How authentic are you with God, really authentic?
My wife and I have a tendency to share our lives with those we meet. Both when we are in smaller groups and when we are in front of larger groups. I have this conviction, if faith doesn't interact with life then what's the point. We have gotten in trouble for this from time to time. There is a belief out there, our lives are not the to be the subject of sermons or worship. I agree they are not to be the main point. They are to be the illustrations. This is what scripture is all about. God interacting with the lives of people. We see who he is by the way he enters lives and we see our faith by the way we interact with the world. As James said - I will show you my faith by what I do. We share our lives, we share our stories, we share how God is interacting with us in a real and true way. We don't need to polish things up and make them shine so they are prettier to look at, we share life with one another and through life we find a more substantial faith.
Sometimes we think we need to polish things not only for the people we shake hands with in the lobby but for God as well. We hold back what is really happening in our lives. We can't actually be angry with God, we can't doubt him, we can be depressed. We have to pray with praise and goodness on our lips only.
In Job 3 he doesn't hold anything back, he doesn't make anything easier to swallow or cover things up with fake praise. He does not curse God and he does not sin, but he doesn't mellow it out for public consumption. He curses the day he was born, he wishes the sun had never shone on it. He prays the day of his birth would never have been added to the year or been placed in the month. He wishes there had been no knees to receive him and no breast to nurse him. He cries out with all the anguish and lament in his soul. In the presence of God and the presence of the three friends sitting with him in the dirt. He doesn't hold anything back. We know his heart, his real true authentic heart.
There are times in our lives we have these same feelings. There are times when these same words have been spoken in our home. There are times when we just want the rest it seems only the grave has to offer. Here's the thing, God can handle it. God can handle our lamentations and our sorrow. He is strong enough to bear the things we cannot. And if we are the body of Christ, then we should be able to bear it as well. We need to be available to listen to the great joy and the great lament of those around us. We need not put on the plastic masks of "everything's fine."
My challenge to you today is to be authentic in your relationships. There was a time when preachers use to talk about getting real with Jesus. Let's get more real with Jesus then just asking him into the spruced up version of our hearts. Let's get real with the cluttered and aching parts as well. And let's get real with each other, with the body of Christ. Open yourself up to the hearts of those around you so you can share your life and faith with them, and so they can share their life and faith with you.
Lament if you need to, God can handle it. And I pray that his church can too.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sitting in Sadness
Have you ever just run out of words?
In the last few weeks, my wife has been in a low energy cycle. She is just out of energy and needs more rest. This is frustrating to her because she wants to up and moving and contributing to life. As the frustration grows its harder to move and contribute and get up. But talking is not the thing that seems to help. There really isn't a whole lot to say. Have you ever been in that place where you're kinda stuck but you don't have anything to say, because everything to say is just the same stuff over and over and over again.
In Job 2 his friends show up and when they see him they realize there is nothing to say. So they sit down in the dust and dirt with Job and that's all they do. They just sit there for 7 days. From the way the rest of this book goes, I think this is probably the best thing they actually did. Sometimes the best thing we can do in the midst of such suffering is just be there for people. Just be there.
This is called the power of presence. Something is passed on between two people just by being together. Sitting there in silence holding a hand looking across the room or the dust pile. Somehow there is solace in silence and presence.
I'm not sure what else to say really. I remember the night I found out one of my students had fallen out of a tree and there was a good chance he wasn't going to walk again. I went to the hospital that night and I just stayed. The student was in surgery, but it didn't look good. I didn't have anything amazing to say, I am not really a man of many words to start with. But I stayed there with the dad and we cried and we waited. I still have a sketch I made during a church service a couple of weeks later. Its a small half sheet of paper suck to my office fridge with a magnet. It is a picture in blue ink of a boy rising out of a wheel chair with a basket ball sailing through the air towards the hoop.
I had another moment just yesterday when I stopped and paused in silence to look at the picture and pray as I have done throughout the years for the day when Brad will walk again.
If there is someone in deep suffering near you today, just show up, just be there. You don't have to speak you only need to be present.
In the last few weeks, my wife has been in a low energy cycle. She is just out of energy and needs more rest. This is frustrating to her because she wants to up and moving and contributing to life. As the frustration grows its harder to move and contribute and get up. But talking is not the thing that seems to help. There really isn't a whole lot to say. Have you ever been in that place where you're kinda stuck but you don't have anything to say, because everything to say is just the same stuff over and over and over again.
