The Hand of Another

To hold the hand of another,
To keep your head down and heart up,
You can pray this way,
You can work this way.
When a name is only a name,
And a smile a thousand crowns,
We weave our hearts together in toil,
To maybe weave our lives closer to God,
We reach for the hand that is silent,
The one whose voice could not carry,
The one locked in the prison of imperfect,
Where nothing makes sense in the dark.
But when a hand reaches for another,
The magic is passed by a squeeze and smile
And whispers a hope, “I’ll stay a while.”
When hearts beat to the same rhythm,
When the blood of humanness courses as one,
There is a comfort in that place,
A place where the Spirit sings,
A melody that makes our spirits glad,
If even for a moment, the fragrance lingers on.
It reminds us softly like a dream,
Of a place we so want to call home.
So we work to keep moving,
We seek the straight path,
That leads us home if only for a while,
To the beginning and the end of all that is us,
Found in the hand of another,
The essence of infinite love,
Left as a promise to fill our lamps,
Trimmed for the day we leave imperfect behind,
And find our home where hearts beat as one.
The path home is marked by the hand of another…

Divine Tension: The Paradox That Isn’t

FOREWARD

A revealed truth that I must share: when a person submits to the Lordship of Christ and is filled with His Holy Spirit, an amazing array of tangible expressions of the Spirit emerge from that person; the Spirit of the living God expresses Himself through the individual in a song, a poem, an act of kindness or mercy, an utterance from on high, and many other manifestations. Writers express the love and promise of God in words, and to be exact, written words.  Occasionally, there occurs a synthesis of expression in words both written and spoken; these anomalies are few and far between. I happen to know a man of God who is indeed true to the phenomenon of said synthesis.  Pastor Dennis Sharp is blessed by grace to wield the sword of the Spirit while preaching, teaching, and writing.

The following article is not for the faint of heart. The offering on the table should be viewed as a platform, as a revealed Truth to explore, and as a foothold in the revealed knowledge of the pursuit of modern man wrestling with an acute and accurate definition of what a Christian is called to be in today’s ever clouding world. It is a foundation to be built upon.  Like a painter uses color, Pastor Den paints the picture for you with the sacred texts, he is expressly true to the veracity of Scripture, and he is unapologetically steadfast in defending biblical truths and a biblical worldview. The requirement for digesting such an offering, as the article that follows, is the desire to unwrap the gift. In order to unwrap this gift, one must have their Bible in hand, read slowly, and let the progression flow like a gently moving stream. For, to rush or to presume or to assume you “know where he is going” is a recipe for wasting your time. If however, you set aside the time, open the Book, and enjoy a cup of coffee over this deep well, I can assure you that this revealed truth will set in motion your own journey of discovery. And where the Spirit will lead you from there is unique to your eyes and to your ears.

The inspiration for inviting Pastor Den to share this with you came from a sermon series called “The Warrior Spirit”. In his introduction to Part Two, Dennis passionately and accurately builds a case for the spiritual understanding of divine tension.  All of us have asked the question, “How can we be meek, loving, and Christ-like servant-leaders and still function as a brave and bold warrior?”  Some would say, “We don’t need warriors, we need peace.” I would to that person and most assuredly offend them in doing so, reply, “You are not hearing what the Lord is saying through His Word.”  This seemingly “in your face” stance is the very thing that binds Pastor Den and I together like mortar in our theology and faith; we agree that in order to truly comprehend and recognize the voice of Scripture, you must know the entire spectrum of it. In other words, Scripture defines Scripture, there is a harmony that runs from front to back, and one cannot speak with any authority unless the Spirit has revealed it. The dual nature of revelation is the key: together, the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture and the inward interpretation by the same Spirit are both necessary; they are inextricably linked. Who better to interpret the holy than the Author?  Some think that just because they know the chorus or the “hook”, that they know the song! Like movements in a symphony, to truly experience the music requires digesting it from the beginning to the end and to allow the story to unfold. If we submit to this process, the effect will be one of unity…yes, I said it…unity! We can be led by the Spirit, but the Spirit will never lead us from the Scriptures, but rather lead us deeper still. So in final analysis, what we may expect from the following manuscript is that the nature of divine tension sings to us of a land where “either/or” is replaced with “both/and”, where if we allow ourselves to be swept into the song, we can see not paradoxes but rather different notes that harmoniously strike a melodious chord.

When Paul speaks of “renewing your mind” in the book of Romans, he is speaking of your intellect. We are healed by the process of sanctification and this sanctification must saturate all areas of our soul.  Pastor Den will stretch you intellectually, he will challenge your will to be status-quo, but most importantly, he will present to you an extraordinary gift and an opportunity to renew your thinking.  With the Spirit as guide, the path ahead promises a shift in your paradigm. Not all will appreciate the immense magnitude of wisdom contained herein, but the ones intended to be blessed will be blessed greatly.

For His Glory,

Gideon

Divine Tension: Being Empowered By The Spirit To Go To War!

By Pastor Dennis Sharp

There are times in the study of the Scriptures, that on first blush, different passages seem to contradict one another. For example, Psalms 7:11 says, “God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath,” but Ephesians 2:3-5 also tells us that although, “we were by nature deserving of wrath … because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” Unless one is willing to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, to hear the whole counsel of Scripture and then to rightly divide the word of truth, it would be easy to become confused or to end up in heresy. Is God a God of wrath or a God of mercy? The simple answer is “Yes!” If we recognize and accept that both pieces are true and exist in divine tension with one another, then we can begin to make sense out of it. God is a righteous judge and He clearly displayed His wrath against sin at the cross of Christ. We were dead in our transgressions, separated from God, and deserving of wrath, but God, who is also rich in mercy, took that wrath against sin upon Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. God’s character qualities as “the righteous judge … who displays wrath,” and God, “who is rich in mercy,” were both displayed at the same time. He is both just and the One who, in mercy, justifies. Divine tension is not comfortable for we mere mortals (we tend to want things clearly labeled and pigeon-holed), but we live in the time of the “now” and “not yet” Kingdom of God. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be” (1 John 3:2 NKJV). This is the nature of divine tension.

In like manner, there’s another piece of divine tension that I want to explore more fully in this article. Paul enjoins his readers in Philippi to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus … he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant,” but the same Paul uses a very militaristic metaphor throughout much of his writings, especially his letter to the Ephesians, to describe the ongoing struggle of Christianity against the dark spiritual forces of this world. How do we hold these two seemingly contradictory truths in tension and come to the real overarching message to the Church?  How do we maintain the meek, loving, servant heart of Jesus and at the same time respond to the call to arm ourselves for battle and to stand against the wiles of the devil? It will be necessary to examine two separate passages and to hold them in juxtaposition, in order to see that instead of contrast or conflict, there is an amazing harmony.

 

TEXT 1: ²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel ²⁸ without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. ²⁹ For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, ³⁰ since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 1:27-2:11).

It will help us to understand Paul’s message to the Philippians if we know some of the background material to this text (we’ll do the same thing for our other text as well). Paul is in prison in Rome (around A.D. 62, Nero is the reigning emperor) and knows that it is possible that he could be executed, although by faith, he fully expects to live for a while longer (see 1:20-26). This church has been involved with Paul and his ministry since he first preached there (see Philippians 4). The Philippians know by personal observation the way that Paul has suffered for the sake of the Gospel (Philippians 1:30; Acts 16), that he is now in prison for preaching (Philippians 1:7,13,14,17), and they are perhaps in danger of violent persecution themselves (Philippians 1:29). What are some of the lessons and/or principles that we might pull out for today?

• Whatever happens, including persecution, we must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.
• We must stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one, without being frightened.
• We too may have been counted worthy to suffer for the cross, if so, God will give us the grace we need for that in that moment. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
• If we have any encouragement from being united with Christ, any comfort from His love, any fellowship in the Spirit or any tenderness and compassion; we are to have the same love and be united in spirit and mind. Contextually, this is particularly true in light of persecution or the threat of persecution.
• We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition, rather value others above ourselves.
• We are to look to each other’s interest, not just our own.
• We are to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus – He made Himself nothing, rather He humbled Himself by becoming obedient.

TEXT 2: ¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Instructions for Christian Households

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ … (Paul then gives several specific examples of what right relationships should look like – wives & husbands, children & parents and slaves & masters, before his call to arms) …

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should (Ephesians 5:15-6:20).

Ephesians was also a prison letter, written during the same 2-year period as Philippians, but most conservative scholars place it a bit earlier during the imprisonment (A.D. 60-61). Ephesus was a major metropolis and the capitol of the Roman province of Asia. Paul said he had “fought wild beasts in Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Not only was there demonic activity, witchcraft and idol worship there (Acts 19), but the Nicolaitans heresy also assailed this church. To their credit they resisted it fiercely (Revelation 2).

