religion, he argues, nor is it a “secular” religion, as other religion scholars and sociologists have postulated.’

“To Mr. Prebish, sport can and does provide its followers everything that traditional religions have provided over the centuries. He writes: ‘For me, it is not just a parallel that is emerging between sport and religion, but rather a complete identity. Sport is religion for growing numbers of Americans, and this is no product of simply facile reasoning or wishful thinking. Further, for many, sport religion has become a more appropriate expression of personal religiosity than Christianity, Judaism, or any of the traditional religions. ...’

“Athletes and spectators for whom sport is religion may differ in their ideas about what the ‘ultimate’ is, Mr. Prebish says, but sport is the vehicle by which all of them find it.”[1]

You and I may read what Mr. Prebish has to say and think he’s overstating or overreacting…but how different is that really than what Ezekiel described? 

We’re all prone to compromise, for any number of reasons – we don’t want to seem different than the folks around us, convenience, money.  Especially when we think that no one will notice.

I think about Daniel and his three buddies – just barely adults, their parents gone, their cushy lives gone, in a situation that screamed for compromise, if not complete abandonment of their beliefs.  And when it came down to compromise or death, each one of them stood firm.  Absolutely amazing.

Yeah, but nobody’s that tough today, right?  Um, not so fast.

“Following Sunday worship services on January 8, 2006, five young men attacked and threatened to kill a Protestant church leader in Turkey's fourth largest city. Kamil Kiroglu, 29, had just left his church in Adana when he was ambushed and beaten so severely that he fell unconscious twice.

“‘They were trying to force me to deny Jesus,’ Kiroglu said. ‘But each time they asked me to deny Jesus and become a Muslim, I was saying, “Jesus is Lord.” The more I said, “Jesus is Lord.” the more they beat me.’ One of the attackers pulled out a long butcher knife and threatened to kill Kiroglu if he did not deny his Christian faith and return to Islam. Kiroglu refused.

“After the incident, he said, ‘I am praising God—not because he saved me from death, but because he helped me not to deny him in the shadow of death.’”[2]

Is there anybody big enough to stand between us and God?  Satan says, “Yes.”  God says, “No.”  Who are we going to believe?  “What should we say then? Since God is on our side, who can be against us?”  Romans 8:31

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[1] M. Scott Vance, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Christianity Today, Vol. 29, no. 18.

[2] Compass Direct (January 2006)

Drippingly Insincere

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 8.27.11

I remember when my boys were little, they’d come show me something they’d drawn or written and without really looking at it or them, I’d mumble, “Great job, sweetie!”  Well, that only worked for a little while.  They got old enough to realize that I was not being sincere in my appreciation of their accomplishment.  In fact, one of the boys was only in about 3^rd grade when he figured out that most of his teachers’ “Awesome!” and “Great job!” didn’t carry much weight either.  He wanted to know why teachers always said stuff like that when everybody knew they didn’t mean it.  Ouch!  He got me on both counts.  But I did try to be more careful – both at school and at home.

The problem is, it really seems so harmless, doesn’t it, to tell a child that his (or her) scribbles are beautiful or that his “story” is great, right?  Is a compliment really a compliment if you don’t mean it, and/or if the compliment-ee didn’t really earn it?

David Brooks of The New York Times seems to believe that unearned compliments might be causing some misconceptions.

“‘We're an overconfident species,’ … Brooks calls it a ‘magnification of the self,’ and he believes this glut of self-esteem is especially rampant in the United States. To back up these claims, Brooks cites an array of statistics, studies, and observations:
“When pollsters ask people from around the world to rate themselves on different traits, Americans usually supply the most positive self-ratings.
“Although American students do not perform well on global math tests, they are among the world leaders in having self-confidence about their math abilities.
“Compared to college students from 30 years ago, today's college students are much more likely to agree with statements such as ‘I am easy to like.’
“94 percent of college professors believe they have above-average teaching skills.
“70 percent of high school students surveyed claim they have above-average leadership skills, and only 2 percent are below average.
“Brooks observes that a few decades ago it would have been unthinkable for a baseball player to celebrate himself in the batter's box after hitting a home run. Today it is routine.
“Similarly, pop singers wouldn't have composed songs about their own greatness; now those songs dominate the charts.
“The number of high school seniors who believed that they were ‘a very important person’: in the 1950s—12 percent; in the 1990s—80 percent.
“According to Brooks, American men are especially susceptible to the perils of overconfidence. Men unintentionally drown twice as often as women (because men have great faith in their swimming ability, especially after drinking).
“‘In short,’ Brooks concludes, ‘there's abundant evidence to suggest that we have shifted a bit from a culture that emphasized self-effacement—I'm not better than anybody else, but nobody is better than me—to a culture that emphasizes self-expansion.’”[1]