In Job 2 his friends show up and when they see him they realize there is nothing to say. So they sit down in the dust and dirt with Job and that's all they do. They just sit there for 7 days. From the way the rest of this book goes, I think this is probably the best thing they actually did. Sometimes the best thing we can do in the midst of such suffering is just be there for people. Just be there.
This is called the power of presence. Something is passed on between two people just by being together. Sitting there in silence holding a hand looking across the room or the dust pile. Somehow there is solace in silence and presence.
I'm not sure what else to say really. I remember the night I found out one of my students had fallen out of a tree and there was a good chance he wasn't going to walk again. I went to the hospital that night and I just stayed. The student was in surgery, but it didn't look good. I didn't have anything amazing to say, I am not really a man of many words to start with. But I stayed there with the dad and we cried and we waited. I still have a sketch I made during a church service a couple of weeks later. Its a small half sheet of paper suck to my office fridge with a magnet. It is a picture in blue ink of a boy rising out of a wheel chair with a basket ball sailing through the air towards the hoop.
I had another moment just yesterday when I stopped and paused in silence to look at the picture and pray as I have done throughout the years for the day when Brad will walk again.
If there is someone in deep suffering near you today, just show up, just be there. You don't have to speak you only need to be present.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Fall into God
How many of us can worship God in the midst of disaster?
At church this weekend we saw a clip of a documentary called "out of the rubble" about the earthquake in Haiti and the stories of those who have survived it. The story shared was of a boy who was on his way to his grandparents house. As he started up the stairs the quake began. When it started to shake he ran faster up the stairs, but it kept shaking and then the walls came down and he was pinned underneath by his leg. A rescue worker finally came and cut the iron pinning his leg. The ended up amputating his leg and we saw video of him hobbling around on crutches. The strange thing is, he still had a smile on his face. He was still playing with his friends, he was still laughing. The last shot of the clip he is sitting in the tent he is now living in and says,"a house with a tin roof is better than a tent, it is stronger. But if you give me a tent, I will take the tent, I will take the tent."
In Job chap 1 we have the story of a man who is righteous before God. He even makes a sacrifice each day for each of his children. Praying to God for them because one of them might have cursed God in their heart without knowing it. He is even recognized in the counsel of heaven as a righteous man. The Devil is there as the ruler of this world and says, "of course he is righteous you have blessed him, he has no reason to curse you." So God gives Job's possessions and family into the hands of the Devil. In one day everything is destroyed or stolen. All of Job's livestock is gone and all of his children are crushed under the weight of his oldest son's house as they are feasting together.
What is the response of this righteous man? He shaves his head and falls down on his face to worship God. "Naked I came into this world and naked I will be taken out. The Lord gives and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Absolutely heart broken dependence on God. There is nothing else he can do. He can't bring them back, he can't change a thing. All he can do is fall into God.
I can't imagine losing my child. I know some of you reading this have. I am about to attend a chapel where a mother on the anniversary of her son's suicide will be once again encouraging students, as she did a year ago, not to go down this road. The pain driving her to share with these kids must be immense.
What kind of faith does it take to fall down and worship in tragedy. All I know of from my own darkest times is a realization there is no where else to go. If I turned away from God in those moments, where else would I turn? There is no other place I can think of to go that would be helpful in any way.
I could drowned myself in addiction, I could harden myself to any emotion and live only doing my duty, I could go into my house and never come out again. But what good would any of this accomplish? I could reject God and live a life without faith bitter at the world. Once again what good would that do?
If you find your self in the midst of disaster and great suffering. I pray you and I would fall into God as Job did. For what else can we do, but depend on him and let him hold us when our legs, reason, and strength fail.
At church this weekend we saw a clip of a documentary called "out of the rubble" about the earthquake in Haiti and the stories of those who have survived it. The story shared was of a boy who was on his way to his grandparents house. As he started up the stairs the quake began. When it started to shake he ran faster up the stairs, but it kept shaking and then the walls came down and he was pinned underneath by his leg. A rescue worker finally came and cut the iron pinning his leg. The ended up amputating his leg and we saw video of him hobbling around on crutches. The strange thing is, he still had a smile on his face. He was still playing with his friends, he was still laughing. The last shot of the clip he is sitting in the tent he is now living in and says,"a house with a tin roof is better than a tent, it is stronger. But if you give me a tent, I will take the tent, I will take the tent."