• We are to be careful how we live and make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
• We are to be filled with the Spirit, sing and make music to God and be thankful.
• We are to be rightly related to one another.
• We are in a struggle, not with flesh and blood but with spiritual forces.
• We are to meet this fight head on; we are to take a stand!
• We are to pray in the Spirit, for all the Lord’s people, especially for those who are called to proclaim the Gospel.

SYNTHESIS:

• First, it needs to be pointed out that in Philippians it is in our “relationships with one another” that we are to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” In Ephesians we are to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” The Church needs to fix how we treat one another. We will never consistently win an audience with the lost if we treat each other as competitors, or worse yet, as combatants. It is imperative that we love one another and come to unity around the Lordship of Christ, the authority of Scriptures, and the core essentials of the Gospel.
• The Philippians are expecting more persecution. They know Paul is already in jail for preaching the Gospel and that it has been “granted” to them to suffer for Christ and go through the same things they saw Paul enduring (Philippians 1:29-30). The Ephesians are living in “evil days,” and are already in the struggle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Is it possible that we might be “granted” to suffer for Christ? Should we not already be in the struggle against spiritual evil?
•  The Philippians were to stand firm in the Spirit and strive for the faith. That sounds amazing like what the Ephesians are to do: “be filled with the Spirit” and “take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
• The proclamation of the Gospel is an important factor in both passages. The Philippians were to “conduct [themselves] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” They were to strive “together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose [them].” The Ephesians were to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” and to pray for Paul that he would “fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.”

CONCLUSIONS:

• Christians everywhere and at all times are to clothe themselves in humility and have a servants heart, especially toward one another. We are to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,” but should keep in mind that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We don’t assail people, but instead, we assail untruths.
• We must recognize that we are in an ongoing spiritual battle, one in which we must take a stand, but “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” Instead we are “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” “In humility [we] value others above” ourselves. We are willing to suffer loss in order to promote the Gospel.
• We do warfare “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” not against those we hope to reach with the Gospel. We must “fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,” by sharing that Jesus is Lord.
• The Church needs to present, as much as is possible, a united front to the world. Unless it is concerning the Lordship of Christ, the core essentials of the Gospel, or the authority and veracity of Scriptures, we should have our theological debates with one another privately.
  

  It’s here, in our dealings with fellow Christians, more than any place else, that we should demonstrate the loving servant heart of Jesus.

• The Church is obliged to take a stand against the darkness of this world. We are not to demonstrate the warrior’s spirit against one another, but instead, we are to “fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,” and  “without being frightened in any way by those who oppose [us].”

Jesus’ model was that He boldly presented the truth, counter to everything in His culture, and they were amazed at His teaching because He spoke “as one having authority.” He confronted the religious leadership in their error. He absolutely assailed the traditions of men, and He demonstrated no fear in the face of physical assault by the secular authorities. In His actions He demonstrated humility and love, a servants heart. He died in obedience to the Father’s will. We are empowered by the Spirit to do battle in the Kingdom. What does that look like? We boldly and fearlessly proclaim the truth even if it’s counter to our culture. We confront religious error and the traditions of men. We demonstrate humility and love and a servant’s heart. In short, we bear witness to Jesus.

As per Pastor Dennis Sharp, I must end this post with the following tag:
“To Be Continued…” Good for us!

Playing Chess With God

This is a story of faith, chess, being 12 years old, Hebrews 11, and the greatest teacher in the world.  Warning: this post is over 5000 words…more like a short story really. I think you will find it worth the effort if you give it a go.  Be blessed,,,

