Into the wild

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness,
And speak kindly to her."
Hosea 2:14

Sometimes we need to be taken into the wild to experience His kindness. Sometimes the desert is the only place that can allure us back to our God.

From the day before Justin's final exams:
"The Sovereign God unfolds His good plan with a vision of our lives from our first tears to our last breath, and every choice He makes in between is made in love. The loving choices can break our hearts. The loving choices can shatter our souls. The loving choices can build faith, hope, and joy. You build faith, hope, and joy by entering into environments that require great faith, by entering into moments of hopelessness, by entering into worlds devoid of light and laughter. In need of everything, we find our surest need of Him. And we find Him the surest fulfillment of need.

I knew He might take us there. Into the sorrow."

Into the desert.

Because sometimes in the sorrow and the wild is waiting His greatest kindness.

Let us not fear the barren places, the environments without comforts, the settings of sorrow. It is in the wilderness that He draws us back. It is in the wilderness that love flourishes. Let us worship in the desert.

A god of expectations

Daniel chapters 8 and 11 predict the rise of the king of the North. This man was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ruler of Syria. Secular history remembers only dates and wars and another big man in the Middle East. The Jews remember Epimanes: The Madman.

This king marched down through Israel to fight against Egypt. The Romans were not thrilled with this plan. Roman ambassador Gaius Laenas drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus and in a very egalitarian display gave him an option: turn around and go home, or be cut down where he stood. Antiochus chose to go home in humiliation. He took out his rage on Israel. He murdered 100,000 Jews in and around Jerusalem. In an act of utter abomination he slaughtered a pig on the altar in the temple. Finally, he erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple courts. He laid waste to Israel.

Out of the carnage, a hero arose for Israel: Judas Maccabees. Using guerrilla warfare tactics, he led an army of dissenters against the Syrians. His efforts and the subsequent death of the Madman allowed religious freedom to return to Israel.

While the history lesson is fun, here's the point: Maccabees was a physical savior. He threw off the oppression of Syria. He avenged the people. He returned the system of worship and law to the Jews. He was loved for being a physical savior.

He was not the Messiah.

But the Jews wanted him to be.

Or at least, that's the Messiah they had in mind. They wanted a warrior to rise up, rally the guerrillas, and throw off Roman rule. They wanted the king to return, so they might rule the nations.

Jesus did not look like Judas. He preached radical and gritty sermons on forgiving our enemies, praying for our oppressors, and rendering to men their due. Jesus did not throw the Romans out of Israel; He threw Israelites out of the temple. He cared more about souls than rights. Jesus did not look like the Savior they were expecting.

So they crucified Him.

What do we expect our God to be? Do we demand salvation in the temporal and forget that he cares more for our spirit than our rights? Do we expect our God to fit in the box we have made for him, to purr tamely, to succumb to our will and vision? Why do we rage when our prayers are not answered? Why do we mourn when our perspective is challenged? Is it any less than the belief that Jesus Christ should be everything expected?

"You musn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion." The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Luke 19:41-42 "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes."

What saviors will we embrace when the One who died for us fails to meet expectations? You cannot tame your God. And I cannot imagine a single reason we ought to try. He is better wild, powerful, loving, holy, merciful, saving, forgiving, saving, righteous, saving, saving, saving.

Miracles in the Stillness

"And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." But some of the scribes were sitting there reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak that way? Hi is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus, aware i His spirit that they were reasoning this way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"- He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home." And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this." Luke 2:3-12.

I am guilty of reading this story waiting for a miracle. The verses rush past me as I search for that breathless moment when my Jesus restores his body. Just like the crowd, I glorify God when I see the physical world transformed by His intrusion.

But the miracle happens before anyone gasps in amazement. In His perspective, God just waits for the moment of forgiveness. The real miracle is that God Almighty, whom no man has ever been allowed to see, would take the hand of a sinner. The miracle is that the heart of the Ancient of Days would see frail, human faith and be moved to mercy. It is more miraculous that the precious Lamb would bleed for sinners, than that perishable reality bend for the voice of her Maker.

Perhaps this is why Jesus asks which is harder. We wait for physical redemption, and overlook the hand of God transforming our spirit. Really radical miracles are invisible to the immediate crowds. We want to be redeemed from the abrasion of life, but fail to realize it is in the grit, before we are ever called to walk, that He works spiritual wonders.

Are you guilty of hoping for physical marvels and missing the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in your life? Let us tear down every obstacle, and wait in stillness, just a moment more, to experience truly divine wonders.

Perfect Hope

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13

Completely. Teleios. Perfectly.