In Job chap 1 we have the story of a man who is righteous before God. He even makes a sacrifice each day for each of his children. Praying to God for them because one of them might have cursed God in their heart without knowing it. He is even recognized in the counsel of heaven as a righteous man. The Devil is there as the ruler of this world and says, "of course he is righteous you have blessed him, he has no reason to curse you." So God gives Job's possessions and family into the hands of the Devil. In one day everything is destroyed or stolen. All of Job's livestock is gone and all of his children are crushed under the weight of his oldest son's house as they are feasting together.
What is the response of this righteous man? He shaves his head and falls down on his face to worship God. "Naked I came into this world and naked I will be taken out. The Lord gives and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Absolutely heart broken dependence on God. There is nothing else he can do. He can't bring them back, he can't change a thing. All he can do is fall into God.
I can't imagine losing my child. I know some of you reading this have. I am about to attend a chapel where a mother on the anniversary of her son's suicide will be once again encouraging students, as she did a year ago, not to go down this road. The pain driving her to share with these kids must be immense.
What kind of faith does it take to fall down and worship in tragedy. All I know of from my own darkest times is a realization there is no where else to go. If I turned away from God in those moments, where else would I turn? There is no other place I can think of to go that would be helpful in any way.
I could drowned myself in addiction, I could harden myself to any emotion and live only doing my duty, I could go into my house and never come out again. But what good would any of this accomplish? I could reject God and live a life without faith bitter at the world. Once again what good would that do?
If you find your self in the midst of disaster and great suffering. I pray you and I would fall into God as Job did. For what else can we do, but depend on him and let him hold us when our legs, reason, and strength fail.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Someone get that guy a mood ring
Have you ever felt wind whipped by your emotions?
I have been working on my office this week. It's kind-of a strange little corner office in the back of the church. It's away from everything else officish so I don't get the busy office in and out back there and I can just work. But it is so out of the way I don't think the decorators ever got back there. It was still just white walls with some holes still cut in them. It needed some TLC. So with the help of some wonderful student volunteers and a couple of parents it has now been repainted. I have also gotten some new furniture for it and have been building bookshelves and shopping for new seating. This is all very exciting. I can't wait until it's all done!
But the problem is, it's not done. My emotions are torn, while I am glad to have the opportunity to redo my office, I am also worn out at the thought of getting it all together. I am so glad we had a work bee at the church on Sunday because I don't know how long it would have taken me to actually schedule a day to work on this. I am excited, I am annoyed that I need a stud finder and don't have one (I do now thanks, share), I am weary as I look at the hall full of my stuff. All these things are fluxing back and forth.
In Genesis 50 we have the story of the death of Israel. There is a massive morning procession to Canaan with Egyptian officials and everything to bury the body of Israel in the tomb of Abraham and the rest of his ancestors. After everyone comes back from the burial and the mourning Joseph's brothers get scared. They think Joseph might still be ticked at them for the whole selling him into slavery thing. They decide they will write a letter and say it's from Israel asking Joseph to forgive his brothers for what they had done. Joseph begins to weep.
There are so many possible reasons whey this weeping could be happening. He could be still feeling some of the pain of being sold into slavery. He could still be mourning his father's death. He could be sad his brothers can't ask forgiveness for themselves and have to use his dead father to do it. He could be sad his father would think he still hadn't forgiven his brothers. He could be weeping because his brothers still haven't accepted his forgiveness and haven't believed him when he said they were forgiven. I have a feeling it is a mixture of some if not all of these.
Whatever the case may be Joseph continues to define his life with faith and kindness. He tells his brothers once again, they had intended evil but God intended good. He has been placed there in Egypt so save the lives of many. Then scripture says he spoke kindly to his brothers reassuring them.
My prayer today is even if we don't know what to do, if our emotions are tossing us this way and that, we would live a life of faith and kindness. I want to trust in God, he has made a plan for my life and I am walking in it the best I know how. I want to be kind to others, even if I am struggling with forgiveness towards them or with them trusting me. Anger in these situations is never helpful. Kind words, faith, trust in God and in one another. These are the things I pray for today.
May faith, trust, and kindness, be our anchors today even when we are swaying in the emotional winds.
