Revelation - Apocalypse Now

            In his book, Discover the Book that God Wrote, Bill Bright writes about Anne Sullivan, introducing her blind and deaf student Helen Keller the concept of God:

Using a unique form of “finger language,” Anne began “spelling” words into the child’s hand, and eventually Helen recognized the link between the words and objects.  Once Ann Sullivan had given Helen the names of several physical objects, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain the existence of God.  She tapped out the symbols for the name God.

Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, “Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times before.”  Even in her darkness, Helen Keller already knew that God existed.  With the help of Anne Sullivan, the young blind girl had the ability to “see” and learn more about who God is and what He does for us.[i]

            Like Helen Keller, each of us feels spiritually blind and deaf at times—like we know inherently that God exists, but we need help understanding.  We need God to take off our blindfolds, to lift the veil so that we can know Him better.  2 Corinthians 4:4-5[ii] says that the Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing.  Satan “has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  While unbelievers are blind to God’s glory and deaf to His voice, even believers can be a bit impaired when it comes to experiencing the Lord.  It’s like we’re wearing blindfolds and ear muffs, that we need God to remove. 

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 says, “…Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  Yet the mirror that Paul refers to is still darkened, and our image of Christ is a bit foggy at times (1 Corinthians 13:12).  Yet there are times when God lifts the veil completely, when God cleans our looking-glass and shows His glory the way that it really is.

            I love the story where the prophet Elisha was beset by the soldiers of Aram.  His servant went outside the tent one morning to find them surrounded by enemies.  In fear, he cried out.  But the prophet could see something that his servant was unable to imagine.  When Elisha prayed that God would remove the veil from his servant’s eyes, the man saw horses and chariots of fire—the host of heaven protecting them.[iii] Ordinarily we can’t see this kind of thing, but every now and then, God lifts the veil.

            Unveiling—this is what the book of Revelation is all about.  In fact, embedded in the word revelation is the word reveal—to lift the veil and show what’s underneath.  When a bride walks down the aisle and her veil is lifted, everybody can see her beauty.  Her loveliness is there all along, but it remains hidden until the groom revealed her.  So too the church—the Bride of Christ—needs our Groom to lift the veil so we see clearly and be clearly seen.

            For the next several weeks, we’ll be looking at an overview of the book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of St. John.  This word apocalypse has taken on a real negative meaning, evoking fear in those who hear it.  People think that apocalypse means worldwide disaster, tragedy, and suffering.  Movies depict the end of the world coming through global warming and floods, super-volcanoes, mutated viruses, technology run amok, and asteroids hitting the earth.  The term zombie apocalypse is on everyone’s lips.  Yet the word apocalypse simply means the same thing as revelation—it means an unveiling of God’s person and purpose in creation.

            Apocalyptic literature was a genre of Hebrew literature in biblical times.  The book of Revelation is one example.  Other examples of Old Testament apocalyptic are found in the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah.  In the New Testament, we find apocalyptic literature in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and 2 Thessalonians 2.  But before the Biblical books were canonized, other apocalyptic books were also popular.  In that library we find books like Gabriel’s Revelation, The Apocalypse of Elijah, and The Apocalypse of Thomas.  Canonical and non-canonical apocalyptic literature follows themes of persecution and endurance, natural disaster and war, death and judgment, and the Messiah ushering in God’s kingdom on earth. 

            Today, there are so many different theories on the book of Revelation (we’ll restrict our study to this book alone) that it is impossible to say which one is correct.  In a group of five Baptist preachers, I recently took a poll and got six or seven different views.  Some are preterists, who believe that Revelation refers all or mostly to the situation in the Roman empire at the time it was written and that it isn’t really about the end of days.  Some are futurists, believing in a literal unfolding of prophecy in the future.  Others who follow historicism believe that symbolically the narrative is being fulfilled in the scope of all of the church’s history.  Still others are idealists, seeing an ongoing fulfillment in symbolic or allegorical ways.

            Literalists are divided as to the timeline of events found in the Bible’s apocalyptic literature.  Post-tribulational premillennialism sees future events one way, while Pre-tribulational (dispensational) millennialism views it another way.  Then there are postmillennialists and amillennialists, and people who have long ago given up trying to figure out the timeline.  Since there are so many good Christians with so many views, I intend to take a different approach with this study of Revelation.  Instead of trying to figure out a timeline of future events, I purpose to look at a few themes within the book of Revelation, and ask three questions:

1.      What did it mean to the first generation of Christians who received the Revelation?

2.      What does it mean in my life today?

3.      What will it mean to the last generation of Christians, before the return of Christ?

While it will be impossible for me to not display my biases, the goal is to dispense with dispensationalism or any other time-sensitive view and simply seek to understand what our life-altering take-away might be from a study of this remarkable book.  At the risk of oversimplification, we’ll spend several weeks in Revelation, not digging too deeply into the details, but learning to live its principles out in our lives.