We ought to hope perfectly. Nothing should cast doubt on the sureness of the grace and promise we have been given. Our hope should be full, unwavering, and constant. Because the source of our hope, the One who has promised it, is perfect, full, unwavering, and constant. Our hope for eternity, for the complete revelation of our unmerited favor from God is more certain than the rising sun. Hope allows us to stand. Hope gives us victory over disappointment, trouble, and despair. Hope perfectly. It is a command. It is a promise. It is a firm foundation.

The lie of significance

The lie of temptation is that sin offers something equal to truth. The lie of sin is that it is more significant than God's Word. Temptation is full of subtle propositions that this one thing could be as paradigm-altering as the grace poured out over-abundantly into our lives. What would happen to the soul-wrenching temptations of our lives if we paraded them in tandem with the truth of God's promises?

Truth: "For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:20). The price paid on our behalf to ransom us out of shame, sin, and death was the precious blood of the Lamb, imperishable, incorruptible, freely given for love without measure. Love of you. We are bought back. Redeemed.

Lie: This guy could love me like that. The blood of the Lamb isn't quite as valuable as blue eyes.

Truth: When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:33-34a).

Lie: What she has done is worse. I can't forgive that.

Truth: "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?
            Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
            Awesome in praises, working wonders?" (Exodus 15:11)

Lie: I would make a better god than Him.

When we examine the lies of sin through a divine perspective, we see that they are absolute foolishness. Who would trade the priceless, matchless love of a sacrificing Savior for the cheap, shallow, affection of an imperfect human being? Who could not forgive when we understand the vast, un-crossable canyon of crimes no longer held against us? When confronted with a God of infinite power displayed in matchless miracles, and grace-filled blessings, who could find a better master?

Yet somehow, we still believe the lies. Let us be refined for the sake of our redeeming, forgiving, wondrous God. Let us call sin what it is, expose that it is nothing compared to grace, and stand in the freedom of holiness.

What lies has sin whispered in your ear? What truth can set you free?

I shall die as one of them

During our last visit back home, I was asked several times if we had stayed, would we continue going to our home church. The church is in rocky water. Sometimes getting out of the boat is less about fear of water-walking, and more fear of cutting your heel on the reef. Numbers are down, giving is down, courage is down.

Life-changing questions like this are more challenging for a woman. I am submissive to my husband. In the end, after whatever discussion occurs, if he says we go, well, then, we go.

But for me... I would stay.

Because I am part of the body. Church-leaving is not just ending attendance. It is not disappearing. It is not a gentle goodbye. Church-leaving is amputation.

Or it ought to be. Our church-leaving epidemic is leaving local bodies walking around with bloody stumps.

In a "me culture" we have become dulled to, permissive of, even enthusiastic for the search for the church that "feeds me." We want to see people like us, hear sermons that inspire us (but with nothing too convicting or "judgmental"), sing songs that praise the safest version of God we can imagine, and be utterly liked by everyone in the building. Should one of these qualifications fail; we explore until we find a church that fits us better. C.S. Lewis said it this way:

"Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for a church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches." The Screwtape Letters

We have every human reason to go. We need friends like us. I need to grow. I can't stand that music, that pastor, those people. I was hurt. I am ignored. I am bored.

Could we enter humility and find every godly reason to stay? I can be the person who makes a difference. I can be her friend. I can help someone grow. I can worship, listen, love. I will forgive. I will stand to make an un-ignorable difference, to be an unavoidable blessing. I will enter into an adventure with my God that has everything to do with His glory, and nothing to do with mine.

Sometimes our churches just need a champion. Rather than sloughing off like skin from a corpse, maybe the dying church needs someone to stay and fight for her. Christ saved her. It was not so that we could let her die. Stand and be your church's champion!

In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers a hopeless battle is approaching. A hand full of untrained farmers are facing 10,000 Uruk-Hai. The elf (supposedly the wisest and most divine of all the races) loses hope and declares to the already war-battered king "They are all going to die!"

The king replies without thinking or flinching, "Then I shall die as one of them."

My mother declared to my father, "Our church is dying."

His response was the same, "Then I shall die as one of them."

What has become of unity in the body? Almost every book of the new testament implores believers to do two things in their Christian life: stand firm and preserve unity. Maybe these two things are not so unrelated as we would like to think.

Do you love the church Christ has given you? How can you be her champion? Can you be selfless in a selfish age? Will you stand?

Waiting on us?

Daniel, a man abiding in the knowledge of His God, understood from the prophecies of Jeremiah that the captivity of the Jews in Babylon would be seventy years. He realized this in the sixty-seventh year of captivity. At that moment he began praying, confessing his sins, the sins of his people, and asking God to remember His promise, to remember that exile should soon end.

