Monthly Archives: August 2012
Why do we seek the Sensational?
Discussion, devotional thought of the day:
As I look over the devotional blogs I have been writing, I am tending to see a pattern regarding the number of readers I get per each title.
Include comments about chick fil a – lots of hits. Best blog so far – the one about my dieing 20 years ago. (that many people interested in my death experience? Or that many people think I really am dead?) But if the topic is something like spiritual growth, or discipleship, or the dreaded “e” word, or knowing God’s presence… not so much.
I’ll admit – it’s a little frustrating. Then again, I am writing these blogs as much to help me – to get me to process these things, but I desire that they would be a blessing to others. So should I write on politics? ( I can tick everyone off that way!) Or make this “less” of a devotional/discussion blog?
More important I think – why do we click on that which titilates, that which is controversial, or sensational? Why are we willing to do that, and not look to the deeper things of our faith, the things which actually change our lives?
In Hebrews we find:
Hebrews 5:11-14 (NLT) There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. 12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
So its not a new problem – but how can we address it? How can I make this devotional blog something that uplifts and challenges you? Please let me know… pragmatically it makes more sense than if this is just a blog that no one reads except me… or a blog that simply adds to that which distracts us from God, and His love and adoring Him!
God Bless!
Power Ballads… and Worship
Devotional thought of the day:
“”‘Let’s burst into song,’ said a soul in love, after seeing the wonders that our Lord was working through his ministry.
And the same advice I give you: Sing! Let your grateful enthusiasm overflow into prayerful song!” (Escriva)
Most couples I have met have a “song” or two. Music that makes the guy’s heart melt, and that puts a sparkle into their eyes. You see it no matter the age of the couple, 20 year olds, 80 year olds. There is just something about words and music together that promote a reaction, and a sense of joy or completeness in that moment. And from what I’ve seen, this even transcends culture.
A good love song, (my favorites are the power ballads) touch the heart, the music generates something within the soul, and while the words can’t perfectly express it, the raw emotion they transmit is palpable. Often the song reveals a sense of adoration – the things which leave the singer in awe of the love and beauty of the one who loves them.
Church music should be no less, for the Lord who reveals His love for us is worth singing about – and as we sing those hymns, praise songs, chants even, we are taught about expressing to God the love in a way that unites our hearts, souls and minds… If only we would release our hearts and minds to sing in that way… to adore our Lord with our words and music!
That’s worship.
try it…. soon!
For the Lord has mercy and love and compassion on His people, and that indeed is a thing of beauty and awe!
Today is God’s “take your kid to work day”
Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:
Back in the day, there was a song on Christian radio that had the following lyrics
“it may be the Devil, and it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody!”
Yesterday I wrote a little about priorities, then during the day, I started looking at all the demands for my time this fall. I’ll have to head to St Louis at the end of the month, then Palm Springs for a three day meeting in September, then another one day meeting in October, plus all the normal meetings, all the normal stresses, balancing in the needs of my church (writing a new Adult Sunday School class ) with my family, and with other obligations. The comes Advent and Christmas, and planning for those. Some even say I should make sure I have time for myself, and too look after my health.
It’s easy for me to start evaluating the schedule demands, and list this event as more important than that event, these people not as important as those. Now my evaluations are more intuitive than analytically, that’s how I operate. Yet even as I do these things, my blog from yesterday keeps simmering, and I wonder, am I listening to God in these evaluations? Am I considering His priorities, His desires, His needs. Will my calendar reveal where my heart lies, and is it with Him? Or am I acting more like a manager who doesn’t have a close relationship with God, if any?
How we set our priorities both on a daily basis and on a larger scale reveals who we serve, and is it God, or is it some other god? Do we dare question our own analysis – do we question our own motives, and ask God to use us, whereever He would lead us? Do we recognize that our schedule is one that is God’s as well, as He walks with us throughout our day?
Ultimately, our schedules may not change when we make God our first priority, when we realize that our day is one long appointment with Him. We will still have the same people to deal with, the same schedule demands, the same hard decisions, the same vocations and occupations. Yet if we see the day as one we spend with Him, in all those places, with all those people, we will look at the day differently…each appointment a divine appointment, each block of time has a divine significance.