Within the first five chapters of the Book of Revelation, we read about several apocalypses, several unveilings, or revealings, or revelations of Jesus.  First, in 1:4-5, John says that the book of Revelation isn’t from him alone, but also from “Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ.”  This book is divinely inspired, and adds a blessing for those who read and follow it (1:3), and a curse for those who adds to or takes away from them (22:18-19). 

Next, we find a promised apocalypse, or unveiling, in 1:7, where Jesus promises to come in the clouds.  (We’ll talk more about that later). 

Then, in 1:9-20, Jesus unveils His glory by appearing to John on the island of Patmos, who was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day (1:10).”  Instead of donning His earthly appearance as the Carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus displays his divine glory in a way that makes John fall to his feet like a dead man.  His hair is white and his eyes are flames of fire.  Bronze feet glow like they’re in a furnace, and his voice is like many waters.  He holds seven stars in his hand, and from his mouth comes a two-edged sword.  Despite His unearthly appearance, Jesus tells him not to be afraid, but to write everything he sees and hears.  The rest of the book is a record of that vision.

In chapters two and three, Jesus continues to reveal Himself by personally writing messages to the seven churches in Asia.  In each of these letters, Jesus greets them, reminds them who He is, gives some insights into their personal lives, gives criticism if necessary, warns them of danger, exhorts them, and gives them His promises and assurances. 

Then in chapter four the scene shifts to the throne room in Heaven, which reveals God seated on the throne, surrounded by the heavenly court who praise His name.  Chapter five peels back more of our understanding of Jesus’ cosmic role as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God who offers Himself as our sacrifice.  He alone is worthy to open the book with seven seals.  5:10 reveals something about the future of believers as well.  Addressing the Lamb, the heavenly court sings about the saints: “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

Revelation’s first five chapters are full of apocalypses, unveilings of God’s character and humanity’s identity in Christ.  To the first generation of Christians who suffered persecution under Rome’s cruel thumb, this strange book gave assurances that there’s more going on in the heavenly realms than what we can imagine.  Spiritual realities that were actually “more real” than their physical suffering promised that God was with them to see them through. 

The take-home for believers today is that just as He did in the past, God continues to reveal Himself to the churches.  God is still speaking to each believer today, if we’ll listen to His voice and seek His vision.  Believers can still get a glimpse of glory as we pray in the Spirit.  Of course, when God reveals Himself to us, it is often what we think of as a personal apocalypse—in the more common usage of the world.  We experience a real apocalypse—now.  God’s revelations are often devastating.  Like Isaiah, we often respond that we are undone by our own sin in the face of His holiness.  Our egos are devastated when we come face to face with the Alpha and Omega.  God’s revelation changes everything. 

The final generation of believers that witnesses the veil’s last lifting will be astounded as they see heaven and learn that it was all that they’d read about in this great book of Revelation.  If there are those who are “left behind” after the Rapture (as some interpret eschatological literature), then books like Revelation will reveal God’s purposes and His plan of salvation to those who remain.

What a marvelous book is this Apocalypse of John!  I look forward to the next few weeks with you, learning from God’s Word and discovering what it has to say in our lives today.  As we begin our journey, let us be reminded of the blessing God gives to all who seek to understand this great book:  ‘Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it: for the time is near[iv].’

---

[i] Bright, Bill.  Discover the Book God Wrote.  Tyndale House Publishers: Carol Stream, Ill.   2004.  Pg. 4.

[ii] Scriptures taken from the NASB.

[iii] 2 Kings 6:15-17

[iv] Revelation 1:3

Divine Discipline

As I write this post, snow is on the ground.  I don't know about you, but personally I look forward to Spring thaw.  As the weather warms up, I’m excited to get back to my regular running routine.  I started running last May—something I said I’d never do unless someone was chasing me.  Then I realized that the Grim Reaper is chasing me, so my wife and I laced on some running shoes and got started.  We ran our first 5k in September, and ran a 10k in October.  Then it began to cool down.  Then it began to COLD down.  Then, I quit running—not because of the cold air on my skin, but because cold air in your lungs hurts.  But now as it’s warming up, I’m beginning to run again. 

Since it’s not exactly summertime yet, I dress in layers to stay warm at the beginning of my run.  But as my body temperature heats up, I begin stripping off layers.  When I was new to all this, I would tie my jacket around my waist, tuck my extra shirt into my waistband, stick my hat in my pocket, and so on.  But getting all tied up in extra clothing tangles me as I run—so I’ve just begun dropping the extra clothes on the side of the trail, and picking them up when I’m done.  Even if somebody decided they wanted a sweaty shirt (which they wouldn’t), it’s pretty low-risk compared to the risk of tripping over something tied around my waist.