"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on your desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." Daniel 9:17-19

This is a single incident in history; no specific promise like this has been made to us. But on principle: is God's thundering action awaiting the prayer of one humble man? Is His answer waiting on your request? We no longer repent in dust and ashes, but I wonder if we truly understood the glory, power, and patience of God, if we would once again truly repent. How often do the words of our prayers forget the context of their speaking: The Almighty has invited us into the throne room, to pour out His great compassion. We do not pray "in God's will" because it is best for us. We pray in His will because it brings Him glory.

Who is the focus of our prayers? Can we be humble, repenting in ashes, pouring out our desires that God move for His Own Name, for His Own good? Perhaps the mountains await removal as God waits for us to cry out. It is not promised that He will work as we ask. But we will be changed in fervent prayer. And the world may be changed too.

Mutton Busting

There are many small, country towns around where I grew up. Utah is considered to be “out west”, so there are a lot of ranchers, cowboys, and farmers. Many of these little towns will host county fairs and rodeos in the summer. My favorite rodeo event is mutton busting. For those of you city folk, mutton busting is where sweet little cowpokes ride and wrangle sheep. A child will climb on top of a sheep, the door to the corral swings open and the sheep totters off. Lest you think this is some kind of animal or child abuse: it involves food, fun, snuggles, and dirt. (My kids’ four favorite things in life.) The end result is always a mess of curls, a dirty sheep, and a muddy child.

1 Peter 5:1-5
"Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

What noises resound in your sanctuary? Is it filled with joyful worship, loving encouragement, and useful, theological preaching? Or does the bleating of sheep echo from its walls? If God's sheep could truly clothe themselves in humility toward one another, our pastors would no longer endure the "baa baa baa" of boredom, unforgiveness, ungratefulness, complaint, and selfishness. The church is not a rodeo; the elders should not leave on Sunday afternoons swatting a dirty hat against their chaps, heading home to ice the bruises of mutton busting.

With Peter's exhortation in your head, Christians, help your pastors out! Make every effort to live as Christ has urged us: in unity, love, and humility, so that your elders do not have to spend precious ministry time wrangling rambunctious sheep. Our elders are busy men trying to lead local communities of believers in the will of God the Almighty. They should not have to mutton bust our immature bickerings or complaints. Let us be humble, well-mannered lambs, not dirty, fussy, muddy sheep.

Christian music bugs me

My associate pastor thinks I am incredibly picky when it comes to Christian music. He is not wrong. Picky is not exactly the right term though. The standards to which I hold music meant for our glorious Savior are just unusually high. While there are believers who attest that anything which mentions God or salvation is perfectly marvelous, more often than I'd like to admit I find myself scrunching up my face in frustration or disappointment, when I listen to popular Christian radio.

Just to clarify, this will not be a blog about the joys of old gospel music, or the impeccability of hymns, or the perfection of choruses, or the power of modern worship songs. I have no interest in defending whichever hill on which we've decided our worship will die.

Disclaimer number two: God cares about the state of our hearts more than the words of our lips. I have no right to judge heart motivations. But I do. Sorry. This will end with all fingers back in my face.

As believers, those who have had their death sentence shredded, replaced with life, hope, and divine, royal favor, we have the single greatest source of inspiration in all of reality. The mysterious, wondrous God should send our thoughts seeking knowledge and wisdom, pursuing a mind restructured to the ideas of the Holy Spirit in us. The beautiful, matchless Creator should send our heart soaring into poetry and passion, revolutionizing our perspective of the world. The gifts He spills out of too much grace, should make us rejoice so much that we laugh and cry and wonder. His goodness is so remarkable, we find moments of speechless silence.

So why does it feel like christian songs often take the easy way out? Why engage poetry when the rehashed slop of a secular love song serves just as well? Why force the mind to comprehend and imagine, when playing heart strings sells albums? Why focus on a huge God we cannot comprehend, when we could continue to wallow in the humanity we know so well? Why risk thoughtful, grateful, theological passion on a nation and generation of very safe Christians?

No, it is not every song. It is not every moment in certain songs. I know that it is hard to make art. I have been attempting to create for years.

Isn't He worth our all? The best lines, the best of our life, the best of our gifts given back to Him?

It is easy to pick on worship music, but I guess the question is much bigger, and therefore much more troubling. Doesn't God deserve the best that I can give Him? Where have I taken the easy way out, not brave enough to allow my mind to be stretched, my heart to be turned, my life to be re-directed? If we are to be worshipping with our lives, our lives should be effortful, submissive, beautiful creations to the One worthy of all worship. 