Honestly though, would you rather know the truth even if it wasn’t pretty?  Or would you prefer to hear a lie that made you feel better?

“Imagine picking your car up from the shop after a routine tune-up, and the technician says, ‘This car is in great shape. Clearly you have an automotive genius to take great care of your car.’ Later that day, your brakes don't work. You find out you were out of brake fluid. You could have died.
“You go back to the shop, and you say, ‘Why didn't you tell me?’ The technician replies, ‘Well, I didn't want you to feel bad. Plus, to be honest, I was afraid you might get upset with me. I want this to be a safe place where you feel loved and accepted,’ You'd be furious! You'd say, ‘I didn't come here for a little fantasy-based ego boost! When it comes to my car, I want the truth.’
“Or imagine going to the doctor's office for a check-up. The doctor says to you, ‘You are a magnificent physical specimen. You have the body of an Olympian. You are to be congratulated.’ Later that day while climbing the stairs, your heart gives out. You find out later your arteries were so clogged that you were, like, one jelly doughnut away from the grim reaper.
“You go back to the doctor and say, ‘Why didn't you tell me?’ The doctor says, ‘Well, I knew your body is in worse shape than the Pillsbury doughboy, but if I tell people stuff like that, they get offended. It's bad for business. They don't come back. I want this to be a safe place where you feel loved and accepted.’ You'd be furious! You'd say to the doctor, ‘When it comes to my body, I want the truth!’
“Obviously, when something matters to us, we do not want illusory comfort based on pain avoidance. We want truth.”[2]

And that’s all God wants too.  He wants our love and obedience, but only if we want to give it.  He doesn’t ask anybody to pretend.  In fact, He gets pretty angry with people who say one thing and do another.

“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.  When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you,    this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!  Your incense is detestable to me.  New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.  When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.     Your hands are full of blood!”  Isaiah 1:11-15

Wow!  Those are some really strong words!  And the meaning is clear: “Don’t even bother to put on a show for Me.  If you don’t mean it, I don’t want it.” 

Going through the motions is just not good enough!  Matthew West’s song says it perfectly:  

“'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions / I don't wanna go one more day / without Your all consuming passion inside of me / I don't wanna spend my whole life asking, / ‘What if I had given everything, / instead of going through the motions?’”[3]

I want my worship, my whole relationship with God to be sincere; no more going through the motions.  What about you?

[1] David Brooks, "The Modesty Manifesto," The New York Times (3-21-11)

[2] John Ortberg, "Loving Enough to Speak the Truth," PreachingToday.com

[3] Jason Houser, Sam Mizell, Matthew West, “The Motions,” Something to Say, Cedar Sides; Songs for Lulu, Llc Word Music

Blurred

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 8.20.11

We hear a lot about compromise these days.  For the most part, it looks like everybody says compromise is a great idea, until it’s his (or her) turn to have to do the compromising.  On the other hand, all of us make compromises pretty much all the time. When we feel like we’re not fitting with our peers, we’ll push the edge of our belief system back a bit so that we blend in with the crowd better.  Not many people want to stick out.

I guess there are times when everybody needs to compromise to get important things accomplished, but when it comes to personal beliefs and morality, I can’t see any time compromise has a happy ending.  And in most cases, we don’t even realize it’s been happening until we look around one day and don’t even recognize ourselves or the people around us.

Have you ever experienced that?  I realized the other day that until I went to the 7^th grade, girls were not allowed to wear pants to school.  Then, in Middle School we were allowed to wear pants, but they had to be part of a “pants suit” (shudder).  That changed almost immediately because in 8^th grade girls could wear pants, the only exception being jeans.  Blue jeans were not allowed on boys or girls.  That actually held all the way through high school, except that finally everybody could wear jeans on pep rally days.