The author of Hebrews must have been a runner, and must have understood this exact thing, when he wrote, “let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us (1:1[i]).”  If the Christian life is like a race, Hebrews tells us that our sin is like that extra clothing that easily entangles us.  When you begin the race of faith, it’s like your core temperature heats up.  You decide you don’t need that sin anymore, so you strip it off of yourself—but you tie it around your waist, just in case you want to put it on again later.  Instead, you need to get rid of it—and keep your eyes on Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” 

When I first started running, I did all kinds of research on the best kind of running shoe, what type of fabrics to wear (and not to wear) for hot weather and for cold weather, and every other subject I could imagine.  But better than any research I did was the advice I got from actual runners—people who knew what they were doing because they had made running their life.  In the same way, we’ve got to look to Jesus, who ran this endurance race before us.  Just as a runner might need a physical trainer, let Jesus be your spiritual trainer.  Keep your eyes on Him, and let Him discipline you.  That way you won’t “grow weary or lose heart (v. 3).”

“Discipline” isn’t a word that most people want to hear.  It makes us think of punishment and pain.  But there’s a difference between punishment and discipline.  Punishment is to satisfy an offended person’s desire for power, after a violation has been committed.  An example of punishment is when a parent smacks a child on the mouth after the child speaks rudely to the parent.  The main purpose of punishment is to make the parent feel better.  Unfortunately, many people view God as a punisher rather than a trainer.  Like good parents, trainers teach by using discipline, correcting and encouraging along the way.  God wants to be that kind of a trainer to you—if you’ll agree to His discipline.

Hebrews 1:3-11 talks about parental discipline.  Just as good parents train their children, God is teaching us every day.  Parents have all kinds of methods of disciplining their children—all of which may be necessary at different times, depending on the situation.  From gentle rebuke to louder rebuke, and even enforced silent time-outs, God corrects His children.  Like a good parent, God sometimes takes away His children’s privileges or allows natural consequences to teach us or even (though rarely and in a controlled manner) spiritually spanks us when we refuse to listen.  Nobody enjoys discipline when it comes, but God’s word tells us, “The Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts (Heb 1:6).”  The child whose parents never discipline him don’t really love him; but the child who is corrected is greatly loved.

It would be a sad case indeed if a child grew to maturity, yet continued to need her parent’s discipline.  It would prove that she hadn’t learned anything at all.  The goal of divine discipline is to get you to the point where you don’t need it—where you begin to exercise self-discipline instead.  You’ll know when you’re beginning to exercise self-discipline when you can shed that extra sin that so easily entangles, leave it on the side of the trail, and run away from it without thinking you have to tie it around your waist.  Verses 12-15 (emphasis mine) talk about the things that you need to do, in order to exercise self-discipline, training yourself in God’s way:

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

¹⁴ Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled. 

Spiritual self-discipline involves Bible study, prayer, fasting, solitude, simplicity, giving, worship, meditation, submission to godly authority, service, confession, seeking spiritual guidance, and celebrating God’s blessings.[ii]  By exercising these spiritual disciplines, we ensure that we don’t stumble over roots of bitterness that may be in our path as we run the race of life (Heb 1:15). 

As we enter the season of Lent, I hope that you’ll consider the ways in which you can practice self-discipline in your own life.  Many people practice a form of fasting, giving something up for Lent.  Others increase their times of worship and fellowship with other believers.  Still others commit to a more intensive time of Bible reading and prayer.  I hope that this season of Lent will lead you to understand that sometimes life’s suffering is God’s way of disciplining His children.  I hope that you’ll grow past divine discipline, into the practice of self-discipline so that you can grow more like Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  I hope that you’ll “lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and… run with perseverance the race that is set before [you].”

---

[i] All scriptures taken from the NRSV.

[ii] For more about this, please read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. Harper Collins.  2009.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

 I grew up watching those old black and white Westerns—the kind where the bad guys wore the black hats and the good guys wore white hats, and you always knew which one was which.  Those were the days of heroes.  The good guys were good and the bad guys were bad.

But movies changed with the advent of color.  What you thought was a black hat turns out to actually be royal blue.  What you thought was a white hat is actually bright yellow.  And the gray dress that the leading wore—it's a red dress after all.  Does that distort the way you see her?  It may, if you understand color symbolism at all.  The fact is that color changes everything.  Red dresses mean something, don't they?  And if the hero turns yellow, what does that say about him?  And what about a royal color worn by the "bad guys?"  Now we're all confused, aren't we?