It’s not so much using our time wisely, for personally I don’t have enough wisdom to do that. But I can let God’s wisdom prevail – and walk with Him as a son shadows his dad on “take your kid to work day”
We cry out “Lord Have Mercy” then step back in awe as He does!
Monday Morning and Priority Setting
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the day:
It’s a day I dread, the Monday after a vacation. I look at my desk and there are a ton of things to do. There are services to plan, sermon preparation to be done (and prepped to share with my deacons) There is the business of being the pastor of a church. It is almost tiring just looking at the work that needs to get done this week.
More importantly, there are people I need to go see, and visit.
When I was in management at a university, Monday morning was a critical time – if I spent the first 30 minutes actually planning the week – life was so much better! Of course there would be interruptions, emergencies, things that would throw me for a loop – but the plan would be there to come back to, to restore sanity, to guide my week – and if I did 75% of the plan during the week – I could count it a good week and head off on Friday content. Attempts to do this in ministry, well, I’ve realized it is not just impossible – but completely wrong. I know contend that it was wrong even then…..
Consider this well known Bible passage:
6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33 (KJV)
another translation put it this way…
6:33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NJB)
As a pastor and translator, there are a number of reasons I like the second version better- but this post isn’t about Greek – it is about priority setting and Monday mornings and setting out for a great week. To see that happen, the only priority that must be set, is this one – to see ourselves living this day, this week, under God’s authority and care, to realize that He has called us to righteousness, He has saved us and made us His, and we live within the realm of His authority, and as important, His responsibility. This is perhaps the first and most difficult lesson of discipleship. I am not in charge, God is, and it is His time to use, to plan out, to show me how He will craft this week in such a way that it is a gift to me, and more importantly (here is where it gets challenging) to where my week will be a blessing to others.
This is important whether you are a pastor, or a manager, or a clerk, or a student. To realize that we sit at our master’s feet, that He is in charge of setting a schedule and making it work within His will, that it is the Holy Spirit’s work to see this week holy and sanctified.
Luther talked about it by noting that we begin and end our day as being baptized – that’s the righteousness/saving justice of God. It is also explained in the catechism in regards to the First Commandment. He is your God, no other. Knowing that helps set the priorities, and helps us stay focused when life seems less than righteous around us. Another writer said it this way, “Add a supernatural motive to your ordinary professional work, and you will have sanctified it” (Escriva – The Way)
So i urge you – because I have to urge myself this morning, take the time, a few moments – even 5 minutes… and breathe, and seek to realize that incredible blessing that comes from living in His presence, where He is in charge, where things that matter are all tied to His making them right, and holy. Seek first His love and authority and responsibility, seek His making your life the way it should be…. and everything else… will fall into place.
Godspeed!
Willing to serve God? At what cost?
At one point in Jesus ministry, a lot of His followers abandoned Him, for they found what He taught about, to challenging the price to high.
We often talk of heroes of the faith in terms of what they’ve given up – the comforts of a modern home, being surrounded by friends and family, maybe even those who have given up the idea of having a spouse, so that they can spend more time ministering. (one church I was at sponsored such a lady who ran an orphanage in Hawaii) We are amazed at the cost some people will pay, as they minister for Jesus at what appears to us – to be great cost.
We respond greatly to pleas from those who sacrifice, we fund their missions and ministries, we tell others of what they’ve done. But how much are we willing to sacrifice? Instead of money, what about time? What about our pride, our dignity?
That question is a good one to ask, because it gets to what we’ve made idols in our lives quickly. Ask a five year old to somewhere with Mommy and Daddy, and you will quickly find where his treasures lie! But ask him which He loves more, get him to think about it… and the answer will change – and eventually the attitude as well (Eventually)
The answer to the question of what is to high a cost to serve God can only be answered by first looking at our relationship with God – realizing His love, realizing His desire to know us, and the sacrifice He made… and realizing what we gain because of it.
