journey onWord with us

God doesn’t need us, God desires us.  How does that sit with you?  Some will answer with quick agreement, some will wrestle and some will take issue.  But there is an underlying truth in that opening declarative that I believe scripture clearly states, and which has the power to forever change you and I.  That truth is that God desires to be with us, and is infinitely more interested in the invitation into our everyday than what we do for Him.

In our performance-based culture, we can be easily deceived into applying that same mindset and priority to our spiritual walk.  After all, are we not exhorted to be doers of the word (James 1:22), and busy at the work of storing up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20)?  Acknowledging the out-of-context use of those pieces of scripture, I would still assert that we have all been exposed to the message that it is what we do for God that matters most.  And while I would never deny the truth that faith without works is dead, I see a pattern in scripture that points to a foundational truth that God desires most to be with us, and us with Him.

In a great truth and mystery of the Christian faith, in eternity past God existed in perfect communion with himself.  And thus begins the pattern of with.  Our place begins at the onset of creation, where we see the pure and perfect relationship that existed between God and man before the fall.  It exists in the story of a man and a woman in a garden, where God walked with them.  Later in the book of Genesis we are told of a man named Abraham, and the promise that God would be with him and through him would create a great nation that He would call His own.  Advancing in the story of that great nation, God calls out to Moses from a burning bush, saying that He has heard the cry of His people in bondage, and instructs Moses to go to Pharaoh.  And when Moses asks, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”, God answers simply, “I will be with you …” (Exodus 3:12)  And then there was Joshua.  After the death of Moses, God speaks to Joshua and says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”  (Joshua 1:9).  This thread continues through the prophets and kings of the Old Testament, all the way up to the birth of the Messiah, who was called Emmanuel … God with us.  God takes on flesh in the person of Christ and walks with us on this earth.  Eating, talking, walking, and suffering with us.  Being acquainted with, and present in, the full width and breadth of our humanity.

As I begin to meditate on, and process this pattern of God being and going with us, it brings to life a truth I see in my own earthly relationships.  My desire above all else with those whom I love, is to be with them.  Yes, I certainly get pleasure in doing things for them, but the greatest joy is in spending time with them … no matter what the circumstances.  At the end of a long day, does my wife wish most that I would complete a list of tasks, or spend time with her?  OK, maybe both.  But with the obvious kidding aside, the choice would be an easy one for her.  That goes ditto for me.  If this is true of my earthly relationships, how much more true is it of my heavenly Father and his relationship with me?!

In a collection of letters assembled into the book, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence writes about the true joy he found in discovering and experiencing God’s presence amongst the pots and pans that were his job to wash and dry each day.  It was not his lot in life to spend his days immersed in prayer, or the translation of scripture … He worked in a kitchen.  Yet letter after letter told of the experience of God’s profound presence in the activities that others would judge as mundane, and anything but sacred.  Through it all, he presents us with the challenge to invite God into our everyday, and experience that same joy.

In focusing first on being and doing with God, the “for” happens with no intention on our part.  A performance priority, in contrast, risks treasures that will burn up or blow away.  What would our walk look like, if no matter what the time or place, we invited God to go with us?  From prayer and study to pots and pans, God’s presence makes anything sacred and of eternal value.

It was an interesting journey back in time as I looked through books donated to a relief auction. Popular books that I had used in the 1980’s could now be had for a simple donation. Although illustrations from these works are dated, the principles remain timeless. A quick scan of one, Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, by Charles Swindoll was as penetrating as the first time I read it. A particular chapter caught my eye related to stress. Stress was different then, without the internet, cell-phones, twenty-four hour news and all of the other conveniences meant to make our lives easier. But stress was stress, nonetheless! What mattered then and now, is how we handle it.

Psalm 46:10a (NASB)
Cease striving and know that I am God

These are words that are quoted with great conviction, regardless of the generation. Who doesn’t want to live with a heart that is quiet and at peace before the Lord? But striving after our objectives can easily dominate our lives, thus creating stress. Anyone who is a Christ-follower should be willing to examine their level of stress vs. their willingness to cease striving. A closer look at the word cease gives us direction. The Hebrew term for this word means relax. It is counter-intuitive to think that I can accomplish more in my walk with God by being relaxed, rather than by striving. Ceasing to strive, and daily dependence on a Greater power will accomplish His purpose in and through us.

