Monthly Archives: February 2021
Miserable Job? Try Worship while you work!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Romans 6:13 (NLT2)
60 Forgive this digression, and, though we haven’t really gone off the track, let us return to the central idea. Be convinced that our professional vocation is an essential and inseparable part of our condition as Christians. Our Lord wants you to be holy in the place where you are, in the job you have chosen for whatever reason. To me, every job that is not opposed to the divine law is good and noble, and capable of being raised to the supernatural plane, that is, inserted into the constant flow of Love which defines the life of a child of God.
As I came up to with the title of this post, I thought of the 7 dwarves in Snow White’s famous cartoon, marching off to the mines singing “Whistle While You Work.” It is cute song at first, but try singing it at work when everyone is stressed out, or just about any Monday in a year!
Seriously, try researching how many people are not happy at work. First up in my search was Forbes, – 53% unhappy with their work! It gets worse, CNBC said 85% of the employees they surveyed are unhappy doing what they spend 40-50 hours or more a week doing!
Switching jobs won’t help, for all you would be doing is taking the job another person’s place, where they were unhappy. Trading misery isn’t a great option, for often the misery is found inside you, rather than just inside the building.
Maybe the answer then is something other that what you do?
One of my early mentors talked about who your real employer is, who you work to please. It isn’t your boss, or the head of your department, or even the owner of the company. You work for God, and the you work pays you to do that!
I am not saying spend all your time preaching in a break room, or being annoying with your faith in God. I am not advising you to become the apostle, prophet or evangelist that argues osmeone into the faith. Nor should you act like you are holier than the rest of the people at your workplace.
Instead, look at yuor co-workers are people who Jesus died for, because He loves them, just like He loves you! Look at your tasks as things God is using to draw you closer to Him. See every moment as one where you encounter God! As you do, you will realize the promises of God are for your work life as well as your lives at church and at home. If you are McDonald’s, or a Real Estate office, running a tractor or driving across country in a big rig, there you are with God. Even those in front-line, high stress jobs go about their lives in the presnce of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit is transforming them into His image.
This isn’t God’s law, you won’t go to Hell if you don’t do it. But it is living life the way He desires, casting cares, problems, sins into His arms, and dwelling in His peace and love. Find people that will remind you that the Lord is with you! Find little things that remind you of this.
And then be there, in the moment, with Jesus.
Escrivá, Josemaría. Friends of God . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Ministry formation at its best… in our own Gethsemane
Devotional Thought for our Days
6 What should I bring before the Lord when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin? 8 Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8 (CSBBible)
“I didn’t learn my theology all at once. I had to ponder over it ever more deeply, and my spiritual trials were of help to me in this, for one does not learn anything without practice.”
I am not an anti-academic, I wouldn’t have a master’s degree and be on the final lap of a doctorate if I were.
But having those degrees did not prepare me to a pastor. They gve me tools that assist me in some parts of my ministry. Even preaching dosen’t come primarily from the studyof Greek and Hebrew, or the communication skills honed of twenty-three years of pastorl ministry, and another 6 as a chaplain.
The biggset lessons have come serving the drunk at 3 am before they head home to a wife they no longer loved, (or so they thought) They came at 2 am standing beside a nurse who cared for the hospice patient as they breathed their last. As I prayed for them, and prayed with the family, the nurse would wash the body once more, while waiting for the mortuary.
Ministey occurs there, in the brokenness of strangers, and in the times where I myself struggled. I am not alone, of course, nor have my battles been as severe as Job’s, Jeremiah’s, Peter’s or Paul’s battles.
Ministry is shaped when we have to depend on God’s promsied righteousness, when we realize we can depend on Him, for that is what it means to adore faithfulness, for He embodies what we are unable to accomplish. To simply walk with Him, letting Him shape our work, just as He shapes our eternal destiny. It is learned as we have to find the stillness to meditation in the middle of the tenseness and brokenness and anxiety of God.
Those battles we endure, they drive us to our Lord, teaching us how faithful He is to us. They drive us to the communion rail, and again we encounter Him. Not in a mechanical way, in a forced compliance. But in despair, looking for some hope, some comfort.
Academia provides the tools, But they cannot provide the suffering (though some students think they do!) that drives us to the Lord, the Lord in whom love us, the Lord who shows us mercy.