That whole process didn’t seem at all unusual for those of us living through it.  It’s only in looking back that I can see how drastically things had changed in just six years.

I believe that things like that can happen in other areas of our lives as well.  I guess there are areas where gradual change in one direction or the other is not of any great importance, but when it comes to worship, we need to be very aware of which direction things are going.  Why?  Because we are sinful beings, and, on our own, we almost never drift toward something better.  Even with our best intentions, we can end up going the wrong direction.

Here’s an example of a church that, I’m sure, had the very best of intentions and was sincerely committed to drawing people into church, but I believe they went off course somewhere along the way.

John Beukema relates:  

“When I opened my mail that night, the first letter was from a local church, inviting me to visit their ‘special community.’ They listed the ways they were unique:  ‘No religious dogma—We encourage the freedom of individual thought and belief. A humanist view of life—Our faith is based on celebrating the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
“‘Warm, accessible services—Our Sunday services…typically include a mix of readings, music, moments of meditation or contemplation, and a sermon….
“‘Our children's religious education program—We teach our kids to be accepting of differing beliefs and the importance of each person seeking his or her own truth. They study the world's major religions and draw on the core values of each faith tradition….
“‘So if you're looking for a congregation that cherishes freedom of belief and opinion, with a warm sense of community and fellowship, please visit us!’”[1]

What do you think?  Is that approach to worship refreshing or disturbing?

 In 1Kings 12, we learn about a Jewish king named Jeroboam.   The Jewish kingdom was disintegrating and the part that Jeroboam ended up with didn’t have any of the major places of worship in it.  He got worried that his people would travel to the other kingdom and decide they liked that one better and stay.  So he started the putting together a system of worship that was “almost as good.”  Kind of the “close but know cookie” system of worship.   You know, he didn’t get the part with Jerusalem in it, so he had to improvise, right?

“‘If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.’
“After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.
“Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.”  1Kings 12:27-33

Jeroboam blurred the edges of worship because he was afraid of losing his kingdom.  Why do we blur our beliefs?  Maybe they’re inconvenient.  Maybe they’re unpopular.  Maybe they cause us to lose money.  Maybe we feel like if we looked more like everybody else, more people would come into our churches and hear the truth.

We can be like Jeroboam and try to keep things convenient and friendly.  Or we can be like 

“Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian Jew, [who] has been called ‘the voice of the underground church.’ In the 1940s, he was jailed and tortured by communist officials in his home country. While imprisoned, he spoke boldly of the gospel to his atheistic captors.
“About one experience in the 14 years he spent in prison, he wrote, ‘The political officer asked me harshly, “How long will you continue to keep your stupid religion?”
“‘I said to him, “I have seen innumerable atheists regretting on their deathbeds that they have been godless; they called on Christ. Can you imagine that a Christian could regret when death is near that he has been a Christian and call on Marx or Lenin to rescue him from his faith?”
“‘The atheist began to laugh, “A clever answer.”
“‘I continued, “When an engineer has built a bridge, the fact that a cat can pass over the bridge is no proof that the bridge is good. A train must pass over it to prove its strength. The fact that you can be an atheist when everything goes well does not prove the truth of atheism. It does not hold up in moments of great crisis.”
“‘I used Lenin's books to prove to him that, even after becoming prime minister of the Soviet Union, Lenin himself prayed when things went wrong.’”[2]

“And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”  Malachi 3:18

With so little time left, let’s pray for discernment so we can stay on the right path and keep our hearts and our worship fixed on Jesus.

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[1] John Beukema, Western Springs, Illinois

[2] DC Talk, Jesus Freaks: DC Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs (Bethany House, 2002), pp. 53-54

UNCLE!

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 8.13.11

I don’t know about you, but when and where I grew up, saying “uncle” was not a good thing.  It meant that you had met your match and that you were giving up the fight and admitting that your opponent was stronger than you.  Saying “uncle” carried a certain amount of shame with it, especially if there were witnesses.

As adults, we usually don’t grab anybody in a headlock and give him (or her) noogies until he screams “uncle.”  We have more subtle ways to gain, consolidate, and demonstrate our power.  We use our homes, cars, education, credit limit, pretty much anything can become a tool used to make sure those around us know just how tough we are.