From the dated, yet relevant reading, the following words gave great 21st century advice. My old relief sale copy of Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, quoted Tim Hansel’s work, When I Relax, I Feel Guilty. I am sure you will associate with the spirit in his words.

Slow me down, Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory.
Teach me the art of taking minute vacations – of slowing down to look at a flower,
to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to smile at a child, to read a few lines from a good book.
Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values, that I may grow toward my greater destiny.
Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Read and re-read those words. As you start this week, are you willing to join with me and cease striving? Is the word relax in your current vocabulary? The nature of stress hasn’t changed since the 1980’s; we’ve just added new sources of stress. Psalm 90:12 (MSG) gives us another timeless truth:

Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!

Living wisely and well is to live under the umbrella of God’s power and relax.

I have a busy week upcoming, and so might you. We can choose to slow down, relax and become better examples of what it means to be a Christ follower. Stressful circumstances may still attack, but living with a quiet heart will change the way we act and react. Timeless treasures from old books, still work!

Traveling down a highway last Friday, I had a cell-phone conversation with my daughter that, shall I say, wasn’t fair to her. She is a good forgiver so my follow-up call and apology were accepted. Upon returning to my office, I had an issue to handle and started a phone call with attitude. The call ended fine, but I was convinced that my responses needed to be more in line with what I believe. Maybe you can relate! Since last Friday, I have attended two funerals and witnessed real pain, not just the petty irritations of a grumpy old man. As God views our irritations and our real pain, what is His perspective?

David, in one of his psalms gives us a clear understanding of God’s knowledge concerning our pain, our grumpiness, our thoughts….our everything!

Psalm 139:1-6 (MSG)
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I am going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going.  This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!

Can you accept the fact that He knows what you are thinking before you think it, and He knows what you are going to say before you say it? Without a doubt, God is all-knowing and omnipresent. Our struggle is that we give assent to these great truths, yet often live on a path parallel to them. If the Creator of the universe, who gave His Son for our salvation already knows everything, doesn’t it make sense that we would want to continually intersect our lives with His design?

It is easy to agree with that rhetorical sentence. But when we struggle with thoughts, attacks by Satan, real pain and various other stresses, we often take a turn from, or stop short of, God’s plan. Quickly, we can find ourselves speaking with harshness, thinking negative angry thoughts, asking why and simply running our lives on a parallel or diverging track from His purpose.  But He knows everything!

My Father knows before I go grumpy, and when you or I have deep hurts. He knows our thoughts, and what we are going to say even before we speak it. And in spite of how we drift, and often blow it, He cares (beyond our comprehension), He understands (even when we don’t understand ourselves), and He is willing (with His gentle hand of grace) to meet us at our point of need. No matter what is happening in your life right now, give it all to the Father. He already knows!

How do others view your life? In a couple of instances recently, I have had the opportunity to review the quality of someone’s life in-depth. It was fascinating to learn that friends and family all painted similar portraits. My conclusion: Our character will present itself in every venue of life. People know who we are, and will respond to us accordingly. They know if we tend toward selfishness or have a caring, selfless bent, whether we are driven or laid-back etc…To compound the issue, Christ followers have to be conscious of how our spiritual character is viewed by others.

If the view others have of us matters, which I believe it does, what should be the dominant theme of my/your life? What really matters? If you are a person who really wants to affect others for good, listen to the instructions of Paul, the apostle. It doesn’t matter about your particular personality traits, family background or education. Following his advice will give the world around you a clear picture of how life can be lived.

Galatians 5:6b (NIV)
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (MSG)
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Could others say of you and me that we love extravagantly, not seeking to get something, but to give ourselves to others? It is undeniable that Christ loved this way. For goodness sakes, He died on a cross for our sins. We are told to love like that. And if we really want to have a faith that counts, it will be expressed through love, first to God and then to others. Candidly, you and I don’t see many people living like this. But there can be no excuse for the Christ-follower; God’s design is for us to love selflessly. And as a fellow struggler, I can validate that we can trust Him for the results.

There will probably be someone on your journey this week that needs your love. It may even be someone who you struggle even to like. But if you value God’s purpose for your life, accept the challenge to love extravagantly, by a choice of your will. Beth Moore (one of my favorite authors) says it well. “We live by faith. We love by faith.”