Modern writing recognizes that real human beings are more complicated than the flat characters of black-and-white Westerns.  Modern movies are more apt to reveal both a hero’s flaws and a bad guy’s conflicted emotions.  Good guys aren’t all good, and nobody is completely bad.  The anti-hero has emerged in literature and in movies, realistically revealing the internal struggles experienced by all good guys and bad guys.

But that’s not the way we see it—at least not in our own lives.  We tend to group people into categories of “good” and “bad.”  And, of course, we’re the ones wearing the white hats.  It’s impossible that we might be the bad guys, isn’t it?  And, since we’re the good guys, then the ones who oppose us—let’s call them “enemies”—they must surely be all bad.

Of course, we have good reason for perceiving people as bad when they appear to us as threats.  Some of our enemies threaten our physical safety.  Terrorist organizations like ISIS and nations like North Korea appear at the top of our lists, while certain individuals may come to your own mind.  Then other enemies threaten relationships.  While they are no physical danger, they mistreat or mislead the ones you love.  You may feel your place has been usurped in a friendship or marriage.  Perhaps your younger teenager is hanging out with a new bunch of friends, and you’re having a difficult time dealing with the fact that as a parent you are no longer the primary influence in his life.  All these can qualify as enemies if they make you feel defensive.

Your enemy might not be a physical or relationship threat, yet they challenge your ideologies in a way that makes you angry.  Maybe they have a different morality from you, and you’re concerned about the influence they will have on your grandchildren, or on society as a whole.  Ideological enemies might have different politics than you, or a different biblical interpretation from you.  They make you feel uneasy because, if you’re honest with yourself, you just don’t know how you might handle the shift if you were to find out that they were right and you were wrong.  (And, of course, you’re positive that you’re right.)

Financial enemies might be the people who moved in next door to you, who have those loud parties at night, and who throw trash around their yard.  Because they let their house get run down, it brings down the property value of the whole neighborhood.  Maybe they’re even willing to work the same job for less money than you, or maybe they don’t work at all, so you see them as a threat to your financial security.   This makes you feel selfish in your dealings with them. 

Defensive, angry, selfish—the list goes on and on.  An enemy is someone who brings out the negative in you.  When you cry out for justice, what you really mean is revenge.  They make you rage.  They make you want to launch a preemptive strike against them.  Get them before they get you. 

But is this God’s way?

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus gives a different strategy for dealing with enemies.  He tells us to love them and pray for them.  Bless them, do good to them, and even yield to them.  Give to them.  Lend to them, expecting nothing back in return.  In short he said, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you (6:31 NASB[i]).”  We call this the “Golden Rule.”  You see, Christians are supposed to be different.  We’re not supposed to act like the rest of the world, which cries out for an eye for an eye.  Instead of a preemptive strike of violence or hatred or manipulation, why not try a preemptive strike of love?

You might say, “You just don’t understand who I have to deal with.  This person is just plain evil!”  Yet Jesus says that the Father is “kind to ungrateful and evil men (6:35b).”  Christians are supposed to be like Christ—it’s just that simple.  Jesus says that in response to people like this you should “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (6:36).”  You may insist that these people are horribly sinful, and deserve judgment or punishment.  But the Bible says, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”  This includes you, too.  The more you insist on judgment and punishment for them, the more you insist on it for yourself, because you’re no less a sinner than they are.  It’s so much better to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6:12).”  In Luke 6:37-38, Jesus says:

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

This means that God will use the same measure to judge you that you have used to judge others.  God will use the same measure to punish you that you have used to punish others.  So, even if you’re thinking selfishly then you should know that treating your enemies with love is just spiritual self-preservation. 

So be good to your enemies—and not so that you can transform them, but so that you can change your own heart towards them.  One mistaken way that Christians often “love” “sinners” is that we forgive and accept them as long as they change their ways and become “like us.”  We tell them that God will love them if only they will stop being—well, them.  We make public statements about how bad they are just so that no one will mistakenly believe that we actually approve of them.  We want them to know just how bad they are so that they will want to be like us.  But why would they want to be like us if we’re going to be like that?  Which is worse, their sin—or your judgment and treatment of them because of their sin?  How are you any less of a sinner than they?  Maybe it’s your heart that needs to change, before they’re ready to change theirs in response to you.  In Luke 6:39b, 41-42, Jesus says:

“A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?...Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Jesus says there are a lot of Christians who are locked in a blinding sin of judgment of our neighbors, labeling them as “bad guys” when they’re really just “guys” who are struggling the same way that we are.  Who is worse—the one who is honest about the speck that she has in her eye, or the Christian who denies the log that he has in his own, all the while trying to make the speck-eyed person more like himself?  Why would she want to be like him?