On my way home this morning after my Tuesday morning group Bible study, I began to see a beautiful truth in the world. Maybe the thoughts were driven by the chapter we studied this morning, maybe it was by mere whim, and maybe the Lord was trying to say something to me, but nevertheless a picture opened up to me that I just have to share.
We are systematically studying the book of Exodus, chapter by chapter; and this morning we discussed chapter 19 of Exodus. Each person in this particular Bible class is expected or at least encouraged to study the material and then to share their thoughts and revelation. Last night, as I studied the chapter, I chose to use my William McDonald Old Testament commentary to see what he had to say. There in the middle of Exodus 19 and 20 (if you are not familiar with these chapters, 19 is YHWH calling Moses to the top of Mt. Sinai to gain audience with His people and chapter 20 is the giving of the Ten Commandments), was a commentary on the different dispensations recorded in the Bible. Dispensations are, by definition, the different ways in which God deals with man. The two most obvious are the Dispensation of the Law recorded in the Old Testament and the Dispensation of Grace (sometimes called the “Church Age”) recorded in the New Testament. A good case can be made for many other dispensations as well, but that is not what this post is about. I encourage any Bible student to briefly read a Christian commentary concerning the dispensations because it is actually quite beautiful and can put our present time into a more acute and clarifying light.
As our class evolved this morning, there seemed to be some tension in the class. Although one would think this a negative thing, on the contrary, in this class love abounds and viewpoints are encouraged and embraced. But the issue that I brought up was that if we don’t see the different ways in which God deals with man and to whom God is addressing, we are tempted to superimpose what is recorded in Scripture falsely on our present generation. In one dispensation, God clearly restricts the diet but in the current dispensation, Jesus says all food is good to eat. In the Old Testament, God commands the destruction of the enemy and then Jesus tells us to love our enemies. In Ezra, God commands His people to “put away” foreign wives, but Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians not to do so! All that to say: God doesn’t change…but His methods DO change. I compared it to Play-Doh…I know, brilliant right?! If you take all the colors of clay and mix them together, they always end up dark grey. However, if you combine the colors without mixing them together, you can create colorful images. The same applies to Scripture: if you understand the different dispensations recorded in the Bible, then you see all the colors and the unity is breathtaking; however, many today will disregard the dispensational context as well as the intended audience and what you end up with is confusing. Either you end up with a muddled dark grey or you end up with a salad bar of Biblical understanding. It’s like a believer coming to the “salad bar” of Scripture and building a salad out of grace as the lettuce, add a little dietary restriction of cheese, sprinkle with the boiled egg of the Abrahamic blessing, and finish off with the ranch dressing of Pauline restriction of women speaking in church. Viola! A salad bar to fit my “cut and paste” version of Christianity!
On the way home, I reflected upon what some others had said about God being in charge and knowing full well what the final outcome would be. Someone pointed out that in the first utterances from God in Exodus 19, that the word “if” preceded the promise: “Now therefore, IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” I then pointed out that the “if” never happened! Did God make a mistake? Did God, on purpose, set up a system in the Law that no one could keep? What’s really going on here, and why would God set up a system that doomed all to failure? As most mature Christians know, the answer is found in the New Covenant, and especially dealt with beautifully in the Book of Hebrews. As I dropped a friend from the class off at his home, I remembered my propensity for playing chess as a young man, and then the Lord showed me a great lesson by reflecting back on the game of chess and how it is played; in fact, He took me back to the state championship chess game that I played way back when Hall and Oats were still cool (if you don’t know who Hall and Oats are…ignorance is indeed bliss!).
When I entered the 7th grade, I was blessed to have what I consider to be one of the best teachers to ever have taught school. Mr. Davis was awesome! Mr. Davis had Muscular Sclerosis. Mr. Davis made learning fun. He made everything into a game and learning came almost as an indirect result of playing. How he pulled this off, I haven’t a clue, but when you can hardly wait to get to school, something must be working! Mr. Davis was an eccentric man to be sure and his ability to make learning fun literally changed my life and the way I approached teaching and the rearing of my children as well. Without going into too much detail let me give you a quick spin around the block: he had a room dedicated to the Cincinnati Reds and this room was so awesome it was actually featured on “Wide World of Sports” (this was a TV show back before cable and therefore ESPN), we often broke into teams and competed for classroom glory in every subject (this would be politically incorrect today!), if we finished our work early we would often play games (one of these games featured us pitching a small inflatable ball into a garbage can that would be set past Mr. Davis’ wheelchair, and the object was to land the ball in the can without him hitting it like Mickey Mantle with his cane…awesome), and if we all made a “B” or higher on our tests as a whole, then we would “buck the system” and go outside to play…we were the envy of all the school. When confronted about his unorthodox approach, he would always point to how ridiculously high all his class would score on standardized tests; the proof was in the pudding to be sure! I loved Mr. Davis and I know he loved me as well. How often can we say that about our teachers in complete confidence? Anyway, this brings me to the story.
I was gifted by the Lord with intelligence; I didn’t earn it, I didn’t deserve it, I simply was born with a genetic disposition to think a little quicker than most. I am not “puffed up” about this gift, for as we all know, every blessing comes with a set of curses! Anyway, Mr. Davis figured this out in the second week of class. Out of the blue, Mr. Davis set a challenge before the entire 7th Grade class; the challenge: memorize the entire 11th chapter of Hebrews in one night and recite it the following day. The reward for completion of this task was a day off from school! As I flipped my Bible over to Hebrews 11, I was stunned by the mere length of the chapter; “What a ridiculously long chapter”, I thought to myself and chalked it up to a silly, if not impossible, challenge.
At that time in my life, I had discovered the joy of fishing. As a young boy, there were precious few things that lit my fire like catching a fish on the other end of a line; I mean, I literally daydreamed and fantasized about landing the “big one” and parading through the streets with my prize with the soundtrack of “Rocky” blaring as my theme song as I acknowledged the bows of the people to my greatness with a nod. I had recently been granted permission to go by myself to fish in a pond we named “Frog Pond”. Because both my parents worked and I had a younger brother and sister, my parents rarely gave me permission to go anywhere by myself. But recently to appease my incessant begging and pleading and a few tears, they succumbed to my request. The only caveat was that someone had to be home with the younger siblings to facilitate my exit to Frog Pond. So the only occasion I had to fish was either when my parents were home or when my two younger siblings were at Granny and Pa’s. As I rode the bus home the day the challenge was presented to memorize an entire chapter in Hebrews, I waxed on the idea of actually having a day off from school: both my siblings would be at school and therefore, I would have the whole day to myself to fish!!! Praise God! That would be epic. By the time I stepped off of the bus with my brother and sister in tow, resolve had washed over my being; the stern face of a man readied to do battle was painted across my face and “The Eye of the Tiger” was playing in my head.
That night I stayed up until midnight under my blanket with a flashlight, reading and memorizing Hebrews 11. I yawned, I cursed, I cried, I fought off doubt and worry, and ultimately I was able to recite the entire chapter and fell asleep. The next morning, I could only recite about 8 or 9 verses, so I had a panic attack and began to study the chapter again. I studied as I ate breakfast, I studied as I brushed my teeth, I studied on the bus, and I walked into the classroom with my Bible open to Hebrews 11. When the bell had rung, Mr. Davis got out of his wheelchair and labored his way around the room with his cane looking at each person and not saying a word. Some giggles erupted here and there because Mr. Davis was a talkative and fun man but right now he was either really serious or really faking this somber aura. He finished his survey of the class, looking each student in the eye and asked if there were anyone ready to meet the challenge and recite Hebrews 11. I was still “cramming” and closing my eyes to try to recite it in my head when I heard a couple of people accept the challenge. Only three raised their hand (I was not one of them) and accepted the invitation to come to the front of the class and give it a go. The first boy stumbled right out of the gate and was toast almost immediately; it was actually quite pitiful and I felt bad for him; however, you have to give him an “A” for effort because 90% of the class didn’t even try! The second boy got up and actually did an outstanding job with what he quoted; unfortunately, he left out a huge section in the middle. The next and seemingly last person to try was Debbie. Now Debbie was the smart one, the anointed one, the rich and intelligent girl whose dad owned the car dealership, the one everyone else expected to prevail in the challenge; but alas, even Debbie got buggered about three-quarters of the way through and couldn’t find her way back to where she had stumbled. All had failed, but now that I saw that people had at least tried, that gave me courage to attempt the impossible. Heck, if Debbie couldn’t do it then the pressure is off completely! I raised my hand and Mr. Davis smiled as I awkwardly shuffled to the front of the class with my head down (I was incredibly shy by the way…almost to the point of terror).
I had tried to memorize Hebrews by the words and failed, I had tried to memorize it by the first phrase in each verse and failed, I had tried to find key names in each verse to remember it and failed; it wasn’t until I associated the verse with the actual person being written about that I was able to put it all together. So as I stood before the class, instead of freaking out about the length of the chapter, I focused on telling the story of these famous men of faith. I glided through the recitation like I had written it! If flowed like a gently moving stream and the initial tendency to rush and get through it was suppressed and it just came out. The class was stunned. I was stunned. When I completed the recitation, the class was silent and I looked over at Mr. Davis to see the surprise on his face. He didn’t speak for what seemed to be a long while. Slowly a grin began to curl his lips; he looked down to his open Bible, and calmly spoke the verdict, “Well, that was a fine attempt indeed! However, in verse 14, you left out the word “the”, but besides that error…it was perfect!” The class looked at him, looked at me, looked at each other, then back to Mr. Davis as if to say, “Well, was that good enough?” And as if to answer the unspoken question, Mr. Davis apologized to me for not being “at liberty” to grant me the day off from school because “word-for-word” meant exactly what he had said. I was disappointed, but I felt somewhat like a martyr! After class, many of my classmates came up to me and patted me on the back expressing the unfairness of it all and complimenting me on the valiant attempt…I had become somewhat of a hero, and that eased the sting a bit!
After that day, Mr. Davis had adopted me as a bonified “teacher’s pet”. I was among a few others in the class that he nurtured on an individual basis. I know in today’s world this is frowned upon and I totally understand why, but nevertheless, Mr. Davis became a mentor, friend, and a father-figure to me. I always finished early when tests were taken. On one particular occasion, Mr. Davis saw me sitting in my chair quite bored because I had finished 30 minutes early on a science test. He caught my eye and motioned with his trademark stiff finger to come to his desk. As I sat down in front of him, he reached into one of his drawers and garnished a chess board. I will never forget that chess board, mainly, because the white and black squares were replaced with brown and white deer pelt. I loved the feel of the squares and it fascinated me. He then asked me if I knew how to play, and I responded by telling him that my dad had taught me the basics. The first game we played lasted all of about 1 minute as he pulled the ole’ “four move” on me! Those not familiar with chess would not understand this phrase, but suffice it to say, there is a way to defeat your opponent in four quick moves and every person who learns to play chess will be defeated exactly once in this fashion. For, to be humiliated in this manner leaves a lasting impression and you recognize the sequence any other time it is attempted. So this is how Mr. Davis introduced me to the game of chess.