The Lord whom we praise, as those praises are generated from our hearts and souls, from the depths of our beings.
For He is there, the Lord is with you!
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 54: Table Talk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 54 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 50.
The Church’s Hope: Life Together
Devotional Though of the Day:
14 Each morning fill us with your faithful love, we shall sing and be happy all our days; 15 let our joy be as long as the time that you afflicted us, the years when we experienced disaster. 16 Show your servants the deeds you do, let their children enjoy your splendour! 17 May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us, to confirm the work we have done! Psalm 90:14-17 (NJB)
Evangelical Christianity is gasping for breath. We happen to have entered a period when it is popular to sing about tears and prayers and believing. You can get a religious phrase kicked around almost anywhere—even right in the middle of a worldly program dedicated to the flesh and the devil.
Old Mammon, with two silver dollars for eyes, sits at the top of it, lying about the quality of the products.… In the middle of it, someone trained in a studio to sound religious will say with an unctuous voice, “Now, our hymn for the week!” So they break in, and the band goes twinkle, twankle, twinkle, twankle, and they sing something that the devil must blush to hear.
They call that religion, and I will concede that religion it is. It is not Christianity, and it is not the Holy Spirit. It is not New Testament and it is not redemption. It is simply making capital out of religion.
Christianity, at least in the West, is still gasping for breath. From my perspective, it needs to catch its breath, to find its “second wind.” Some might think the church is beyond help. Others think spiritual intubation or the shock of a defibrillator might restore life to these wearied saints and the emptying churches.
I think the issue is compounded by COVID and our inability to gather. Pastors are being reduced to online preachers. Their role as commune-icators seems to be reduced to providing monologues. Pastors are called on to produce talks that try to motivate and comfort. Yet they cannot see the sparkling eyes that tell you the gospel has been heard or the body betraying the anxiety of a soul tormented by guilt and shame.
There is no dialogue, no worship, no life together.
We struggle alone, pastors and people separated from each other and feeling separated from God. The expression of the vibrant Christian religion has been replaced by a religious expression that doesn’t see people celebrating in God’s presence.
Tozer saw this in his time; the Psalmist saw the answer to it in his time. We need to be reminded of the Psalmist’s prayer, prayed for “us” the people of God. The answer to vain religion is to see God filling “us.” We need to savor the sweetness of the Lord together, to see Him confirm the work we are doing as we walk together in His presence. That only comes as we see God at work in us, as we know His presence. His presence not just in individual lives, but as He draws all believers into His presence. Not just those who believe now, but those who will come to believe.
This is the hope for the church to be gathered again into His presence and rejoicing in that together. For together, we will savor the sweetness of the Lord.
A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).
Dare I Demand What Is Mine by Right?
Devtional Thought of the Day:
17 If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust. 18 What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News. 1 Corinthians 9:17-18
Grant, my Lord, that before I die I may do something for Thee!
The apostle does not belong to himself/herself, but is buried with Christ
(Col 2:12).
Any other way is to be ashamed of Christ and, therefore, to face
the eschatological consequences: “If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, also the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with his holy angels” (Mk 8:38).
The Apostle Paul writes something to contrary to our culture today.
He preached Christ crucified, and if that meant surrendering his rights, he did.
Even to the point where he would welcome chains, for then he could share the love of God with those guards to whom he was chained.
I wonder how many of us would be willing to do that today?
How many of us pray with de Ligouri that we could do something for God before we die? What suffering or sacrifice would we accept and embrace if that desire could be come true?
If you think I am trying to pour on the guilt to try and motivate you to serve God, to love your neighbor and your enemy, I am not. If you are feeling guilt over this, go back to the cross, go back and look at the love that Jesus has for you there, as He embraced the guilt as He removed your shame, as He embraced that cross for the joy that He would come to know, as you walk with Him in your life.
That is what it means that you aren’t your own, that you belong to Jesus. That you were untied to Him in His death, burial and resurrection, THat guarantees God is at work in and through you, the queston is do you see it?
THat is the job of pastors and priests, daecons and elders, Bible teachers, and 4 and 7 year olds who remind you that Jesus is with you…
at which point, thoughts about our “rightes” mean nothing, not compated to the love God has for us, as He trusts us to invite others into this divine fellowship.
Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gill & Son, 1887), 140.
Pope Francis, A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings, ed. Alberto Rossa (New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013), 57.
Why Don’t/Can’t They Hear?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. 15 For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. Matthew 13:14-16 (NLT2)
11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. Isaiah 55:11 (NLT2)
I once slipped into a noonday service in New York City and I heard something I will never be able to forget.
A minister speaking that day said: “We assume that if a man has heard the Christian gospel he has been enlightened. But that is a false assumption. Just to have heard a man preach truth from the Bible does not necessarily mean that you have been enlightened.”
God’s voice must speak from within to bring enlightenment. It must be the Spirit of God speaking soundlessly within.…
[W]hen we fail to hear His voice, it is not because He is not speaking so much as that we are not listening.
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.
The parent asks the pastor, “why won’t my kids come to church?”
The pastor or priest hears the same person state the same religious sounding slogan again, even thought thy have talked a dozen times that it is not Biblical, and in fact contradicts scripture.
A church devours a book together, about how they are on the mission field. A year later, only one person is invited…. and the church grows smaller.
The younger pastor, on fire to change the world, struggles with more experienced veterans of the church, and they struggle with him. They want the same end, but are not seeing they have the same means.
The brilliant scholar, who once had many scripture passages memorized, who could explain scripture clearly, becomes a functional agnostic, and is highly critical of those in the church.
These realities fly in the face of the promise that word of God going forth, will not come back void. It can make a pastor wonder if his preaching is dead as the chuch seems to be.
Isaiah’s prophecy seems to have been fulfilled again,
And maybe Tozer is correct in his assertion, that people can hear the gospel preached, and not respond, not be enlightened. As if God isn’t willing that no one should perish, but has already determined to move in this person’s heart and that person’s.
So what hope lies in our work then, in the time spent in prayer for people, and for our work in preparing to speak for God, calling to people, trying to be a tool by which the Holy Spirit draws them to Jesus.
Or do we just keep plodding along in the seemingly barren desert?
There are days we wonder, and we want to question God about this unfulfilled promise. Unfulfilled, at least, based on our experience, on what we observe.
Here too then is a moment for trusting, for having faith, for being confident in the Holy Spirit’s work in us and through us. To realize that there is a timeline we are unaware of, but that we have a definite role in being the people that communicate that God wants all to be transformed.
To praise Him for what He is doing that is happening, even when we cannot see, to cry out for that as the church does in a Kyrie (Lord have mercy!), or the Sanctus (Hosanna – help us!)
When we do see those cries answered! O the glory! When we see someone hear and realize that God is interested in them, loves them, and will heal them of their sin (see James 5) there is such joy.
Look for those moments, cherish them, expect them from the least likely of places, and you will see God at work,
Not in the way you want, not always from the person you think,
But God is at work – have confidence in that, for He has promised…. keep looking to Him, keep dwelling in His love… and see that revival isn’t tarrying, and God isn’t slow…
Lord, help us to see You at work in our lives, in the lives of those we love and serve. Lord, help us to hear them cry to You, and see You answer those cries thorugh us. Amen.
A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).
Erick Pontoppidan, H. U. Sverdrup, and Martin Luther, Explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism, trans. E. G. Lund, Abridged Edition. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1900), 11.
Where is Home?
Devotional Thoguht for our day:
27 “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! 28 Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. 29 May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. 30 May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. 1 Kings 8:27-30 (NLT2)
O men,” exclaims St. Teresa, “how can you offend a God who declares that it is with you that he finds his delights!” Jesus finds his delights with us; and shall we not find ours with Jesus? And we especially who have had the honor to dwell in his palace? How greatly do those vassals esteem themselves honored to whom the king assigns an abode in his own residence! Behold the palace of the King; it is this house in which we dwell with Jesus Christ. Let us, then, learn to thank him for it, and to avail ourselves of conversing with Jesus Christ.
Rather than read my words, I would ask you to spend your time today thinking about what it means to dwell with God. To realize that home is home…. whereever it is, you dwell in Jesus, with Jesus.
He makes it happen… gets us ready for it…and enjoys our presence.
How great this is!
Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gill & Son, 1887), 133.