When it comes to our enemies, our goal is not to destroy them by violence or hatred, or even by making them “fix themselves” and become like us.  Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”  In other words, don’t change them—change yourself  by praying for them and doing good things for them until your attitude toward them has become like Christ’s.  God wants to help you stop seeing people as if they’re characters in an old black-and-white Western.  He wants to open your eyes and help you see in vibrant color, to understand that your friends and your enemies are deeper human beings than you once imagined.  Instead of pointing your finger in judgment, open your arms in acceptance and friendship.  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (6:36).”  And the Father of mercy will have mercy on you as well.

---

[i] All scriptures taken from the NASB.

Stop, Look, and Listen

As my grandchildren visit me this weekend, I am reminded of how dangerous the world can be for toddlers.  When children first learn how to safely cross the road, we tell them to stop, look, and listen.  Instead of looking at their friends playing and all the other distractions, we want them to look .  Instead of listening to the kids who may be calling their name, we want them to listening for cars.  In the same way we need to stop, look, and listen to God.  Instead of watching for the things that may distract us, we need to look with fresh eyes at what God is sending our way. 

Reality, however, is that our powers of spiritual observation are often feeble.  We see, but we don’t look; we hear, but we don’t listen.  In her blog, “Seeing, Creating, and Being,” Elizabeth Watts writes about the difference between seeing and truly looking:

                Have you ever thought about the difference between ’seeing’ and ‘looking’?  For me, seeing is active; looking is passive. Looking is like showing up, punching the clock, not necessarily engaging. Remember the scene in the hysterically funny National Lampoon Vacation movie where Chevy Chase schleps his family to the Grand Canyon for an ill fated summer vacation? After an arduous journey, they arrive at the edge of the canyon, get out of the car and look out over the view for 7 seconds at most, jump back in the car, done—they’ve looked at the Grand Canyon. He did not however, engage with, or experience the Grand Canyon.

                Seeing speaks to understanding, illumination, discernment, and wisdom—seeing past stereotypes, cliches and preconceptions. Do you see?  To ’see’ is to look past the obvious, the expected; to take the time, to pay attention.[i]

               

            Seeing goes beyond just getting a look at something.  Listening is more than hearing.  Not long ago, I was told about an incident where one of my children said something to me, then repeated it again, and I just walked away.  They were standing so close to me that I must have heard their voice, but apparently my mind was somewhere else and I wasn’t listening.  Like my children, God would probably say that too often I have something that looks like a hearing problem, but in reality it’s a listening problem. 

            In Isaiah 55:2[ii], God says through the prophet: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”  In the early verses in this chapter, God is not really talking about bread and water, but about spiritual nourishment.  Too often we run after spiritual experiences that do not satisfy.  Like Chevy Chase’s character we run to church, stand there staring at the Maker of the Grand Canyon for a few seconds, and then pronounce ourselves done.  Yep.  We’ve seen the Lord.  We’ve heard from God.  We’re done now—we can go home.  But are we really satisfied?  Have we really experienced anything if we only hear from God but don’t listen to Him?  Have we really known God if we are reminded about Him in church services but never lovingly look into His heart?

            Too often, our prayer lives leave us like people who have eaten at many French restaurants—plates full of beautiful food but portions so small that you’re still hungry when you leave.  We may pray beautiful prayers, but when we’re done, we just don’t feel satisfied.  Do you want to be satisfied in your spirituality?  In this passage, God tells us how we can “eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance (v.2).  The Lord gives us some hints about how to fill your spirit up with His love.  Take a look with me at some of the verbs that we find in this chapter:

            In verse 2 God says, “Listen carefully to me.”  In the following verse He says, “Incline your ear and come to Me.  Listen, that you may live.”  As I’ve already said, there’s a big difference between hearing and listening.  The difference is inclining.  Every one of us is spiritually hard of hearing.  In order to hear from God, we need to lean in, cup our ears, stick that old-fashioned listening trumpet out and say, “Eh?”  Too often our prayer time is spent telling God everything we want or need.  We don’t give enough attention to listening. 

            We also don’t give enough attention to observing what God is doing around us.  In order to understand God, we have to see what He is trying to show us.  Verse 4 says, “Behold.”  Verse 5 says, “Behold.”  Believers need to observe what God is doing in life situations, look for lessons from nature, and watch for sign posts along the road that point the way to God’s will.  This is what the Lord means in verse 6: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.”  God-sightings don’t usually just happen.  You have to seek the Lord on purpose.  This means seeking the Lord himself, rather than just His blessings.  Jesus said, “…Seek first [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  In other words, seek God, and the rest will take care of itself.