Every day for the rest of the school year, Mr. Davis and I played chess at every opportunity. He was quite my superior, so why he never got bored with it always escaped me. I thought he was deriving enjoyment from my humiliation until one day he decided to give me some pointers and advice. This was the beginning of an incredible journey in my little life. I started getting better and better. He gave me a book on chess that outlined move-for-move some of the greatest chess matches in history and I studied it like a substitute Bible! I improved rapidly and the fruit of playing daily with Mr. Davis led to me being able to beat my dad, then able to beat my grandfather (he never forgave me for getting better than he…grandfather was proud of his chess prowess and rarely if ever had lost), and ultimately beating the mentor, Mr. Davis himself. I was not the only one that Mr. Davis mentored in the game of chess; my best friend Aaron also learned a lot from him (Aaron started out much better than me initially because his father played with him on a regular basis). Eventually, the chess game between either myself and Mr. Davis or Aaron and Mr. Davis, was replaced by matches played between Aaron and me. Mr. Davis was content by the end of the school year to simply watch us play and gloat in his brilliance of tutoring two little chess masters!
In the last six weeks of school, the announcement was made that the annual TSSAA school competition was quickly approaching. Every teacher was to pick one or two students in each representative subject to compete at the state level. Surprise, surprise, there was a category for chess! In the chess category however, two places would be filled by an elimination process; the chess competition was not grade against grade like the other categories but rather only two representative students from the entire middle-school. Aaron and I were at a disadvantage in that we were the “young-guns”, but because of the mentoring of Mr. Davis, Aaron and I completely obliterated the competition at our middle-school. In fact, Aaron actually pulled off the “four-move” on a guy that actually sent the poor chap into a fit of tears! We had two weeks to prepare for the district. Aaron and I dominated the district and between the two of us, we had a perfect record with no losses. Two weeks later, the state championship arrived. I remember the day after lunch that Mr. Davis sat Aaron and me down for a heart to heart and gave his best impression of a Vince Lombardi speech that swirled with testosterone and quotes about courage and preparedness. That was the moment of clarity for me. I realized that Mr. Davis had been preparing both of us for this moment. Had Mr. Davis just come out and said, “Hey, I want to prepare a couple of students for the state championship chess competition…any volunteers?” then he would know that no one would be up for the task! Brilliant! I think back at all the times he gradually and lovingly brought us along unbeknownst to us as to his grand scheme. But here we were on the precipice of greatness quite by no foreknowledge on our part. Just as a side-note here: doesn’t God do this with us throughout our lives? Doesn’t He know what he is doing with or without our knowledge of the road ahead? You betcha!
So now my story is coming full-circle. Here is how the championship went down. The competition is set up in two brackets, just like a basketball tournament. You win, you move to the next match; you lose, you go home. No double-elimination, only one game at a time and the outcome determines who stays and who sits to watch. No pressure here! Unfortunately, Aaron and I, in a blind draw, ended up on the same side of the bracket. We both played well and made it to the semi-final match. The problem was that the semi-final match was a match between the two of us…that sucked! I beat Aaron, but it was a hard fought match and came down to the final pieces on the board. Aaron was a gracious loser and wished me luck in the final match (by the way, Aaron beat me in the next game we played which so happened to be on the way back from the competition!).
My side of the bracket finished early and so I was able to watch two matches on the other side of the bracket. The guy I knew I would be playing was really, really, really good! He was in a wheelchair and despite the wheelchair, was mean as a snake on the chessboard. He showed no mercy and seemed to almost play around with his competitors like the way a cat plays with its prey before devouring it. He was so dominant; he seemed amused at the competition and really didn’t take the person across from him very seriously. The two games I watched him play made me extremely nervous because he was relentless; he beat his opponent down early and made them suffer until they either resigned or prolonged the inevitable “check-mate”. I had already begun to formulate a strategy for his aggressive play, but was unsure as to whether he would fall into my trap or spot it in a heartbeat. I realized I would have to “sell” my ineptitude as a foe and put him into his comfort zone of overconfidence. This kid had won the state the previous two years, so he was accustomed to being the champion, and by the level of his play, he had every reason to assume that there were no real threats out there…especially from a younger player.
I must take a moment for my readers and explain at least the basics of competitive chess. Chess is a game of strategy…obviously. Each piece has its own abilities but is limited as to how they can move. For instance, a pawn can move only one space at a time (except it can move two spaces forward if it is its first move), a bishop can move only diagonally, a knight moves one space linearly and one space diagonally, etc. Each piece, based on their ability to move is assigned a value: a pawn is worth one point, a bishop three points, a rook five points, etc. The match is timed so if you dilly-dally, the game will end if it is “timed-out” and the person with the most points wins. This, however, rarely happens; most games end with a move called “check-mate”. Check-mate is where the king has nowhere else to move and the game ends. The only other way to end a game is if the opponent knows he has no way out and resigns by tipping his king over. Also, one must realize that chess is a game of control. One of the advantages that can be gained is control of the empty squares by having pieces in place that are in “striking distance” and therefore control that space. The most important part of chess by far is your ability to see ahead, the ability to predict moves well in advance. Some of the best players on the planet can see up-teen moves in advance. In playing a good opponent, you can predict with a little effort what the opponent is trying to do, plan for his next move, and make your own move accordingly. It is a battle, in essence, of the future! Taking a piece is not the real objective; the real objective is taking a piece 10 or so moves in the future. The game of chess is arguably the most challenging and rewarding games known to humans, but it can take a lifetime to compete on the upper levels for obvious reasons.
As I sat across from my opponent, I decided about 20 moves into the match, to start acting like a dope. The first moves in chess are about jockeying for control of the center of the board. Not a lot of “action” takes place early on, at least to the casual observer. And then the next phase ensues; the next phase is generally known as the “exchanging of pieces”. This part of the game is where the armies basically clash, like advancing troops eventually must start trading blows. Here is where I made my strategical move. I had started out with one of my favorite opening sequences called the “stonewall attack”; the stonewall attack is a very radical opening in that it breaks normal protocol. Normal protocol is to try to control the center of the board, kind of like getting the center square in tic-tac-toe. But the “stonewall attack” leaves the center of the board open for the opponent and forces all action to one side, in this case the right side from my vantage point. The stonewall attack doesn’t look like an attack at all; it looks completely defensive in one aspect and looks silly in another aspect. Your opponent has to pay attention to not only their center attack, but also has to be aware of this unorthodox side attack; basically, it causes them to have to fight on two fronts instead of one. At some point, my opponent broke through my line of defense and began to destroy my back line. The back line is where a lot of powerful pieces are left until the end-game and protect the king. I pretended to be helpless and protested verbally about the lashing I was taking. I pretended to retreat and defend, but really what I was doing was preparing for just one move…that’s right..JUST ONE MOVE. From observing the board, everyone around watching just knew I was doomed. I was “bleeding” as they say and was losing all my powerful pieces systematically. My opponent was ripping me apart and the only saving grace for me was that I had my queen left. The queen is the most powerful piece on the board.
My opponent had one weak spot. He had one soft spot on his back row, and I had my eye on it. He was so busy beating the crap out of me, he never took the time to sure up his defense because up until the final move of the game…he didn’t need a defense! He could see victory and was three moves away in his eyes from checkmate! Two things happened that he perceived as victory, and that I perceived as his last two moves. He put me in check and I had to sacrifice my queen to protect my king. Everyone standing behind me let out an audible groan of disappointment. He was now one move from victory. However, in a move that caught everyone by surprise, I reached to the other side of the board, relishing the moment I might add, and slowly moved a lonely rook down the side of the board all the way to his back row where his king was not only exposed but trapped and said the sweetest words in chess…CHECKMATE!!!!
The crowd around was stunned, even Mr. Davis didn’t see that coming, and my opponent was in absolute shock. He was so busy ripping me a new one and underestimating me and assuming I was not his equal (which in reality…I wasn’t!) that he left himself exposed. You see, I let him get the upper hand, I let him get overconfident, I let him see me squirm, and I let him have his little victories in battle; but all I wanted was to make that one move to win the war. So on that day I walked away in victory much to the surprise of all who attended. I had used another person’s strength and used it against him. So who really gives a flying rat’s behind? What does this whole story have to do with playing chess with God? So glad you asked!
When we look around the world today and assess the situation, we see defeat in so many areas of life. We can’t comprehend God’s strategy and think in advance the way He does. We must truly remember what the Bible says about God knowing the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. His ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts! He sees the next move of the enemy, predicts the enemy’s move, and has already planned His next move. Don’t you think Satan felt pride well up within himself when he convinced Adam and Eve to sin? Don’t you think Satan boasted about the train-wreck of the nation of Israel? Don’t you think that Satan and all his angels had an epic party when they nailed Christ to the cross and Jesus took his last breath? And even now, don’t you think Satan is laughing at the Church in its plethora of weaknesses? But you see, God knows what the future holds, He has already seen many moves down the line, and He has victory in His hands! Maybe you are a pawn or a bishop or a rook; we know there is a “cloud of witnesses” of people who have given up their time on the chessboard of life and are sitting on the sidelines cheering for the pieces still in play. Just like all those men and women of faith in Hebrews 11, they trusted God for the end-game, they walked in faith believing that God knew what he was doing, and they gave their lives looking forward to a hope that would not be seen in their own generation. Using the metaphor of a chess game, they willingly “took one for the team” and allowed God to use them to forward the grand plan of redemption.  We must understand and accept and rejoice in the fact that God ultimately wins this cosmic game of chess and we all share in this victory! But we must also understand that the only reason God has to play the enemy is for the salvation of the ones He loves! He is right this minute in essence “extracting” sons of God from the wickedness of this world. I can assure you, this is no easy task and there are casualties of war. In fact, we must come to terms that He has asked us to help in this battle to be His representatives on the chessboard of our generation! So we need to live in victory and comprehend that our God is doing this for us and for the redemption of His creation. Don’t lose heart and don’t be blinded by the seeming massacre all around us. God has already made THAT ONE MOVE with the astounding victory of Jesus Christ. But Satan will not resign, he will not lie down, and he wants to take as many pieces from God as he can. So don’t lose heart in this battle, because we should all know it is foolish to be playing chess with God…