I have been working on my office this week. It's kind-of a strange little corner office in the back of the church. It's away from everything else officish so I don't get the busy office in and out back there and I can just work. But it is so out of the way I don't think the decorators ever got back there. It was still just white walls with some holes still cut in them. It needed some TLC. So with the help of some wonderful student volunteers and a couple of parents it has now been repainted. I have also gotten some new furniture for it and have been building bookshelves and shopping for new seating. This is all very exciting. I can't wait until it's all done!
But the problem is, it's not done. My emotions are torn, while I am glad to have the opportunity to redo my office, I am also worn out at the thought of getting it all together. I am so glad we had a work bee at the church on Sunday because I don't know how long it would have taken me to actually schedule a day to work on this. I am excited, I am annoyed that I need a stud finder and don't have one (I do now thanks, share), I am weary as I look at the hall full of my stuff. All these things are fluxing back and forth.
In Genesis 50 we have the story of the death of Israel. There is a massive morning procession to Canaan with Egyptian officials and everything to bury the body of Israel in the tomb of Abraham and the rest of his ancestors. After everyone comes back from the burial and the mourning Joseph's brothers get scared. They think Joseph might still be ticked at them for the whole selling him into slavery thing. They decide they will write a letter and say it's from Israel asking Joseph to forgive his brothers for what they had done. Joseph begins to weep.
There are so many possible reasons whey this weeping could be happening. He could be still feeling some of the pain of being sold into slavery. He could still be mourning his father's death. He could be sad his brothers can't ask forgiveness for themselves and have to use his dead father to do it. He could be sad his father would think he still hadn't forgiven his brothers. He could be weeping because his brothers still haven't accepted his forgiveness and haven't believed him when he said they were forgiven. I have a feeling it is a mixture of some if not all of these.
Whatever the case may be Joseph continues to define his life with faith and kindness. He tells his brothers once again, they had intended evil but God intended good. He has been placed there in Egypt so save the lives of many. Then scripture says he spoke kindly to his brothers reassuring them.
My prayer today is even if we don't know what to do, if our emotions are tossing us this way and that, we would live a life of faith and kindness. I want to trust in God, he has made a plan for my life and I am walking in it the best I know how. I want to be kind to others, even if I am struggling with forgiveness towards them or with them trusting me. Anger in these situations is never helpful. Kind words, faith, trust in God and in one another. These are the things I pray for today.
May faith, trust, and kindness, be our anchors today even when we are swaying in the emotional winds.
Friday, October 15, 2010
A word from the Lord
Has God ever told you just what you needed to hear even if you didn't want to hear it?
We have stopped morning TV at our house at least on school days. It was very convenient for a while there. I could put on a good pbs kids show while Lorelai ate her breakfast and it would give me a chance to take a shower and get ready to go. The problem was Lorelai didn't want to go to preschool. She would wine and complain about not liking school, her teachers, and her friends. I knew this wasn't true because when she got to school she loved it there and when we pick her up she is so happy and hugging her friends goodbye. I had a suspicion it just might be the TV and her desire to watch the next show actually bringing on the complaining.
So I told Lorelai about a month ago now, no more TV on school mornings. She asked why of course and I told her its because you wine and complain about going to school when you watch TV. Well this is something she didn't want to hear and so she argued, "no I don't" and then she continued to wine only proving my point. While she still asks from time to time if she can watch a "bideo" in the morning when I say no she usually lets it go and she is much more cheerful about going to school.
Some times it is really difficult to hear the truth about ourselves and the consequences of our behavior. In gen 47-49 Israel seems to be blessing everyone. First Pharaoh, then his grandsons, this his sons before he dies. I have always thought of blessings as something good, a good word share with someone about the hope you have for their lives. But it's not that way with Israel's sons. He starts with Ruben and is sounds like a blessing to begin with his first born and his strength, but then he tells Ruben he is done. There is good reason for it, Ruben defiled his father's bed. This just isn't what I am used to thinking of as a blessing. Israel goes on to describe each of his son's lives to come. Simeon and Levi are also in trouble because of their out of check anger, another son will be involved with the sea, another given to hard labor, another great with food, another beat up but after the heals of his attackers.
It seems to me a blessing in this context is more a word from the Lord. Something we need to hear for the sake of our lives. This blessing of Israel even includes the prophecy of kingship in Judah's line. This is so very far off in history, yet Israel has been given this insight by God. I wonder what God's word for me might be today. I have played with the idea of teaching someday or college chaplaincy, would God include one of these futures for me if I was to receive a blessing today? Or would the word for today be a rebuke for something in my life? Then the question comes who would speak such a blessing? And would I recognize it once it was spoken?