When everyone found the cost of listening to Jesus teaching to high here is how St Peter answered a
6:67 Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ 68 Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, 69 and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
John 6:67-69 (NJB)
May we, as we cry out “Lord Have Mercy” come to the realization that no cost is too high, for everything we are… is because of Him, and is His.
How to find strength in the face of adversity and trauma?
Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:
There are days when it seems the trials and traumas never end. For a pastor, perhaps we see this more often than others, but I don’t think so. There are so many things out there to cause anxiety, from health issues to financial struggles, to friends and family in trauma, to marriages and relationships that struggle and need supernatural help to survive and heal.
As I related yesterday, I’ve had a few myself – from dieing to surgeries, and to being there for people in the midst of so many issues. I have found that in the midst of adversity, in the midst of trauma, there is both a sense of peace, and strength that is there that isn’t mine, but it is available to me. It is one of the reasons I am writing a book about churches in trauma – to remind them of what is already there… for them..
In this mornings devotion, I came across two notes that reveal it a little, once you think them through:
475 You realize you are weak. And so, indeed, you are. In spite of all that—rather, because of it—God has sought you. He always uses inadequate instruments so that the work may be seen to be his. From you he asks only docility.
476 When you really give yourself to God, no difficulty will be able to shake your optimism. (Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1165-1168). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
I’ve been accused of being too optimistic once or twice, and while I would adjust St Josemaria’s statement a little – I agree with it. My adjustment would be to say “When you abandon yourself to God” rather than give. Give makes it sound like you can, like a child “take back” that which you have given. (and so often we do!) But to come to the realization that there is no other option, no other hope, then you do let God be God, the Master who promises to and designs your life as a piece of artwork. (see Eph. 2:10 – the word for workmanship there is the word we get poetry from!)
I am not talking about conversion here – at least not in the evangelical sense. For there, conversion has little to do with us, God simply reveals Himself and His love, through those who come to us with His word. Wesley may have called this a “second infilling of grace”, Robert Schuller calls this positive thinking (knowing that we are God’s brings about incredible strength in times of need – that’s the hallmark of most of his writing) , the prophet/leader Joshua would ask it this way “choose you this day whom you serve”. The apostle Paul talks about being confident that “all things work for good for those that love God.” Luther would talk about such as a First Commandment issue – don’t have other God’s – but call upon Him in prayer and praise. When you abandon yourself into God’s hands, and are confident that is the thing to do- you simply know and trust in Him.
What is mistaken for optimism – is simply a matter of confidence in God. Trusting Him, having faith in Him, knowing Him.
That is where the other point of St. Josemaria comes into play. When we realize we are weak – when we realize we have no real option but to abandon ourselves to God, then we begin to realize that God has plans, He has designs on our life, and those designs bring us to places we would have never imagined, to work with people we would never anticipate, and see them respond to the work of God in our lives. Not because we can do great things – but in the midst of the storms, in the midst of what should promote incredible anxiety, in the middle of it all… we know God is with us.
Having mercy, pouring out His love and comfort, assuring us of our place with Him……there is our strength, and knowing that, we can be incredibly bold – in being His people.
So know He is God, and you are His chosen people. And let Him do His thing… being God – He’s significantly better at being God than you are!
Christianity is not “behavior modification”…yet…
As I read tweets and posts of people these days, as they attack or defend the actions of a corporate CEO, it seems what has gotten lost in the discussion is the message of the gospel, and the reason that Jesus came to earth.
There are times I think that we forget that Christianity isn’t in the “behavior modification” business, and I know for sure that many who are offended by those who read scripture plainly, think that is our primary mission and goal. They think most of us our out to modify their behavior – or that of those they care about – and love – while not confronting our own hypocrisy, our sins of gossip, or even.. our own sins in thought, word and deed of lust.
But the gospel isn’t primarily about changing people, converting evil sinners into well behaved saints as if by the flip of a switch. It doesn’t work that way – and its not about that anyway.
It’s about introducing people to a God who cares about the broken, those broken by their own sin, and by damaged equally or more by the sins of the world. It’s about bringing them the idea that God loves them enough to care for them in their brokenness, in their dysfunction, and reach to them, cleanse them, restore life to them.