The Perfect Storm

Sermon Notes 01-18-2013
Introduction:
The issue I want to address today is the following question: What type of metamorphosis must take place to transform a person from a weak human to a powerful instrument of God? In other words, how do we move from doubt, fear, worry and weakness to faith, hope, love, and power? The only reason I bring this question to the surface is that the Bible is absolutely chocked full of promises of living in victory, living in power, walking in full authority over the kingdom of darkness, and the promise of a new life in Christ. But as I look around the church today, I see a great rift between what the Bible says and how that manifests itself in God’s children. If we believe the Bible and know that it is true, why do we stumble around in weakness, fear, doubt, and an obvious lack of power? We must be doing something wrong! For every book in the New Testament speaks of a life full of faith, a glorious body and bride of Christ and a life defined by Paul as a “new creation” or the “new man”. Let us look at one of Jesus’ disciples and see if we can pinpoint the difference between living a natural, human life and living a supernatural, spiritual life. Let us examine the pages of Scripture and let it speak to us today.
A. Peter’s Weakness:
1. Turn to Matthew 14:22-33 (the account of Peter attempting to walk on water) and read. There is so much truth just oozing from the pages of this text, but I want to focus on just one aspect. Notice Peter’s initial faith in Christ: he trusted Jesus enough to take a step out of the boat. But shortly thereafter, He began to sink because of doubt. Now I have heard, and I’m sure you have heard as well, many preachers take this passage and teach about “keeping your eyes on Jesus”, but I want to approach this from a different angle altogether.
2. How many times do we think to ourselves, “If only Jesus would intervene in my situation, everything would be resolved”? There is a deep truth here if we allow the Holy Spirit to speak into the depths of our hearts. Think about it for a minute: Jesus was right there. Peter didn’t have to go looking for Him. Jesus was standing right in front of Peter and yet that just wasn’t enough! You would think with all of the miracles Christ had performed before Peter’s own eyes that Peter would have enough faith to move mountain ranges! We must not ignore the fact that there was a storm raging around the boat and all around Peter as he attempted to walk on water and imitate Jesus. When Peter saw that the sea was raging around him, he took his eyes off of Jesus and must have thought to himself, “What were you thinking?!” You see, even with Jesus right there, Peter did not possess enough faith to continue. We must ask ourselves, “Are we just like Peter?” Haven’t we seen God’s glorious work in our lives, in the world, and in His church? Why do we doubt? Is the distraction of life’s problems just too much to keep focused on following our Shepherd?
3. Now, let’s go to another piece of Scripture. Turn with me to Matthew 26:30-35. After reading this passage let us turn the page to Matthew 26:69-75 (The account of Peter first proclaiming to follow Christ anywhere…including death and the subsequent denial of Christ by Peter). Even with the best of intentions and a committed heart, Peter was powerless to defend himself against doubt and fear. This is astounding. Here we have what will be one of the greatest disciples to come out of the initial core of disciples. In fact, the entire church would be built on the rock of Peter’s confession and ministry according to Christ Himself. Why or how could Jesus be so sure that Peter would be the rock? I mean seriously, the guy can’t walk two steps without completely falling on his face! Not exactly a pillar of faith is he? How many times in our own lives have we confessed to God, “I swear I will never __________ again?!” How many times do we tell God, “I love You and will always follow you wherever You go”? At first glance and consideration, breaking these confessions and promises brings us to the awful atmosphere of guilt and shame. That really bothers us, but you know what? It doesn’t bother God! How can I say that? Because He knows that you and I are completely incapable of following Him and obeying Him and even keeping our promises. He knows we are powerless. What sad sacks we are! Now let us look at Peter’s redemption.
B. Peter’s Storm
1. If we think back to the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on water, we notice that the storm was boiling all around him. He in many ways was distracted by the storm and wasn’t able to create within himself enough faith to overcome the fear. Now, let us look at another storm Peter is about to be thrown into. The first storm was nothing compared to what Peter is about to confront!
2. After Christ walked out of the grave, He visited with His disciples and I’m sure they were absolutely amazed by this. But He wasn’t around for long, and He spoke to them of having to return to the Father. Let’s get inside of Peter’s situation for a minute. Jesus had recently had a sit-down with Peter and asked Peter if he really loved Him. Can you imagine the pain in Peter’s heart? Here he had not but a week earlier denied Christ three times after swearing that he would follow Jesus to death. Talk about guilt and shame! Now Jesus is questioning him face-to-face, “Peter, do you love Me?” Ouch! Peter must have been just bleeding on the inside, but guess what? Jesus knew Peter’s heart! Jesus invited Peter back into intimacy and friendship. But, just as Jesus had been taken from Peter by the Roman soldiers, He was about to leave Peter again. I’m sure that Peter’s heart was as heavy as any person’s heart in history could have been. But to top it off, Jesus threw Peter into a storm of all storms. Coupled with the guilt and shame of denial, Jesus begins to tell Peter of his future. In essence, Jesus tells Peter that he will die in the same manner as He did! Jesus, before the ascension, intimates to His disciple Peter that the future holds an awful death for him. In early Christian writing, we read that Peter was eventually crucified upside down. Can you imagine not only knowing how you would die, but that haunting thought sitting on you like a dark cloud? Surely, you would wake up every morning fearful of the grotesque way in which you would die; surely, every night before you put your head down on your pillow, you would be haunted by the thought of torture and a bloody death. It would surely plague your dreams, go with you wherever you went and stick to you like a bad smell. Jesus, in essence just cast Peter into the storm of all storms. The raging sea is nothing in comparison to a raging and fearful heart and soul! It is hard to imagine, but now you have the following ingredients: guilt, shame, knowing your future entails a painful death, and knowing that your best friend is about to leave you. Come on people! This is the worst situation possible…isn’t it? The only words left with Peter and the others are that they need to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. To be sure, Peter must have, at least in some capacity, wished he had drowned in the Sea of Galilee storm!
C. Peter’s Anointing
1. The Holy Spirit changed the whole situation and atmosphere. When Pentecost arrived and the Holy Spirit descended, it empowered every disciple in the Upper Room. What men were incapable of supplying, mainly, faith, power, and boldness, God supplied for them. The once weak, fearful Peter became bold and stood on a rooftop preaching the gospel loud and clear. Long gone was the fear of rejection, persecution, and even guilt. Peter before the baptism of the Holy Spirit was weak, but now filled with the Almighty Himself, Peter became the man God had always intended him to be. Can we not surmise logically, as well as scripturally, that it is impossible to be an effective Christian without the intimate connection with the Holy Spirit? The entire New Testament screams of this truth, but we walk through our lives still asking the obtuse questions of “Why can’t I ____________?” or “How can I _________?” or “When will God help me __________?” News Flash: YOU CAN’T OF YOUR OWN STRENGTH DO ANYTHING!!! The good news is that God can and will if you submit to the urging of Christ Himself to knock, seek, and ask for the Holy Spirit! Jesus made it as plain as day in His teachings that we are to live our lives through Him and in the Spirit. Why do we stop with the “sinner’s prayer”? Why do we stop at Christ? If we believe in Jesus and believe the Bible to be true, why do we not take His advice?! Jesus doesn’t want you to stop with forgiveness; Jesus wants us to walk in step with His Holy Spirit. To preach repentance and grace is primary, but to stop there is to preach half of a gospel. We are called to be a “new creation” and to walk in “newness of life” and these two mandates are impossible without the indwelling and intimate communion with the Holy Spirit. This is indeed the facts, the truth, and what Christ urges us to pursue. He said, “You will seek Me and not find Me”…He also adds to that statement, “But, when the Spirit of truth has come, He will lead you into all truths and reveal Me to you…” and He basically tells His disciples then and now that we are blessed that He can’t be found and has been seated at the Fathers’ right hand because He laid the path and conduit for “another Helper”, mainly, the Holy Spirit. He teaches us to have God beside you is a blessing, but to have God living within you is better!!! I heard Francis Chan once teach a profound foundational truth: We sometimes sit around and wax upon the notion of how cool it would have been to see God through Moses part the Red Sea or to see the fall of Jericho or wish we could have seen God lead the Israelites in the cloud and pillar of fire. Chan says he bets that Moses and Joshua and the other Old Testament patriarchs are probably sitting in Heaven waxing on what it would be like to live a life where God actually resided inside of you!
2. Looking at John 10:1-10, we see Christ describing Himself as a gate. The gospel was never intended to be the destination; the good news of Christ’s ministry is that it laid the foundation for an entry. How many of us stop at the gate but never enter? How many of us proclaim Christ, but never exercise the mandate that He gave? We stand at the gate and celebrate Christ’s life, and He is begging us to move past the gate so He can celebrate our lives! Why is this so hard a concept to grasp, I will never know. But I urge all who would hear this message, please finish what Jesus started. Salvation is wonderful, a promise of eternal life is awesome, but the gift is broader and deeper and longer than that…Jesus promises that if we surrender all to walk in the Kingdom, that we will have peace, love, joy, and power in the Holy Spirit. But we walk around defeated, leaning on a promise. Don’t lean on your belief in Christ; walk through the gate and into the “born again” life! Victory is yours, but you have to learn to walk this faith out by seeking a personal, intimate and intense relationship with God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit. It is real and waiting for you today. Don’t wait until you die physically to live out eternal life; eternal life is right here and right now. One of the Proverbs tells us that a hope afar off makes the heart sick…I don’t know about you but I don’t think Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to make our hearts sick until we die and go to heaven! C’mon people, wake up and realize that all the promises of the New Testament are based on a person walking in the Kingdom, in the newness of life, in the Spirit, and that all those promises hinge on not only accepting Christ’s sacrifice but accepting His invitation to really, really live! Peter found his salvation. Peter realized that simply knowing Jesus was not enough. Even having Christ right by his side was not enough. Jesus told His disciples, “There is so much more I would like to tell you, but you just wouldn’t understand…” BUT “When the Spirit comes…”, the game changes.
3. Walking in the Kingdom: It is so simple a recipe, most walk away believing it is too good to be true. Jesus tells us to knock, to ask, and to seek. We must ask for God’s Holy Spirit to be revealed to us, we must seek God in His Word and learn to listen to the “small, still voice”, and we must knock persistently at the door of the spiritual realm and know deep down that wisdom will come. It is just that simple; I promise. When all we want is God, when our deepest desire is to know Him personally and intimately, when everything we crave is His reality in our lives, God will answer that prayer! Or have you not heard that “God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” or that “God will reveal Himself to those who seek Him with all of their heart”? I took God up on His offer and my life has never been the same. Won’t you repent of your unbelief and ask God to open your spiritual eyes to see the kingdom as a present reality? Won’t you repent of putting limits on God and doubting His promises? Won’t you join me in this magnificent life of walking in the Spirit? What storms are you facing today? Is your life filled with anxiety and fear? Are you doubting the goodness of God or is your faith waivering? There’s a prayer for that!