            So how do you seek God?  You’ve got to clear out all the wrong desires from your heart and simply listen to Him.  Without asking for anything, complaining about anything, or even telling God anything—just listen.  Listen for His words, His thoughts, His ways.  For thousands of years, Christians have practiced this kind of listening prayer.  Some have called it Contemplative Prayer.  Others have labeled it Centering Prayer or by some other name.  Simply put, listening prayer is quieting your spirit before God, putting your own ways and your own thoughts aside, and inclining yourself toward the Lord.  Verse 7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”  The goal is thinking what God thinks, instead of what you think. 

            This concept of listening prayer is foreign to many people who have always believed prayer to be about talking to God and telling Him what you want or need.  But think of it this way: telling God what you want all the time is unnecessary because He already knows what you want.  Also—which is more important?  Getting what you want or getting what God wants for you?  What you need in prayer is less of your thoughts and more of God’s thoughts.  In verse 8, God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”  Listening prayer is forsaking your thoughts, and trying to hear God’s thoughts instead.  It means actually getting quiet during your quiet time.  It means leaving the world and its distractions behind and returning to God.

            Verses 10-13 describe the soul that is nourished by this kind of prayer, that listens to God, beholds the things He has to show, inclines itself to Him, forsakes human thoughts and ways, and returns to Him.  Isaiah uses words like watering, sprouting, and bearing fruit.  He describes all of creation breaking forth with song and celebrating.  It is the blessed state of those who truly seek God.

In this environment, refreshed by listening prayer, the final instructions in Isaiah 55:12 are: “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace.”  Contrary to popular opinion, the contemplative person doesn’t walk around with her head in the clouds.  He does not sit idly by and meditate while life happens around him.  Instead, God’s word commands the person who listens to God to “go out…be led forth!”  There is a mission for these kinds of Christians who have learned to stop, look at what the Lord is doing, and listen to the voice of God.  Their mission is peace—to seek it, to find it, to share it with the world. 

---

[i] [i] http://www.elizabethwatt.com/blog/2010/10/creativity/seeing-vs-looking/.  March 23, 2012

[ii] All scriptures are taken from the NASB.

The Other Shortest Verse in the Bible

This Sunday was our special day at church to welcome visitors, guests, and newcomers of all kinds.  But keeping in mind that it may be the first time that many of you have been with us, I wanted to keep the message brief.  Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit."  While not all my sermons are brief, on the whole I tend to agree.  I remember visiting one church when I was a kid, where we were the only ones who didn't know in advance that they should bring their lunches along and plan to make a whole day of it!  In general, and especially when there are newcomers present, I believe it's best to keep the message short.  George Burns said, "The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt used even fewer words than that, to say the same thing: "Be sincere, be brief, be seated."

Often the briefest things are the most profound.  Today I want to share with you what's purportedly the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35.  Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick, so his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that He should come.  For his own reasons he delayed coming to them, so by the time Jesus arrived Lazarus had already been dead for several days.  When he got there, both sisters told him the same thing, "If you had been here, our brother would not have died."  In verses 33-37[i] we read:

³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ³⁴ and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

Jesus wept, not because he grieved Lazarus' passing.  In fact, He knew that he was about to perform one of His greatest miracles and bring his friend back from the dead.  Jesus wept because He saw the overwhelming pain and turmoil of faith in the eyes of His friends.  They felt hurt because they didn't understand why God would do miracles for others, yet let their brother die.  They were wounded because their friend Jesus, who always had time for other people, had delayed coming to them when He could have prevented their brother's death.  Jesus saw all this in the tears that streamed from their eyes, and in His compassion for them He wept.

The good news today is that just as Jesus saw the need and pain and disappointment in His friends' faces, He also knows your hurts and sorrows.  Jesus sees you battered and broken, and He weeps with you when you hurt.  Jesus mourns over the struggles you've had in your relationships, the financial pressures you feel, your sin and disease and unforgiveness.  He also cries tears of joy in celebration of your triumphs.  Jesus weeps.  This is the good news: God knows how you feel, and He feels it with you.

But Jesus didn't continue to weep.  Those two words, "Jesus wept" are in the past tense, which means Jesus felt what the mourners felt, but then he moved on to embrace hope and joy.  He prayed a prayer of faith and raised Lazarus from the tomb.  So too Jesus wants to see victory over the tombs in your life.  He wants to see resurrected relationships, flourishing finances, sinners separated from their sin, and feuds forgiven.  He can't do this by weeping.  So He turns mourning into dancing.  Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

This brings us to the actual shortest verse in the Bible.  While John 11:35, purportedly the shortest verse, consists of 16 letters in the original Greek (ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς), 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is two characters shorter (Πάντοτε χαίρετε).  In English it simply says, "Rejoice always."  If brevity is the soul of wit, and “Jesus wept” is profound, then “Rejoice always” is equally deep.  But how do we reconcile these two with each other? They seem to be completely at odds—if Jesus is the model of divine living, and His Word tells us to rejoice always, then how could he have wept?  If Jesus is the model of human experience and he could weep over grief and suffering, how could he rejoice?