I would like to encourage each of us today to be open to the blessing God might have for us today. I would also like to encourage each of us to be open to a blessing God might have some of us speak to someone else today. I also pray we have the courage to speak up whether it be something wanted or unwanted.
Holy Spirit speak to us today, give us the opportunity, the ears to hear, the words to speak, and the compassion with which to say them.
We have stopped morning TV at our house at least on school days. It was very convenient for a while there. I could put on a good pbs kids show while Lorelai ate her breakfast and it would give me a chance to take a shower and get ready to go. The problem was Lorelai didn't want to go to preschool. She would wine and complain about not liking school, her teachers, and her friends. I knew this wasn't true because when she got to school she loved it there and when we pick her up she is so happy and hugging her friends goodbye. I had a suspicion it just might be the TV and her desire to watch the next show actually bringing on the complaining.
So I told Lorelai about a month ago now, no more TV on school mornings. She asked why of course and I told her its because you wine and complain about going to school when you watch TV. Well this is something she didn't want to hear and so she argued, "no I don't" and then she continued to wine only proving my point. While she still asks from time to time if she can watch a "bideo" in the morning when I say no she usually lets it go and she is much more cheerful about going to school.
Some times it is really difficult to hear the truth about ourselves and the consequences of our behavior. In gen 47-49 Israel seems to be blessing everyone. First Pharaoh, then his grandsons, this his sons before he dies. I have always thought of blessings as something good, a good word share with someone about the hope you have for their lives. But it's not that way with Israel's sons. He starts with Ruben and is sounds like a blessing to begin with his first born and his strength, but then he tells Ruben he is done. There is good reason for it, Ruben defiled his father's bed. This just isn't what I am used to thinking of as a blessing. Israel goes on to describe each of his son's lives to come. Simeon and Levi are also in trouble because of their out of check anger, another son will be involved with the sea, another given to hard labor, another great with food, another beat up but after the heals of his attackers.
It seems to me a blessing in this context is more a word from the Lord. Something we need to hear for the sake of our lives. This blessing of Israel even includes the prophecy of kingship in Judah's line. This is so very far off in history, yet Israel has been given this insight by God. I wonder what God's word for me might be today. I have played with the idea of teaching someday or college chaplaincy, would God include one of these futures for me if I was to receive a blessing today? Or would the word for today be a rebuke for something in my life? Then the question comes who would speak such a blessing? And would I recognize it once it was spoken?
I would like to encourage each of us today to be open to the blessing God might have for us today. I would also like to encourage each of us to be open to a blessing God might have some of us speak to someone else today. I also pray we have the courage to speak up whether it be something wanted or unwanted.
Holy Spirit speak to us today, give us the opportunity, the ears to hear, the words to speak, and the compassion with which to say them.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Blessing the King!
How is it that regular people can have an effect on the great?
I'm sitting in the bi-partisan cafe right now. All around me are pictures of presidents. Pictures of great men and the causes they fought for. In the cafe are random average people. A group of college students sporting the beards they just got old enough to grow, a middle aged woman with a sweater vest, a stressed 30 yr old man with his forehead in his hand probably trying to figure out why his iphone isn't syncing with his macbook pro.
How do these two different groups of people ever interact? The great and the average. The renowned and the invisible. Is it by putting something like this blog out into the middle of cyberspace, will anyone of great renown read what I am writing today in this obscure little cafe in Portland, OR? Perhaps someone in here isn't average or invisible, perhaps someone in here is of great renown and I just don't know it. If we average people came into contact with the great what would we say? What would I have to offer a person of great renown?
In Gen 47 Joseph brings 5 of his brothers and his father into meet Pharaoh. He has instructed them to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds because shepherds are detestable to Egyptians and then Pharaoh will allow them to live in the land of Goshen. So we have 6 detestable shepherds walking into the throne room of Pharaoh. These guys aren't just average approaching greatness they are detestable approaching greatness. They tell Pharaoh what they were instructed to say by Joseph and sure enough Pharaoh says they can live in Goshen and if there are any among them truly gifted he would like to them to look after his own livestock. This is when something unexpected happens. Israel blesses Pharaoh!