Prayer: Oh heavenly Father, how awesome are Your ways and how deep is Your love for us! Who are we that You think on us and desire us? We are but weak and helpless children! Lord, You are so full of mercy and kindness and justice. And You are worthy to be glorified and praised and worshipped! Oh, Christ Jesus, our King and Savior, we love you and lift You up as the name above all names, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. God, we ask this day that you hear our cries of repentance. We repent of unbelief, we repent of settling for less than You intended for us, we repent of not walking in Your Spirit as You commanded us to do! Oh Father, do forgive us and hear our supplication. Jesus, our Intercessor, pray with us. Holy Spirit of God, help us to pray, for we know not even how to pray. Father, open our eyes to Your kingdom. Jesus, pray the Father with us to send His Holy Spirit to live within us and to reveal within us the reality of a true life, a blessed life of knowing You, and a life filled with You and You alone! Father, as Your children, we ask humbly for a new and fresh anointing of Your Holy Spirit and make our lives shine for Your glory. For it is Your kingdom, Your power, and for Your glory that we ask this prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen and amen.

The Heart of Revival

 

This article is a re-post from November of 2012; the original title was “The Church in America is Waking Up!”. I want to point out that all I expressed then is alive and well within me.  Although there is an ebb at present time, I have learned that God works best through ebbs and flows. One thing that caught me off-guard in reviewing this article is the inspired description of the heart of prayer. I really cannot take credit for the words that follow, they were recorded as the Spirit moved me. I was blessed by reviewing the article and hope you are blessed by reading it!

All across the nation, congregations of Christians have been coming together to pray and worship together.  The impetus for the gathering of Christians is the American election.  What is abundantly clear is that the church realizes that who is elected is of little importance.  The prayers are concentrated on pleading with God in intercession for our country.  The prayers are centered upon asking that Christ be placed above all of our denominations, above our politics, above our own agendas, and above our personal lives.  This is refreshing and is also a Biblical model.  This is a prayer of ownership: Ownership of our failings and ownership of our role as the “body of Christ”.  In order to be intercessors, we have set aside our denominations, our traditions, our race, our social status, and our pet doctrines; we have set all of it on the altar of God and asked Him to burn them up.  There is a surge for unity in the Church that I have never seen before.  There have been attempts in the past founded on the Scriptural mandate for unity, but never has the message of reconciliation reverberated so clearly and widespread!  There is a tangible hunger for unity and the call to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with one another as fellow children of God.  We have begun to see in Technicolor just how petty the walls that divide us truly are, how man-made and flawed these constructs are, and how detrimental the effects have been.

At some point, a clarion call was put out by many churches around not only America but also the world.  Nobody planned this.  The prayer initiatives seemed to come to fruition without any human effort.  From David’s Tent in Washington D.C., to the 40 Days of Prayer initiative, to a plethora of local movements, they all just appeared.  In fact, you can’t “swing a cat” without hitting an initiative for prayer and worship based on this theme!  The overwhelming theme is miraculously the same:  putting God first and everything human second.  Personally, I am involved in an initiative here in Knoxville, Tennessee called Gathering Knoxville.  The beauty of Gathering Knoxville is that we float from church to church, all denominations are invited and welcomed, and it is magnificent to stand united and just be together!  What I have seen and heard and participated in over the last month or so is quite frankly…amazing.  Amazing in so many ways, it will be difficult to express in words.  But I will try.

As a Christian, I know that Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies, Paul tells us to pray for our leaders, and God says that the “people called by His name” should humble themselves, pray, seek Him, and turn away from evil ways.  Here is the beauty within these Biblical statements:  when praying for anyone, it is impossible to harbor any ill-will toward that person (or institution).  We may start a prayer of this nature with the wrong heart, but it is impossible to progress through this type of prayer and still harbor those sinful feelings!  When we place God above all, including ourselves, He gives us a true heart of prayer.  You see things differently.  We sing, “Give us clean hands; give us pure hearts”.  He is willing and able to accomplish this request.  The kicker is that a pure heart is one of love.  You can’t hold onto grudges, pet doctrines, prejudices or offenses when you come from a heart of love.  All of a sudden, you begin to have your heart broken for what breaks His heart.  This is a profound moment.  When the Spirit of God descends onto an assembly of believers, He washes our eyes and lets us see with His eyes.  I cannot overstate how incredible and humbling this “new vision” is in its power.  What skeptics must understand is that we cannot do this ourselves by “mustering up” a loving heart.  When you stand in the presence of an almighty God, you become aware of your pettiness, you become cognitive of your absolute powerlessness, and you realize that the only way to have this heart of love is to have it given to you…you can’t earn it, you can’t fake it, and you can’t be spiritual enough.  It is by His hand only; we are incapable of such love.

What we can do is pray and worship.  The atmosphere changes when you take the emphasis off of your life, your church, your city, your state, your nation and your world.  Something incredible happens when we lift God to His rightful place.  It goes in line with the teaching of Christ when He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and all the rest will be added; if we place God alone in His rightful place on the throne of our individual hearts, He will add our families, our churches, our cities, our states, and our nation.  When people assemble together and focus on the beauty and majesty that is God and begin to implore Him for forgiveness and mercy, His glory falls on us like a drenching rain.  You cannot help but to be changed.  Sometimes the change is immediate and overwhelming; sometimes the change is subtle and incremental.  Regardless of how it happens, the fact is that it does happen…every time.  In a “normal” church service, there is about 20-25 minutes of worship, a few minutes dedicated to prayer, and a 30-45 minute sermon, followed by a closing prayer and/or worship song, and various forms of closing regimens.  I’m not trying to be critical here, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that what I have experienced over the last 30-40 days completely overshadows, in its power, what is “performed” all over America on a typical Sunday morning.  I think the power in these assemblies comes from the focus:  we focus on God, we focus on praying for everyone but ourselves, we focus on worshiping our Lord, the attention is squarely on God, and there is no mention of doctrine, no mention of Him blessing us personally, no mention of who is right and who is wrong.  When God is worshiped and He is addressed in a humble way, He hears us and bends His ear to our sincerity.

You know, selfish me wants to applaud this effort and pat myself on the back; selfish me would say to the whole of Christendom, “Hey, why aren’t you involved?  Why are you sitting at home and not joining this movement?”  But simply by attending these assemblies, I have become aware of my selfishness and pettiness.  Now, my attitude is simply this:  It breaks my heart that those not attending aren’t receiving the blessing they so desperately need!  Any Christian would readily admit that they want a closer walk with God.  We have survived (the best word choice) our lukewarmness and distance from our Lord’s heart, and many people are now seeking hard after an authentic relationship with their professed God.  In America, we have reduced God into a 250-page book, a 30-minute cable show, a once-a-week Sunday performance, an emotional worship song that plays on our favorite radio station, a 7-step plan for a blessed life, a YouTube video showing a “glory-cloud”, a big-haired preacher giving a motivational speech, and an ideal that, if we are honest with ourselves, is unattainable and quite frankly, self-absorbed.  Every believer wants to shout out the words of the father whose daughter was dying, “I believe….help my unbelief!”  The glaring problem here is that God wants desperately to answer our deep desire to know Him more.  He waits patiently for us to really turn towards Him.  In modern Christendom, there is an evil construct that has woven its way into our lives that we have become blind to.  The best way I can describe this evil construct is by this statement:  We have tried to fit God into our busy lives instead of searching out how to fit our lives into His!