And yet, Jesus tells us over and over again, that we need to let all that go; that earthly power means absolutely nothing, and we’re not sure what to do about that.

Can you imagine a society where everyone has given up all of his power?  Now, I’m not talking about giving up your freedom, but giving up power.  There’s a difference.  If you give up your freedom, then you end up in 1984 or A Brave New World or any number of other Utopian novels.  And that is a terrifying concept.  I’m trying to imagine a place where, well, maybe we don’t give up our power; we admit up front that we know we don’t have any power to give up. 

And that’s exactly where a true worship experience brings us.  Open your Bible to the book of Psalms and read practically every one and you will find the author of that Psalm finding his way to that place where he remembers where the power is – with God.

Let’s look at Psalm 90.  It was written by Moses.

“A prayer of Moses the man of God.   Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.  Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.  You turn people back to dust, saying, 'Return to dust, you mortals.'
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.  Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.  You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.  Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.   Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.  May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.”  Psalm 90.

Now through the eyes of the world, Moses was and had been a very powerful individual; not the least of which was the grandson of Pharaoh and then God’s chosen leader of the children of Israel.  And yet throughout this Psalm, Moses reminds himself and us that God is totally and completely in charge and that he (Moses) likes it that way.

In fact, if we were to make the Psalms our model of worship, no matter where we each started, we would always end up in the same place – the place where we have learned that we can only survive through God.  We essentially wrestle with God for control of our lives until we realize we can’t win and we say, “uncle.”

When it comes to submitting our entire lives to God, most of us at some time or another, have decided we’re not ready.

“In his book Generation Ex-Christian, about younger Christians leaving Christianity, author Drew Dyck relates one interview with a young man who left Christianity to join the Wicca religion.
“Morninghawk Apollo (who renamed himself as is common in Wiccan practice) discussed his rejection of Christianity with candor. ‘Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to his will. In Wicca, it's just the other way around. Your will is paramount. We believe in gods and goddesses, but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills.’”[1]

Wow, that’s really powerful, isn’t it?  Submitting our will to God’s will is a completely unnatural act for a sinful human being, but if we make our will “paramount”, well, then, we’ve become our own gods.

God isn’t asking us to do anything, really, except love Him and accept His gift for Jesus’ life and death for our sins.  You’d think we’d be running to accept.  Instead, we’re acting like this guy:

“On March 10, 1974, Lt. Hiroo Onada was the last World War II Japanese soldier to surrender.
“Onada had been left on the island Lubang in the Philippines on December 25, 1944, with the command to "carry on the mission even if Japan surrenders." Four other Japanese soldiers were left on the island as Japan evacuated Lubang. One soldier surrendered in 1950. Another was killed in a skirmish with local police in 1954. Another was killed in 1972. Onada continued his war alone.
“All efforts to convince him to surrender or to capture him failed. He ignored messages from loudspeakers announcing Japan's surrender and that Japan was now an ally of the United States. Leaflets were dropped over the jungle begging him to surrender so he could return to Japan. He refused to believe or surrender.
“Over the years he lived off the land and raided the fields and gardens of local citizens. He was responsible for killing at least 30 nationals during his 29 year personal war. Almost a half million dollars was spent trying to locate and convince him to surrender. 13,000 men were used to try to locate him.
“Finally, on March 10, 1974, almost 30 years after World War II ended, Onada surrendered his rusty sword after receiving a personal command from his former superior officer, who read the terms of the cease-fire order. Onada handed his sword to President Marcos, who pardoned him. The war was over.
“Onada was 22-years-old when left on the island. He returned a prematurely aged man of 52. Onada stated, ‘Nothing pleasant happened in the 29 years in the jungle.’
“Like Onada, many people are fighting a lonely battle against the God who is offering reconciliation and peace.”[2]  

Time to stop fighting; let’s say “uncle” and surrender to Jesus.  Nothing good can come from resisting Him.

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[1] Drew Dyck, "The Leavers," Christianity Today (November, 2010), p. 43; excerpted from Generation Ex-Christian (Moody, 2010)

[2] Summarized from a 1974 story in Newsweek; submitted by Syd Brestel, Bend, Oregon