We can understand these seemingly opposite things together when we realize that both illustrate the diversity of human experience and the reality of God’s complete identification with us.  Jesus was fully human and fully divine.  He came so that humanity might have access to the divine.  So He can laugh when we laugh and cry when we cry.  He can feel the sting of loss when a loved one struggles, yet He can also speak words of faith that bring life out of death.  This is what rejoicing does—it resurrects the dead.  Joy doesn’t deny that pain is real, but finds hope and strength in the midst of suffering.  Holding hands with hope, joy knows that there’s victory in Jesus despite the pain.

I know it’s hard to rejoice always—especially when, like Mary and Martha and Jesus, you’ve experienced loss.  It’s so unimaginable that Paul had to say it twice in Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”  But then in verse five he tells how to do this: “The Lord is near.”  Even in the midst of trouble, joy reminds us that God is with us.  The Lord’s constant presence grants us access to peace of mind and power of spirit—the kind that works miracles.

How do you access that constant presence of God when situations scream hopelessness?  The same way that Jesus did: Dispel despair with prayer.  In verse 41, Jesus says, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me.”  Knowing that his His Father is so near that He has unlimited access to the throne, Jesus could speak to the dead and bring him back to life.  He tells us the same thing He told Martha: “…If you believe, you will see the glory of God….(John 11:40b)” 

Today I ask you—what’s causing grief in your own life?  What’s dead inside of you, or in the life of a loved one?  Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)” wants to breathe new life to that which you have lost.  It’s okay to weep—after all, Jesus did.  But then He wants you to move from grief to faith.  He only asks that you believe, so that you can see the glory of God.  Even when things are tough, Jesus invites you to rejoice always in God’s constant presence.  Trust God, praise Him, pray to Him, and wait for your miracle.

---

[i] All scripture taken from the NASB.

Return and Rest

At the beginning of each year, I’m great at making plans.  I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do take time out to set goals and make plans.  I’m planning how much weight I will lose this year (because I didn’t meet my goal in 2014).  I’m planning on running more this year (because I started running in 2015).  Maybe you’re doing the same thing this month—evaluating what’s working and what’s not working, setting goals and making plans.

            We need to make sure that our goals and plans are not simply based on our own imaginations and aspirations.  Instead, we must seek God’s will and plan according to divine wisdom.  In Isaiah 30:1-2 (ESV), the Lord speaks through the prophet:

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
    that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
    without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

            It’s very easy to make plans that seem good and right, but that are only human schemes full of self.  We justify our own plans to make them seem godly, when in fact we never bother to inquire of God.  Or, if we do, we seldom listen for an answer.  Listening to God is the key to good planning.

            Isaiah describes this kind of people who follows their own path by saying:

For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel (vv. 9-11 ESV).”

            Isaiah’s words seem all too familiar to our churches that want to do nothing in their communities, that want to hear nice preaching that does not offend.  Our itching ears are eager for oracles that support our plans and our own self-important ideas.  If it sounds good, then we believe it.  If it’s a hard truth or a challenge, we reject it.  To replace our itching ears, the prophet gives a solution to the problem of pretentious plans:  

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength…

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him (vv. 15, 18 ESV).

            As you strategize your next steps in 2015, it’s good to consider what you want to do.  It’s better to consider what God wants you to do.  Return to Him.  Rest in Him.  Be still before the Lord and trust Him.  Wait on Him and listen to His voice.  Then and only then should you set your goals, make your plans, and act.  May God bless you as you follow His commands this New Year.

By Faith

The Holidays have come and gone.  I rang in the New Year with my church’s youth group at a two-day-long Christian extravaganza.  We enjoyed great music, awesome speakers, fun activities, and prepared our hearts for the new year.  When midnight hit there were fireworks on stage.  Balloons dropped from the ceiling as eight thousand teenagers celebrated.  Many resolutions were made for the new year, and many have probably already been broken.  What about you?  One of the reasons we break these resolutions is that we approach them with will power instead of faith.  Will power fails when challenges get tough, but faith is something entirely different.  Faith isn’t relying on your own will, but trusting in the will of God that works itself out in you.

In Faith Is, Pamela Reeve wrote, “Faith is resting in the fact that God has an objective in leaving me on the scene when I feel useless to Him and a burden to others.”[i]  Hebrews 11.1 (NASB) puts it this way:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Faith says, “I don’t know what’s ahead in 2015, but I know that whatever it is, God has me in his arms.”  I heard an old story that illustrates it this way:

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”  (Source Unknown)

            That’s all that matters.  God’s got you.  You can jump.  The eleventh chapter of Hebrews, called the “Roll Call of Faith,” is a list of people in the Bible who couldn’t see what was ahead of them, yet through they jumped into the waiting arms of God. 