So this prayer and worship initiative accomplishes a glorious task.  The effectiveness and beauty of this movement is that we are finally gathering together to fit our lives into His, we are imploring God to step in and steal the show, we are begging for forgiveness and mercy, and we are confessing to God and one another that we have been in reality worshiping our idol of religion and not the true God.  I can tell you this much, God is pleased!  God loves it when we throw in the towel; it blesses God when we finally trim the white flag and lift it over our heads in defeat; and God derives joy when He sees His children drenched in the tears of repentance.  Why does this bring Him joy?  Because now all the walls have been removed, all the hindrances are wiped away, every human construct is obliterated, and now He can truly bless His children.  You see, God wants desperately to bless us with His peace, love, joy and victory over the enemy, but we have blocked His blessing from coming because we have sunk to a whole new level of apathy, lack of love, lack of a true spirit of worship, and lack of sincerity.  I know it is hard to hear sometimes.  I don’t want to offend anyone out there.  But I do want Christians to wake up to what God is trying to speak.  God is a jealous God and desires intimacy with His people.  He could give a flying fig about how large your church is, how awesome your drummer is, how great your child-care center is, how much is tithed in the pretty plates…all He cares about is an intimate relationship with you and me.  An offshoot of this relationship is one of brotherly love.  By loving one another, we affectively love Him back!  I’m not sure why this fact alludes so many.  Only God knows what true love really is; He must fill us with that love, not to just make us feel loved, but so that we can share that love with others.  He fills us so we can fill others.  So you can take these facts and deduce the following:  if you do not love your brothers and sisters, then you do not love God!  Don’t shoot the messenger; if you don’t believe me, then you haven’t read the book of 1 John.

I know that what we are doing is what God wants.  I am convinced that this prayer and worship initiative is exactly what “the Doctor ordered”.  You might ask, “How are you so sure?”  I would point you to the evidence.  Hurricane Sandy just whipped into the Eastern seaboard.  Have you noticed the Christian response?  The response has been truck after truck of supplies, an outpouring of support and prayer, and a spirit of heart-felt sympathy.  This in and of itself is not unprecedented, but the lack of the “God is judging America” statement is conspicuously missing!  You see, there has been a change of paradigm.  The change is ownership.  It is less about “us” and “them” and more about “we”.  The church is starting to understand their roll in America:  we are her intercessors, we are the heart of the nation, and we are the ones responsible for covering our nation with love and prayer.  We are not here to make grand statements, we are not here to point fingers, and we were not called out to be the judge and jury.  This is “our” country…this is about the comprehension that your pain is my pain!  When one suffers, we all suffer.  When one is crying, we cry with you.  When one is celebrating, we all celebrate.  When one’s life is swept out to sea, we all lose a little of who we are.  Do you see the difference?  Last night, as we prayed for the nation, we began to pray for the people in the Northeast that are suffering.  As we prayed this prayer, people were crying, people were truly moved, and the supplication to God was REAL.  We were not going through the motions because we were sincerely hurting.  God broke our hearts for what breaks His.  This brings me full-circle to having a pure heart of love.  Again, we cannot produce this heart of love, even if we try awfully hard to achieve it.  It is a gift, an answer to a plea, and a divine outpouring.  “You receive not, because you ask not” and you “ask for the wrong things” are themes echoed in the book of James.  I can say with all confidence that if the people called by His name will humble themselves and pray for a pure heart of love by seeking Him and setting aside their own agendas…God WILL answer THAT prayer! (2 Chronicles 7:14) He will hear and He will heal the land; He always has and always will heal through love.  We as Christians must come to grips that love is HIS answer to the prayer of healing.  It starts with love, is nursed in love, comes to fruition by love, and ultimately ends in love.  GOD IS LOVE.  As His children, we are ambassadors of His love…nothing more, nothing less.

The process I have been witnessing is unprecedented in my lifetime.  The process is one of the Church being corporately willing to be broken, the realization that we as a body have been selfish and unloving, and the understanding that things MUST change…and that change starts with each person as an individual, accountable Christian.  The blame is not something to be doled out; the blame resides on each of us and compels us to take ownership of our personal failings.  From here it works its way outward to affect the family, then to the local congregation, then to the community, the city, the state, the nation, and ultimately the world.  To express all that I have learned would require a book, and I promise that book is forthcoming!  But I cannot write this book until the Author is finished writing the words on my heart.  I only know that this process is His timing and not my timing.  This much I know:  God is preparing us for an awesome move of His Spirit, God is laying the foundation with our hands, a revival to eclipse all revivals, and the “signs and wonders” are right around the corner!  For almost 4 years, He has burdened my heart with this message of a coming manifestation of His glory, and I am now beginning to see, hear, and taste just what this glory will be like.  In the book of Daniel, he speaks of a generation doing “great exploits”; I sense these exploits are an impending reality.  God is assembling a remnant right before my eyes and it is overwhelming to see the pieces fall into place.  The last 30-40 days of prayer and worship seeking to enthrone Christ in our hearts, our church, our city, states, and nation is the first step (the most important step in my opinion) in the right direction.  I simply cannot express the magnitude of what is happening this very moment in history.  I implore each person who reads this article to join the party!  Find a prayer initiative, take a weekend to saturate yourself in His presence with fellow Christians, or just open your heart and ask God where you can jump in.  It is to your benefit not to miss this time of refreshing.  If you don’t believe in such things, I challenge you to put my words to the test.  This generation has been chosen for a special and profound movement of His Spirit; don’t take my word for it, go and see for yourself!

So I will end this article with a final thought.  I have never in my life had this much hope in my heart!  I sense a people yearning for God’s intervention in their lives.  I sense that Christians are finally waking up to the fact that the status quo has been failing us.  I see people throwing themselves on the mercy of the Lord and asking Him to take control: take control of their lives, take control of His church, and take control of this nation.  The hearts of His people crave and hunger for His love and His attention!  We say “God loves you”, but dangerously few have ever experienced that love.  We want to be loved by Him and worship Him; He wants to express His love toward us but also demands that we share that love.  That is what we haven’t done; therein defines our failure as a Church.  The Church, or “body of Christ”, or the “bride of Christ” is called out to be His hands and feet and heart.  Without love it is all a sham.  Without love for one another, for our fellow countryman, for the ones suffering, for the ones that don’t agree with us, for the ones that hate us, then we are nothing more than another religion.  But, adorned in the love of Christ, we are a glorious, effective, powerful and lovely bride.  It is what we have been waiting for…it is what He has been waiting for…

The God of Our Misunderstanding

We are obsessed with creating a God of our own understanding. We superimpose our finite nature onto God’s infinite nature. One of the discoveries that we will make along the way is that we are “created in His image” and believe it or not, we can know God. The problem is that to really, truly know God, one has to allow Him to define Himself as opposed to us trying to define Him. If you just met someone and wanted to get to know them, would you allow them to define to you who they were? Or would you insist on defining them as you saw fit? Do you see how backwards this is? Even after knowing someone for a long time, there are certain things you will never know about that person until they share with you their heart. Most of us are ill-equipped at assessing people to begin with; we actually define them by how we see the world. We assume that because our perception shares at least some common ground, that we can empathize with others. This is a false premise. Getting to know someone requires a relationship, and part of a healthy relationship is sharing with one another our individual wants, needs, desires, and our personal version of “the world as I see it”. We are all guilty of assuming too much. And we play this awful game with God as well. We try to “see through His eyes”, we try to ascertain His motives, and we assume we can actually empathize with our Creator. We can end up frustrated and bitter through this exercise in futility.
Let me give you an example. I have had many business relationships. And one of those relationships was with a man who did not always do business in a morally ethical way. When we worked together, he always assumed I operated in the same manner as he. He, for whatever reason, assumed that everyone does business the way he did! So when certain scenarios would arise, he would assume my motives or particular method of handling situations were in error. This guy was unscrupulous, and he assumed I was just as unscrupulous. When I would tell him what my motives were, he would challenge my authenticity and honesty; this really upset me! He could never understand that some business people actually do tell the truth, but I could never convince him of this fact. We don’t do business together any longer. I tried in vain to explain to him the reasons and particulars of a certain decision I had made, but he just couldn’t believe that anyone would do such a thing! Sometimes in order to keep a client happy, I would work for free until a situation was resolved. He always assumed I was holding out on him and getting paid under the table behind his back. He would then accuse me of being unethical. I could never convince him that my eagerness to please a client and the protecting of my reputation was more important to me than money. It was like banging my head against a wall. Doesn’t that sound maddening? And yet we do this to each other all the time, and especially with God!
From the very beginning, man has tried to make an eternal and infinite being into a finite and limited being. We have tried in vain to fashion a likeness of Him, what the Bible calls idols. There is an inescapable propensity of man to make God into an image that we can understand. There are golden calves, totem poles, statues, edifices, giant cathedrals, animals, the sun, the moon, and everything in between. God really hates this; it is His pet-peeve if you will. God simply cannot be an icon! The Bible tells us that God is light, God is Spirit, and that God is unapproachable, but we ignore all of this and seek to create Him in an image. The most awful atrocity in this flawed endeavor is making ourselves God! Whether you believe in Satan or not, understand this: his eternal guilt is his desire to be equal with God. And whether you grasp the full heinousness of this crime or whether it escapes you, you must understand that modern man is on a fast-track of making himself out to be God. The elephant in the room is the notion that somehow man can save man, that man will one day build the tower of Babel and be equal with God, and that by building our empires of knowledge, scientific discovery, technological advancements, the uncovering of the human genome, our ability to manipulate our environment, and celebrating our own genius that we will someday approach God with our own efforts. It is the continuation of what started in the Garden of Eden. We are intoxicated with our own achievements, we applaud discovery as if we have done anything else but expose more of God’s majesty, and we act as if we control our own destiny. Think about it. Humanism is the disease of our generation.

