Words to thrive by...

If you have listened to me teach much at all, then you know that I love the book of Ecclesiastes. It's so relevant and timely it could have been written at Starbucks by one of our own cultural interpreters. Like the unexpected appearance of an old friend in a season of loneliness, it's truth refreshes the soul and anchors perspective.

This morning I was reading in Ecclesiastes 5, 6 and 7 when two sets of verses leapt off the page to flag me down and remind me of the way to peace and abundance.

Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 says ...

"Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise--why destroy yourself? Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool--why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes."

Ahhh balance! Stay in the middle. Not too high, not too low. REMEMBER: this too, shall pass--whatever "this" is, good or bad, it won't last forever. So don't marginalize yourself or alienate others by dwelling in the extremes of overbearing righteousness or wisdom. Don't kill yourself for pleasure. Keep your wits about you. Remember who you are. Fear God and avoid all extremes. That's a good word!

And in the interests of avoiding extremes and not jumping to conclusions, Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 says ...

"Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you--for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others."

When we are hurting we look to hurt others--it's human nature. So there will be times when we wander into the crosshairs of people who are looking for relief at someone else's expense. Don't pay them any attention! Don't waste your time keeping score or feasting on their poison. They don't mean it anymore than you do when you curse them. Let it go. You'll be happier for it.

Bottom line ...

Avoid extremes!

Fear God!

Don't coddle the curses!

Now those are words to thrive by!

Fashionable Doubt

I have been rereading the accounts of the crucifixion and the resurrection this morning. I always try to put myself in the sandals of those who were a part of the story. I can't imagine being one of those ladies who went to the tomb on that Sunday morning expecting to find Jesus' body, only to be met by a couple of angels who told them that Jesus walked out of there alive. I suffer momentary panic when I go to retrieve my birthday checks and discover that the place of "safe keeping" is empty. So it's really difficult for me to fathom what it must have been like for them.

And what about Peter and the rest of the disciples? When they got the news that the tomb was empty, they weren't buying it. In Luke 24:11 the scripture reveals their mindsets in no uncertain terms: "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense." That's about right! It seemed crazy to them that a perfectly dead human could rise from the dead and walk out of a cave.

I get that. It is crazy. But isn't that what Jesus said would happen? The angel reminded the ladies of his words. Luke 24:6-7 captures his reminder, "He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"

With his help the ladies remembered. And I'm sure when they recounted the story to the disciples, the eleven remembered his words, too. But those words were crazy. Surely Jesus didn't mean that he would come back to life: that’s pure "nonsense." You can't take him that literally, it just doesn't make sense.

What the disciples were experiencing was fashionable doubt. No one believed Jesus' words after he died on the cross. Death ushers in the moment when the proverbial "fat lady" sings. The game was over and they had settled into inescapable hopelessness as it related to their dreams with Jesus. But he didn't stay dead. Hope was not lost. He would rise again. He would keep his word for them just as he keeps it for us.

I'm not sure that we’ve really learned our lesson from the disciples because when it comes to taking Jesus at his word, fashionable doubt is still very much in vogue. What can we do about it?

We need to follow Peter and John's lead. John 20:3-4 says, "So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first." Even in doubt they ran to the tomb. They raced towards hope rather than running from it. Obviously doubt was still the fashionable choice because the other nine stayed behind. But they embraced hope and found that Jesus had indeed kept his word.

What about you? When doubt is fashionable which way do you run?

You ask: In the end why does it matter? That is a good question. Jesus was raised from the dead for all of them. He kept his word for those who fashionably doubted and those who fought through it. True enough. So what is the win for those who overcome fashionable doubt and traverse the narrow road of faith?

The reward is the joy that comes at the end of the journey. It is the thrill of victory when you didn't quit, the satisfaction of being able to say, "I knew it," when everyone else was jumping ship. There is great joy in staying the course, going against the fashionable doubt of others.

It was that joy that kept Jesus going and Hebrews 12:2 makes that fact abundantly clear. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus stayed the course by hanging onto the joy that he would experience for finishing faithfully. And in the end he rose from the dead victoriously--just as he said he would.

What areas in your life are you currently experiencing fashionable doubt? Does God have a word for you? Don't miss out on the joy he has set before the faithful!

The Fast

Skycrest is fasting as a church. We are doing it to ask God to infuse our Easter Outreach Project (the feeding of the 400 families) and our Easter Worship Celebration with his grace. We are doing three, twenty-four hour fasts. It begins on Monday night after dinner and goes until Tuesday night at dinner. As we fast we are praying through Isaiah 58:6-12, a beautiful passage of scripture. Last week was easy. But today, uggghhh!

I'm struggling today. I don't feel good. I don't want to do it. I feel sort of tired and completely over it. Denying myself is just not my cup of tea.

I've been tempted to eat something and I could find a million reasons to eat, but the most understandable, the easiest self-sale is that I don't feel good and I'm having a hard time being productive. So I've been trying to talk myself out of eating by reminding myself that that I made a commitment, that I'm not a quitter because I finish what I start.