            Hebrews talks about Abel, who by faith offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.  As you look to the new year, rather than making resolutions, consider what sacrifices you can make to God.  What can you give Him—besides your money, which is too obvious an answer?  Can you give God your business?  Can you give God your retirement plans?  Can you give God your talents, and use them for Him?

            By faith, you can walk with God as Enoch did.   By faith, you can be like Noah and listen to the warnings that God speaks to your heart, sharing them with those around you.  By faith like Noah’s, you can make preparations based on what God has told you.  By faith like Noah, you can reject the attractions the world has to offer, and build something better.

            By faith, Abraham went somewhere that God called him, even though he didn’t know where he was going.  Is there someplace that God is calling you to go, even though there’s uncertainty?  Faith says “yes” to God’s call, and follows.  Abraham and Sarah, who were well beyond childbearing years, received the promise of God and conceived a son.  What kind of faith will your marriage take this year?  How can you sow seeds of love into one another, letting that love take root and grow?  How can you take something that is barren, and create new life in it?  Not by an act of your own will—but by faith!

            By faith, Abraham offered his son Isaac on an altar.  Though God did not ultimately demand this sacrifice, Abraham was willing to follow through.  Writers have a phrase: “Kill your darlings.”  This means that sometimes, for the sake of the book, you have to be willing to cut out your favorite chapters or characters, if they don’t push the storyline or really add anything to the depth of the text.  In the same way, we’ve got to be willing to give up what might be most precious to us, trusting that God will perfect our story for us—and we may even receive back alive that which we offered up to God.

            By faith, like Isaac, you can invoke future blessings on your family.  By faith, like Joseph, you can speak prophetically to your family, instructing them in the way that they should go. 

            Hebrews mentions Moses’ parents, who preserved his life, and the blood of the lamb that preserved the lives of the Israelites from the Death Angel at Passover.  Like them you can say, “By faith I will believe that there are hidden blessings that cannot be killed. By faith I will refuse to be called a son of Egypt (sin), but will identify as one of God's chosen... even if it means suffering. By faith I will leave sin behind, not being afraid of the devil's anger.  I will endure as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith I will trust in the sacrificed Lamb and keep my household anointed with His blood.”

            Like the Israelites at the Red Sea, you can stand against any barrier by faith, raising your staff against it and trusting that you will see the wonders of God.  Like they did at Jericho, you can march around those obstacles in your life, praying through and shouting praise to God who makes the walls fall before you.  Like Rahab, you can welcome God’s messengers who come to you, and the message that they bring—and by that truth you can be saved through faith. 

            Like the heroes of old, you can say, “By faith I will go into battle for my family.  By faith I will see God overcome. By faith I will not speak negativity but will be a positive voice to those around me. I will endure pain, and, like Jesus, will offer up no defense. I will bear the blame, never turning blame back on anyone else. And I will leave it all up to God, whether or not I received what I hope for in this life—because I will receive the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises in the next.  By faith I will acknowledge that I am a stranger and exile here, but that I’m looking to a better country, my heavenly homeland.”

            The truth is that life is hard.  Hebrews 11 recaps the heroes of the Bible, who all knew life’s struggles.  Your life is hard, too.  And will power just doesn’t cut it.  But faith does.  Again in Faith Is, Pamela Reeve writes, “Faith is engaging in the deepest joy of heaven, knowing His unfathomable love for me as I walk through the thorny desolate now.”[ii] 

            Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is going to make it work.  The thing that lies before us seems impossible.  Faith knows that God will bring it to pass, and trusts God for it.  One common story goes:

Todd, a three year old boy from Rhode Island went down to the seacoast to fly a kite. Never having flown a kite before, Todd had obvious doubts. His father assured him that all was well, and the kite would go up as planned. As Todd unravelled the string, and watched the kite go up, he was heard to say, "I knew it would fly, daddy. You said it would." Simple statement, profound implications.  (Source unknown)

            What are you trusting God for this year?  What is God calling you to do this year?  Are you having a difficult time seeing how it’s all going to work?  God calls you to faith.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11.1).”  I pray that in 2015, you’ll forget about resolutions and will power, trust God, and take a step of faith.

---

[i] Swindoll, Chuck.  Tale of the Tardy Oxcart.  Word Publishing: Nashville.  1998.  Pg. 195.

[ii] From Swindoll, Chuck.  Tale of the Tardy Oxcart.  Word Publishing: Nashville.  1998.  Pg. 197.