Even in our most genuine efforts, we fashion kingdoms and religious counterfeits to replace an infinite God. God desperately loves us. God’s burning desire is to have fellowship with us. Above all else He has created, we are His supreme desire. He only wants you to know Him in a personal way, but there is a great gulf between us. After the fall of man, God has been in the business of healing this rift! We will deal with this issue in later chapters, but for now, suffice it to say, don’t ever doubt God’s love for man. One of Christ’s objectives was to eradicate our systems and restore fellowship with God. He stated in no uncertain terms that God wants a restored relationship with man, and man-made systems simply will not and cannot do. The only way back to fellowship with God is by God. He gave the solution to the problem despite our weaknesses and selfishness. Jesus came to change the game and announce a new covenant. In a very significant way, Jesus dismantled the religious systems and set out to allow us to know God spiritually. Not long after his return to heaven, we began to take the spiritual message of Christ and fashion it back to a religious system! It wasn’t 50 or so years after Christ’s departure that Paul records the cancer of religiosity, division, or what he refers to as carnal thinking. Early believers began to formulate idols once again in the form of systems. In the book of Galatians, Paul warns of the folly of taking the gospel and making it less spiritual and more religious. A sect of Judaism began to confront new converts telling them that in order to be right with God, they must not abandon certain parts of the Jewish religion; these people were called Judaizers. Other churches started “branding” their own form of Christianity, based on who baptized them! Notice the verses recorded in 1 Corinthians:
For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?…for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? (1 Corinthians 1:11-13 and 1 Corinthians 2:3-4)
We just can’t seem to help ourselves! In our quest to have a tangible God, we forsake the spiritual nature of God and make it less than. If we can’t feel it, taste it, smell it, and pass it through our lower intestine (this is a quote from a man named Ross Perot who ran for the presidency of the United States…classic), then we want to reject it. We have tried to fit God into our lives rather than allow ourselves to be fit into His!
One final note on this issue: when I began going to recovery meetings, I noticed a phrase in the “12 steps” that stated “a God of your understanding”. Many years prior, the steps used the word “God”, plain and simple. But in order to achieve the level of political correctness required for a mixed group of people to sit in the same room together, they changed it to “the God of your understanding”. After years of sitting in these meetings, I thought it appropriate to change it without anyone’s approval to “the God of our misunderstanding”! Pretty clever, eh? When a person is new to recovery, they (the group) don’t want to run that person off by subjecting them to a god they don’t understand and probably don’t believe in anyway. So in many ways, I understand the reasoning. In fact, I have seen many recover and find God starting from a ridiculous premise. The premise is this: that one must believe in a power greater than themselves, that that power can restore them to sanity and that you as an individual can define that power as you see fit. Many people would say, “It doesn’t matter what your ‘power greater than yourself ‘is, as long as you have one!” For instance, I actually heard some say that theirs was “the group” or “nature” or even “a doorknob” (I swear I’m not making this up!). What slapped me across the face one day was the realization that God doesn’t really care. I was offended that the people reaching out for help would not even recognize Whom was actually helping them. But God wasn’t offended. Eventually, through prayer, many found the healing hand of God, and these same people didn’t even know who or what they were praying to! We are so much more intolerant than God; we underestimate His patience. This is another example of us superimposing our finite reasoning on an infinite God. I thought God would find it repugnant to help someone who wouldn’t even acknowledge His helping hand, but alas, His love is much greater than I will ever comprehend. Sometimes as Christians we act like the bouncers at the door to the kingdom of God. We act like we know more than God. We assume that if it doesn’t fit within our paradigm of the “kingdom of God”, then it must be unacceptable to God. But if and when we start loving people the way God loves people, we will go to almost any lengths to help save them. We can learn to overlook the absurdities in life, we can learn to withstand the onslaught of an atheist’s vitriol, and we can suffer gladly knowing that in the long run, the only thing that matters is helping and saving a soul that God loves just as much as He loves you!
This is the conclusion of the second segment of Chapter One entitled “God Unplugged” from the book “A Life Unplugged”. If you missed the first section, click here to read “God’s Signature”. The final segment of Chapter One is now posted, just click here for Walking in the Rain. Be blessed my friends!

What God Honors In All People

I was listening to a Christian broadcast radio show this evening and it was one of those call-in shows, something like “Ask the Pastor”, where they took live phone calls and answered questions.  I was privy to an excellent Q&A started by a 10-year old boy.  The question went something like this:  Do angels have free will like men do?  And if God created angels to do his work, why did Satan turn away from God?

The pastor explained how angels and men have their own wills and can make choices on their own.  That Satan chose to try to elevate his glory to that of God’s.  And that God above all, honors choice.  The pastor referred back to scripture and explained that when Satan rebelled, that he took one-third of the angels in heaven.  Thus showing that angels indeed do have a choice…just like man has a choice.

This got me thinking.  Everything in creation is under the law of God.  His majesty is magnified in His creation.  The laws of physics, the laws of the universe, the laws of light and energy, the laws of life and all of its processes.  The only thing not under the law of God is choice.  And if you think about it, it is what makes choice valuable…to God!  The choice to love God is precious in His sight; if God had made us without the choice and we “automatically” loved God…then there is no intrinsic value in it for Him!  So our choice to love God, brings Him glory and is the supreme desire of His heart.  Do you believe that?

So the one power that we all have, even despite God’s omnipotence, is our choice.  Our choice to love God, our choice to seek His face, our choice to accept the sacrifice and resurrection of the Son of Man, our choice to forgive, our choice to live in the curse or live in the blessing.  God will not intervene in this extremely mysterious and powerful human affair.  God loves us so very much, that He has done everything that He possibly could do and can do to draw us to the choice of Him!  But He will not tread on your personal choices.  They are your choices and yours alone.  And God honors a persons right to choose…even to death…

I want people to understand this principle:  God created man to be not just another creation, but rather a prized creation!  He created us to fellowship with.  We are special…I don’t understand it…but we are His hearts desire.  That is ridiculously, overwhelmingly, unapproachably, and undeniably the most profound part of true wisdom.  Do you understand the incredible beauty in this fact?  Do you grasp the magnitude of this undeniable Truth?  The divine and eternal beauty of it is quite simply that the choice is His hearts desire.  Did you know that you personally can bless God?  We all know and read about God’s blessing us, but do you know that you have the supernatural ability to bless the God of the universe?  Think about that my friend.  It is true, as Scripture testifies, as Christ and the Holy Spirit as our witness, and as the fathers of our church testify in word and in the blood of martyrdom; choosing God is the only real choice in  life.  Because without Him, it really isn’t life at all.  Do you choose Him or have you chosen Him?  You can execute a most powerful force in the universe today and everyday by choosing the One that seeks and desires your choice above all.  We love Him because He first loved us and He beckons us to honor Him because He first  honored us!

Dear God!  We choose You today.  We honor You as You have honored us!  We reach up to You and You reach down to us in love.  How precious and loving and merciful is our God!  We give you this willingly and bless You Holy Father!  Amen and amen.