How does this happen? How does the detestable shepherd end up blessing Pharaoh? Pharaoh asks Israel how old he is. Israel's reply is, "the years of my journey has been one hundred and thirty not a long time according to the lives of my fathers." I don't think it is just the number of years warranting the blessing. I think it was the years of his journey. The years of his journey with God, there was something more there Pharaoh recognized. Israel didn't say much, but there was something in his presence in who he had become on this journey, they way God had shaped him and Pharaoh must have seen it, because he allowed Israel to bless him.
From time to time I wonder what it is that gives me any right to stand up in front of a congregation and preach, to teach anything in a class, even to write this blog. On what ground do I speak, teach, or write. The only thing I have is God, his word, and my journey with him. This is the only ground I have to stand on. But here is the thing, it's enough. The average shepherd came in contact with a King and he blessed him, because of his journey with God.
What journey are you on today? What are the years of your journey shaping you into? Most importantly who are you on this journey with? A journey with God in faith will give you the ground not only to bless a king, but the average people who are sitting around you as well.
Journey with God, be a blessing!
I'm sitting in the bi-partisan cafe right now. All around me are pictures of presidents. Pictures of great men and the causes they fought for. In the cafe are random average people. A group of college students sporting the beards they just got old enough to grow, a middle aged woman with a sweater vest, a stressed 30 yr old man with his forehead in his hand probably trying to figure out why his iphone isn't syncing with his macbook pro.
How do these two different groups of people ever interact? The great and the average. The renowned and the invisible. Is it by putting something like this blog out into the middle of cyberspace, will anyone of great renown read what I am writing today in this obscure little cafe in Portland, OR? Perhaps someone in here isn't average or invisible, perhaps someone in here is of great renown and I just don't know it. If we average people came into contact with the great what would we say? What would I have to offer a person of great renown?
In Gen 47 Joseph brings 5 of his brothers and his father into meet Pharaoh. He has instructed them to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds because shepherds are detestable to Egyptians and then Pharaoh will allow them to live in the land of Goshen. So we have 6 detestable shepherds walking into the throne room of Pharaoh. These guys aren't just average approaching greatness they are detestable approaching greatness. They tell Pharaoh what they were instructed to say by Joseph and sure enough Pharaoh says they can live in Goshen and if there are any among them truly gifted he would like to them to look after his own livestock. This is when something unexpected happens. Israel blesses Pharaoh!
How does this happen? How does the detestable shepherd end up blessing Pharaoh? Pharaoh asks Israel how old he is. Israel's reply is, "the years of my journey has been one hundred and thirty not a long time according to the lives of my fathers." I don't think it is just the number of years warranting the blessing. I think it was the years of his journey. The years of his journey with God, there was something more there Pharaoh recognized. Israel didn't say much, but there was something in his presence in who he had become on this journey, they way God had shaped him and Pharaoh must have seen it, because he allowed Israel to bless him.
From time to time I wonder what it is that gives me any right to stand up in front of a congregation and preach, to teach anything in a class, even to write this blog. On what ground do I speak, teach, or write. The only thing I have is God, his word, and my journey with him. This is the only ground I have to stand on. But here is the thing, it's enough. The average shepherd came in contact with a King and he blessed him, because of his journey with God.
What journey are you on today? What are the years of your journey shaping you into? Most importantly who are you on this journey with? A journey with God in faith will give you the ground not only to bless a king, but the average people who are sitting around you as well.
Journey with God, be a blessing!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Blessings from God???
When blessings come our way do we seek the Lord before we open our hands?
I was watching a rather famous preacher on TV the other day. I was home visiting my parents for the weekend and I decided to take a week off of church attendance, but I turned on the TV to see if I could catch a worship service from the comfort of my parent’s living room. There was a variety to choose from but I stopped on a church that I had been to before in person to see what the pastor had to say.
He was talking about Israel being a chosen people and the blessings that were promised to them if they followed God. The blessings in Deuteronomy are really quite significant. They talk of financial blessing, never getting sick or illness, and a number of other things to add to the prosperity of the chosen, who follow God. The preacher went onto say, when people see these blessings in the lives of the chosen they will be drawn to know the source of the blessing and thus become interested in who God is.
The insinuation in this line of reasoning for me is, if there is a blessing coming our way, if we are about to receive financial blessing or prosperity of any kind for our family it must be from God and we need to receive it with open arms.