As I was going through all the reasons to stay the course, I realized that I was in danger of missing the boat altogether. I'm not doing this to keep myself from eating, I'm doing this to keep myself praying. So I'm not a loser if I eat, I'm a loser if I fail to pray.

So when I'm finished here I'm going to pray. I'm going to tell God how I feel. I am going to confess that usually I eat without gratitude. I am going to tell him how I count on food more than I count on him. Then I'm going to thank him for feeding me in spite of my sense of entitlement.

When I'm finished confessing, I'm going to ask him to help the spiritually and physically needy through me. I'm going to thank him that we are called to do something for the Clearwater Community that we couldn't do without him. I'm going to ask him to show up in an unmistakable fashion on the 1st and the 4th of April. Finally I'm going to ask him to give me success with the people he wants me to invite to church to celebrate Easter.

And then when I'm hungry I'll do it all again (I hope)!!!!

I Have a Question for You

At Skycrest we have been going through what we are calling a 60/60 experiment. The idea is that every 60 minutes for 60 days we have some sort of alarm, chime, or buzzer sounding that reminds us that we are called to live in the continual presence of God. When the alarm sounds we are to pray, quote a memory verse, or do some sort of assessment about our last hour before God.

That may sound gimmicky to you, but please don't knock it until you've tried it. What I have learned is that I'm not as well connected as I thought I was. The number of times I have been caught completely unawares by that beep and what it stood for is alarming, and the number of times that I've responded inhospitably to the reminder of God's gracious presence is disappointing. But I am grateful for my beeping watch, even though I don't act like it sometimes. Hopefully a habit is forming while I am transforming, but I won't really know until the fruit grows and the inspection is complete.

As we have been going through this experience/experiment, a question has been taking shape within me. It's a question that I have always known the answer to, or at least had an answer for, but now I'm not so sure.

The question: Is God really all I need? Can all of my deficiencies as they relate to living righteously be met by the presence of God? Is it really God and nothing else?

What do you think?

I'm not so sure it is God and nothing else. This may be heresy, but I don't think so. There have been times throughout this experiment when I was conscious of the presence of God and yet I was still hosting thoughts or ideas that were not pleasing to Him. There have been times where I have been sitting in the light and yet savoring the thrilling darkness of vengeance. There have been times when I was praying to God about serving other people, and yet refused the next opportunity to do so.

As I look back over my life with God, I see times where I have been walking in darkness and God was trying to tell me to quit, get out, or let go. However, I refused to do so until someone else flipped the light on for me and let me see the darkness from their perspective. I had God and his still small steady voice. But what I really needed was accountability with skin on.

Is this why when Adam was in the garden before the fall and he had uninterrupted fellowship with God that God described the scene as "not good?" He had God. What else could he possibly want? What else could he possible need? Isn't God all we need, or did he put a human shaped hole in our heart beside the one he fashioned for himself?

Jonah Slept! Could You?

I have been studying the book of Jonah the past couple of weeks and there is a scene in the beginning of the book that has been bugging me. It takes place right after after God tells Jonah to go and launch an evangelistic campaign the likes of which the world has never seen. The assignment is to go to Nineveh and turn them towards God. Though Jonah was the Billy Graham of his generation, he refuses to go because of his hatred for the Ninevites. They are a despicable group of people who consistently break the unwritten rules of warfare by brutalizing the women and children of their enemies. Jonah's bitterness toward them is rooted in the reality that the Jews have been victimized by their brutality and Jonah wants no part of helping them.

So when God calls Jonah to go and lead the Ninevites to repentance, Jonah runs. He would rather God wipe them from the face of the earth then give them a second chance. So Jonah heads off in the other direction, for Tarshish.

You know the story: Along the way God sends a storm that's so violent that it threatens to break up the ship. The sailors surmise that their only chance of survival is to lighten the load by throwing all the cargo overboard. It was all hands on deck!

But there was one set of hands not on deck - Jonah's. Jonah 1:5 says, "But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep." I don't get that, and apparently I am not alone. The next verse states, "The captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep?'" That's what I want to know. How could he go down there and sleep? Sleep is supposed to be the by-product of peace, found in the center of God's will. This story messes with my theological constructs and tampers with my formula.

There's a similar story in Luke 8. This time it's Jesus and his disciples in a storm of such power that they are convinced they will die. When the storm is fully raging, Jesus, like Jonah, is asleep. The disciples wake him up presumably to die with them. They can't believe he's asleep. He points out the deficiency of their faith and we are left to assume that Jesus' faith and confidence in the future is what enabled him to sleep peacefully in the midst of the storm.

When I look at those two stories, I can understand how Jesus could sleep. But when it comes to Jonah, I am with the captain. How could he?

When I project myself in that situation I just can't imagine being able to curl up and go to sleep. The disobedience; the running; the storm; the cargo; the lives of the sailors; I assume all of those factors would keep me ill at ease and therefore wide awake. But not Jonah and truth be told maybe not me either.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not really surprised, just a bit self-righteous. The truth is, instead of judging Jonah, I need to secure a set of industrial strength tweezers to pluck the log out of my eye.