Better is one day

"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!"
Psalm 84:10-12

In 71 AD the Jewish temple was destroyed and the sacrifices came to a stop. Having rejected the Messiah, Jerusalem was laid waste, until not one stone stood on another. For the Jew, YHWH dwelt in the temple. His presence was in, His mercy flowed from, His blessing poured out of that one building. It would seem with its demolition, God had abandoned His people. However, something radically new was happening. rather than abandoning humanity, God chose to dwell more intimately with them than He ever had before. God chose to dwell inside of believers.

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."  1 Corinthians 3:16-17

What does Psalm 84 say for the those who now walk as living temples, a holy priesthood to God? Better is one day as a sinner redeemed than a thousand days as the richest unbelieving king. Better is one day having hope for the future, grace for today, and peace with God than a thousand days reveling in darkness.

Is that true? Is the worst day in Christ better than the best day in sin? Sharing a divine perspective, we can confidently proclaim that it is better to endure a hard life on earth and find a loving Savior throwing the door open, running to you with open arms, drawing you into glory in eternity. Better is one day living without guilt. Better is one moment free of fear. Better is one life lived in the knowledge of God, than a thousand years of spiritual deadness, moral disaster, and terrifying uncertainty.

Does your perspective need an adjustment? Do you envy the goodness that sinners seem to experience? Can you boldly declare that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is better than any other experience on earth?

tolerance or love

Tolerance. It is the war cry of postmodern ethics. Tolerance for preferences. Tolerance for choices. Tolerance for us and everything we believe we want to be. What are we really asking of society when we beg to be tolerated?

(From dictionary.com) Tolerate: 1. to allow the existence, presence, practise, or act of without prohibition or hindrance; permit. 2. to endure without repugnance; to put up with.

Is that all we really want from other human beings, to be allowed to exist? Do we just want to be endured by an indifferent world? Tolerance is such a dismal standard on which to hang our ethical reality. There is nothing so admirable in tolerating another person.

If my husband came home, threw down his backpack and muttered, "Babe, I can't wait to put up with you for the next 60 years," he would not draw another breath before we were in the car driving to marital counseling.

Tolerance is not enough. We are designed for love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7
If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Tolerance allows. It is passive, indifferent, unremarkable. It does everything expected, nothing brave, nothing sacrificial, nothing hopeful.

If I am labelled intolerant I hope it is because I love too much like Jesus Christ. He did not allow sin to continue. He would not tolerate spiritual disaster in human lives. He was never indifferent to [insert the adjective you just can't put your finger on]. The poor. The sinner. The rich. The priest. The criminal. The prophet. Love and tolerance do not co-exist. Love gives too much to leave people unchanged. Love hopes too much to stay far away and safe.

Why cleave to a mediocre standard? Why settle for tolerance? Why not aspire to be like our God?

Are there people you can show love to, when the world declares they are only worthy to be tolerated?

God v man

Popular entertainment has a sudden fascination with discovering who "God" is. This exploration does not seem to be characterized by any renewed interest in spirituality or devotion, but rather with a suspicious and suspecting curiosity, as if humanity were poking at this snake-like idea of "God" with a long stick to see what It would do. We are more interested in what a supreme being has "the right" to do in our world, rather than what questions we have the right to ask.

This suspicion of divine power and the questioning of divine action has most clearly been highlighted recently by the movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While the actual watching of this movie entailed some of the more miserable minutes of my week, it did ask a series of interesting questions: If called to court would God arrive, should He account for His choices, and what is the ethical standard by which to judge the Creator of the universe?

There was a man many years ago, who thought God owed him an answer. He called YHWH into court  to plead His case and demand an answer from the One who knit him together. Job called the divine to a human court, demanding He acquiesce to a set of mankind's moral standards (the ones on which no two human beings can agree).

Job 13:3, 18 - But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue with God... Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated.

Something incredible happened: God showed up. Summoned like a criminal, God came to court. He showed up, but He did not answer Job's questions. Instead He revealed who He was and is and is to come, a glimpse of the choices, actions, and character of the Almighty:

"Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,

Who is this that darkens counsel

By words without knowledge?

Now gird up your loins like a man,

And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding,

Who set its measurements? Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

On what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

When the morning stars sang together

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

                     Job 38:1-7

God did not owe Job any answers. He did not even owe it to Job to show up. He owes us nothing. But He has chosen to give us everything.

We have made power synonymous with evil. The human mind can no longer conceive of a Being with absolute power exercised in omni-mercy, unending patience, and perfect love. In humanity power corrupts. Unable to imagine a better reality, we conclude that power is inherently corruption. Patient power of gentle restraint has become an impossibility. God is not us 2.0. He is not bigger, stronger, faster, fighting the potential for evil. For now, His answer is mercy. His power is restraint. His grace is free.

For what moment in His gracious plan are you demanding God make an answer? Be reminded of who He is, what He has the right to do, and how often He lays aside those rights for the sake of perfect love. For your sake.