If you and I will love extravagantly, like Christ did, an in-depth look at our lives will reveal the heart of Christ. Sprinkled along our journey path will be evidences of lives touched and hearts changed. What can be better than knowing that the love He poured into us has bled out to others?

Today is a milestone. When I wrote onWord’s first post last August (and promptly deleted it), 100 posts was a distant dream.  But today finds our journey onWord at that place, and we are thrilled to be used of God to encourage others. Genel and I feel it is appropriate and honoring to God to stop for just a brief moment and mark this occasion as place to give thanks and then begin the next 100. Our thoughts turned to a post in our archive, that spoke of the story of the nation of Israel, and God’s instructions to its strong leader Joshua to pile up stones and make a memorial.  I believe in some small way, our 100th post brings us to the same kind of place where the children of Israel had arrived. Use the words of this post to remind you of God’s goodness in your life, and as a gentle nudge from the Spirit to not forget to pile your own stones when and where appropriate, and then to look forward in the direction of your next journey steps.

Thank you for “listening” for as long as you have been.  We acknowledge you as a key ingredient in what God is doing as we journey onWord together …

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We approach, arrive at, and then pass significant markers in our life.  They can be a number, like turning 13, 21, 30 … and beyond.  They can be stages of life, like the first day of school, teenager, graduate, wedding, parent, empty nest.  And what about our spiritual lives?  There’s salvation, baptism and … second coming?!  Do we ever take the time to stop at significant moments on our spiritual journey, stay for a bit, and memorialize?  Have you ever piled up stones?

“Piled up stones?!”, you might ask.  There are multiple examples in the Old Testament of occasions where characters or groups stopped and built an altar, or monument, to mark the location of an event or an occasion of significance in their lives with God.  Let’s take a brief look at one significant moment where an entire nation piled up stones.

At the beginning of chapter 4 in the book of Joshua, we find the nation of Israel in the afterglow of a miraculous intervention from God.  They had just completed crossing the river Jordan on dry ground.  And before moving on, God has some very specific instructions for them …

Joshua 4:1-3 (MSG)
When the whole nation was finally across,
God spoke to Joshua: “Select twelve men
from the people, a man from each tribe,
and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle
of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are
standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry
them across with you and set them down
in the place where you camp tonight.'”

God is requesting that the nation of Israel pile up stones.  His primary purpose in making this request was to teach forward the great message of His care and love for His people, and His direct intervention and deliverance in their lives .  And although God specifically mentions teaching future generations in His instructions to Joshua, he also ends verse 7 with …

“… These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.”

I believe this broadened and personalized it’s significance, not just for the future generations who would be reminded in seeing the stones, but also for those who were a part of the miracle.

I love the idea of piling up stones, but I also love that people rarely stayed where they piled their stones.  It was a marker, not a destination.  A place of communing, memorial and rest, but not a final resting place.  I love the thought that they paused, built, honored, and then moved on.

I would encourage you to expose your senses to the marker moments in your own spiritual journey.  Listen and watch, and then take action in finding, and piling up stones.  Praise God for who He is, and what He did, or taught.  And then, after an appropriate time of reflection and rest, make sure to leave your marker and move on.  What would your earthly life have amounted to, if you had stopped and stayed at 13, or at parent?  And what will your kingdom life count for if you stop at salvation?  Sometimes your journey will be more wander than walk, more wilderness than paved path.  What a blessing it would be, if in the midst of a wander in a wilderness circle, you pass by one of your piles of stones.  Because as much as markers point in the direction that you are going, they can be a reminder of where, and to whom you need to return.

In re-reading part of a book last week, I was captivated by one particular sentence. It was in a book called Break Through Prayer, by Jim Cymbala. He stated: “A man or woman living under an open heaven is more influential than someone who merely spouts theological arguments with no living reality behind them”. Living under an open heaven spoke to me about having the blessings of God poured on a life. Being blessed by the Father does not mean the absence of pain or difficulty, but any Christ follower can live under an open heaven. When you live in this place and others see it, influence for eternity can be the result.