All Christians are then, are those who are on the road to healing, as they deal with their own brokenness. Well – not exactly, We realize our brokenness, and our only way to deal with it – is as the blind men so long ago dealt with it, by crying “Lord, have mercy!”
In his letter to a young pastor named Titus, Paul reminds him of what life was like, prior to getting to know Jesus, the One who comes to the broken, and heals them. He wrote:
3:3 There was a time when we too were ignorant, disobedient and misled and enslaved by different passions and dissipations; we lived then in wickedness and malice, hating each other and hateful ourselves. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour for humanity were revealed, 5 it was not because of any upright actions we had done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own faithful love that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit 6 which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 so that, justified by his grace, we should become heirs in hope of eternal life. 8 This is doctrine that you can rely on. I want you to be quite uncompromising in teaching all this, so that those who now believe in God may keep their minds constantly occupied in doing good works. All this is good, and useful for everybody. Titus 3:3-8 (NJB)
It’s probably a pretty needed reminder to the church today. We were sinners when Christ came to us, through the message of the gospel, and through that word and the sacraments cleansed us of our sin. We still struggle with it – from a behavior perspective we aren’t less sinners that those who don’t know Christ. But we know that we are being healed, being counted as righteous, and renewed. That God does the work, and if our behavior changes, if we realize sins power is broken when it comes to the control it has on our lives – He gets the praise…. not us… He gets the credit.. not us…
and when we see those still paralyzed by their brokenness… our attitude should be one of concern, and love, and bringing them to the only One who can bring them healing…. instead of lining up to crush them some more.
May we learn to cry “Lord have mercy!” for others, as well as for ourselves!
The Power and Mean to Accomplish Great Things
Discussion/Devitional Thought of the Day:
I used to have big dreams of doing great things. When I was my sons age,I dreamt of being a president like Abraham Lincoln, just a few years later – a priest whose sermons would change the world, like some of those I read about in school. Time and distance changes some of those dreams, and some of us have left dreams behind. I do not think today I could be a politician, never mind a president – the public is far too mean – and doesn’t respect the office, or the burden it carries – and being a priest – well,…..
But does that mean we have to give up trying to accomplish great things?
Or do we realize how great the normal things God calls us to do are? Like loving our neighbor, like helping those who find themselves without the ability, even for the moment – to help themselves. It is my opinion, that visiting someone who is a shut in, or sitting by a stranger at church is worth more than 10,000 facebook forwards, or eating at a restaurant whose owners are undersiege.
Even greater, forgiving that adversary, working to reconcile a couple of friends, telling someone of God’s grace. These are the great things… things that take sacrifice, things that may actually cost us. And that gets to the point of this entry, the thing I would have us discuss- how do we accomplish the greatest things in life?
One author put it this way:
” The means? They’re the same as those of Peter and Paul, of Dominic and Francis, of Ignatius and Xavier: the cross and the Gospel. Do they seem little to you, perhaps?” Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1151-1152). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Cross and the Gospel – the Sacrifice of Christ on the cross – that is where our sins our forgiven. The cross which we are linked to in our baptism – where we were united to Christ’s suffering and death, that we would be untied to His resurrected life. And of course in the Feast where we know that sacrifice In this cross – where God comes to us and transforms us – they are the means by which God enables us to do the great things He has planned for us to do.
And the Gospel is that same “means”. The incredible news of God’s love, of His mercy, of His grace. The news that He has come – and dwelt among us, and we behold His glory, even as we will one day share in it.
Comprehending that through the cross, through the gospel, Jesus comes to us, bonds us to Himself and changes us – it is in this that we find our strenghth, our life, our hope…. and the power and means to accomplish the greatest things, the very things God has planned from long ago to do… because He has sent you to do them.
One last thought from St. Josemarie, a prayer:
“Lord, we are glad to find ourselves in your wounded palm. Grasp us tight, squeeze us hard, make us love all our earthly wretchedness, purify us, set us on fire, make us feel drenched in your Blood – and then cast us far, far away, hungry for the harvest, to sow the seed more fruitfully each day, for the Love of You. Amen! ( Escriva – The forge)