We all have the capacity to turn our backs on what God wants us to do, and then somehow "come to a peace" about our decision. I know I have done it and I feel reasonably sure that you have too. The fact is, it is amazing the things that we can "come to a peace" about that are in direct disobedience to God's commands: adultery; refusing to forgive; stealing money from God by not giving; fostering division through gossip; judging others; the list goes on and on just like our sleep.

But don't be fooled eventually storms will wake us up. Neither Jonah nor Jesus were able to sleep all the way through it. They were both awakened because of the storm. The difference was that because Jesus did not cause the storm, he overcame it and sailed right on through while Jonah was consumed by the storm as a consequence of causing it.

The lesson is not to be fooled by sleep. "Coming to a peace" about something is different from enjoying God's peace.

God help us to be honest about our choices. Wake us up before we find a way to justify our behavior and end up consumed/swallowed whole by the storms of our disobedience.

What Might God Do?

I have a book that a friend gave me called, Letters of a Modern Mystic by Frank C. Laubach. He was a missionary on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, who labored in relative obscurity until he began an experiment with God after his 46th birthday. The book is a compilation of letters written primarily to his earthly father about his desire to live in the continual presence of his Heavenly Father. This desire to transcend the physical and be continually attentive to the spiritual is what led to him being called a Modern Mystic, and literally launched him on the road to world changing significance (check out his bio on wikipedia).

I have been reviewing his book as we get ready for the Revolution. We launch formally on 1.31.10. I can't wait. If you are serious about becoming a fully devoloping follower of Christ then you need to commit to being a part. It is going to be a fabulous experience as we lead people through the same sort of disciplines that Frank Laubach embraced as he sought to fully experience God.

As I was rereading his book the other day, I came across a prayer that he prayed that has challenged me. The heart of the prayer is this:

God, what would you put in my mind today if only I were large enough to handle it?

In other words, what would God give me if my faith was large enough to receive it? What does God see that I could see, if I truly had His perspective? What might God do with me, if I had the faith to fully cooperate?

I challenge you to open your heart to the possibilities. Make Rev. Laubach's prayer your prayer, and follow God's lead.

The Prayer of Examen

Blah Humbug: Renewing Your Spiritual Passion, is the name of the study we are in at Skycrest. The genesis of the series comes from the recognition that we are all of us prone to drifting away from an impassioned faith. While all followers have designs on a vibrant walk with Jesus, few sustain the passion necessary to completely die to self and live for Christ. The hope for the series is to identify some critical disciplines that should reinvigorate our passion.

Yesterday we examined what Gordon MacDonald calls the remembrance principle. Activating this principle is a key to inflaming spiritual passion because remembering well keeps us grounded in the truth of God's unchanging work on our behalf. When we fail to remember the steadfast truth of God, we invite our fickle, ever-changing circumstances to guide our decision making.

To help us establish a routine of remembrance, God established the Sabbath day, exhorting us to keep it holy or make it different. The idea is that as we rest from our work, we should reflect on and celebrate the good work of God. The fruit of this exercise is increased faith and confidence in the way of God, accompanied by a renewed determination to live for him.

What I've discovered along the way is that I not only need to observe the Sabbath weekly, I need to practice Sabbath moments daily. I have to carve out times in my day where I remember that God is for me. I need to discipline myself to consider the omnipresence of God so I can submit to and enjoy the power of God.

In researching ways to establish the discipline of daily Sabbath moments, I discovered the Prayer of Examen. In the first half of the 16th century, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, taught his disciples to conclude their day with what he called the Prayer of Examen. It's a prayer of examination whereby you recall the events and activities of your day and through the process of remembering, evaluate your relational harmony to God.

St. Ignatius' idea was that participants would take time each night to work through the exercises in an attempt to learn to better facilitate the presence of God in their lives. While there are many renditions of the prayer, we tailored it to present three basic steps to achieve the daily Sabbath discipline:

1. Confess your place in God. Utilize Psalm 103:1-5 to recount the benefits of being a child of God. As you read through those verses, pause to celebrate the goodness of God and acknowledge your need for God.
2. Ask yourself two sets of questions:
   a. Where did I feel the most alive, most hopeful, most in the presence of God today?
   b. Where did I feel the darkest, most despairing, most removed from God today?
3. Celebrate the mercies of God that are new every morning. Ask for strength and guidance to continually live in the presence of God tomorrow.

All three steps need to be followed to stay anchored in truth and impassioned for God. We have to remember what he did for us. We must be able to identify those times and places when we sensed his presence or even realized our distance. Noting the reasons for each will enable us to more consistently place ourselves in blessable positions. Finally when we fail, we must remember that according to God's grace and mercy, every new day gives us the opportunity to follow him.

Will you join me for the next week in daily praying the Prayer of Examen? I pray as you discipline yourself to enjoy a daily Sabbath, your passion will be renewed like the eagle's.