Israel, Jacob, challenges this philosophy in Gen 46. He has the invitation from Joseph to bring the family and Joseph will give them the land of Goshen to live in. So the family packs up and gets ready to go. But they make a stop on the way or rather before the way. Israel offers sacrifices and prays to God. God comes in a vision in the night to Israel and tells him it will be OK, it is good for them to go into the land of Egypt and God will bring the family out again. He doesn’t tell Israel it will be after 400 years of slavery, God doesn’t tell him of the plagues or the red sea, he just says go ahead and I will bring them out.
Israel doesn’t ask how either. He comes to God to find out if this blessing of a rich land is meant for he and his family to move to. God tells him it is the right place for them to go and he will bring them out again. Israel does question the gift to make sure it is from God, but he does not question God. This is a more significant trust in God then most of us live our lives with, me included.
When good things come my way, I say thank you God for this blessing for this financial opportunity for the prosperity you are turning my way, no questions asked. But when God has something in mind for my life I often ask him how. I often question what he will do, how this is going to play out, please give me some wisdom or discernment so I might know how this will be accomplished, what I’m suppose to do for the desired outcome, and what the result will be.
This isn’t trust in God; this is trust in circumstances and the way in which I can best control the situation. Israel has all the reasons in the world to make sure things are going to work out. He has 70 members of his immediate family to think about. He brings the blessing to God, he surrenders himself to God through sacrifice, and when God gives him the answer he acts! He doesn’t stay around to talk about it, he acts, he moves his entire family to Goshen.
May we learn to trust God like this. Before we accept the obvious blessing or gain being handed to us on a silver platter, may we surrender it to God and seek his will. Then without question move forward with the answer we are given.
May we question the blessings but not the God who may or may not be giving them.
I was watching a rather famous preacher on TV the other day. I was home visiting my parents for the weekend and I decided to take a week off of church attendance, but I turned on the TV to see if I could catch a worship service from the comfort of my parent’s living room. There was a variety to choose from but I stopped on a church that I had been to before in person to see what the pastor had to say.
He was talking about Israel being a chosen people and the blessings that were promised to them if they followed God. The blessings in Deuteronomy are really quite significant. They talk of financial blessing, never getting sick or illness, and a number of other things to add to the prosperity of the chosen, who follow God. The preacher went onto say, when people see these blessings in the lives of the chosen they will be drawn to know the source of the blessing and thus become interested in who God is.
The insinuation in this line of reasoning for me is, if there is a blessing coming our way, if we are about to receive financial blessing or prosperity of any kind for our family it must be from God and we need to receive it with open arms.
Israel, Jacob, challenges this philosophy in Gen 46. He has the invitation from Joseph to bring the family and Joseph will give them the land of Goshen to live in. So the family packs up and gets ready to go. But they make a stop on the way or rather before the way. Israel offers sacrifices and prays to God. God comes in a vision in the night to Israel and tells him it will be OK, it is good for them to go into the land of Egypt and God will bring the family out again. He doesn’t tell Israel it will be after 400 years of slavery, God doesn’t tell him of the plagues or the red sea, he just says go ahead and I will bring them out.
Israel doesn’t ask how either. He comes to God to find out if this blessing of a rich land is meant for he and his family to move to. God tells him it is the right place for them to go and he will bring them out again. Israel does question the gift to make sure it is from God, but he does not question God. This is a more significant trust in God then most of us live our lives with, me included.
When good things come my way, I say thank you God for this blessing for this financial opportunity for the prosperity you are turning my way, no questions asked. But when God has something in mind for my life I often ask him how. I often question what he will do, how this is going to play out, please give me some wisdom or discernment so I might know how this will be accomplished, what I’m suppose to do for the desired outcome, and what the result will be.
This isn’t trust in God; this is trust in circumstances and the way in which I can best control the situation. Israel has all the reasons in the world to make sure things are going to work out. He has 70 members of his immediate family to think about. He brings the blessing to God, he surrenders himself to God through sacrifice, and when God gives him the answer he acts! He doesn’t stay around to talk about it, he acts, he moves his entire family to Goshen.
May we learn to trust God like this. Before we accept the obvious blessing or gain being handed to us on a silver platter, may we surrender it to God and seek his will. Then without question move forward with the answer we are given.
May we question the blessings but not the God who may or may not be giving them.
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