Remember the best seller from a few years ago, The Prayer of Jabez? “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me … !’”(I Chronicles 4:10) The passage tells us that God granted the request. Could it be that the book became a bestseller because there is a universal desire to be blessed by God?  You probably have read the book or prayed the prayer. Why? Because you, like me, want to live under an open heaven and find the favor of God.

Another Old Testament example of seeking God’s blessing is found when Jacob wrestles with God. Granted the depth of this passage is beyond me, but his desire is not beyond our ability to reason. Genesis 32:26 states: “But Jacob replied, ‘ I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” As with Jabez, Jacob was blessed. We see the lives of others in Scripture blessed incredibly even as they were surrounded by the difficulties of life. So my conclusion is that there is a place for us under an open heaven.

But, are we willing to sacrifice our desires to live there? If you and I are to live in a place of favor, our values will constantly be submitting to His values. We will seek His direction, read His Word with passion, choose to obey His will by faith, and seek to eliminate sin in our lives. This paragraph may come across as a sermon, but Oh, what an opportunity is ours! Please don’t miss it!

Are you at a place on the journey where you are willing to say with Jacob, “I will not let go unless you bless me.”? Today’s difficulties aren’t guaranteed to go away because we seek His blessings, but that isn’t the issue. God is less concerned about our comfort than His mission for us. When we cling to the Father with all our might, His blessings will come and His mission will be fulfilled.

One of God’s great gifts to us is the beauty of a sunset. But a greater gift by far is when the Maker of the sun opens His heaven to pour favor on one of His children. You and I have that opportunity. What could be better?! And when others see His blessings, you will have influence for eternity. Cling to the Father, and look up … could the skies be parting?

How would you answer this question? “What role does the Bible, God’s Word play in my life?” The question is not, “do I believe the Bible?” or “have I read it?” or “memorized verses in the past?”, but “what role is it playing in my life today?.” So much of your life is driven by the answer to this seemingly simple question.

It would only seem logical that all who claim to be Christ followers would be students of the Word. After all, our Father has chosen to give us instruction for life and godliness through His revealed Word. But from personal experience, I have learned that being a student of the Word is anything but easy. It takes discipline and passion for any of us to “continue in the Word”.

My thoughts for this post were prompted by a little known passage found in the book of II Kings. Reading about one evil king after another was not energizing.  But then I came to chapter twenty-two and king Josiah.  He was different! He became king at eight years old and worked at honoring the Lord.

II Kings 22:2
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

My reading took me to an amazing find, one that I couldn’t remember studying before. Josiah wanted the worship of Jehovah re-established and had a desire to rebuild the temple. In the process of rebuilding the temple, the high priest found the Book of the Law. My response was, “they lost the Book of the Law?!”  How could a people who God had blessed so greatly, lose the very Word of God?

II Kings 22:8, 10-11
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.”….Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.

God, through the Book of the Law, got Josiah’s attention. But it is so sad to think that a people with something so special, lost it in the first place. How far they had fallen (read the complete chapter if you have time). It is easy for all of us to generalize about how our nation, our schools and to a great extent our churches have lost the Word of God. We haven’t lost it physically, but I am sure you will agree with me that we have lost it as the authority upon which we stand. How will future generations view us?

On a personal note, I am sure you can locate your copy of the Word of God. But has its value gotten lost in a maze of activity called twenty-first century living? Have you lost the passion for its principles? Can you find the time to give attention to God’s instruction book for you?  You get the point!

If you are like me, there are seasons of passion and times of distance from the Word. But we know where the real answers to life’s questions are found. You and I cannot speak for our nation, schools or churches.  But our relationship to the Word of God will help direct our futures. It must be a priority. Don’t lose your way!

Have you ever wanted to give up on a day before it started? Our daughter certainly had every reason to feel this way a week ago as she started her vacation. She stayed up all night to catch a shuttle from New York City to Newark, NJ where she was to catch a plane. The 3:30am shuttle never came (had a breakdown) and she had to catch a cab. Eighty dollars later she was at the airport, still excited to start her vacation. Her flight was on time, until the runway! After a long wait and a trip back to the terminal due to weather, her plane was finally airborne. Upon arriving in Chicago, she discovered her connecting flight had left. Twenty-one hours after her simple shuttle pick up and on time departure she arrived at her destination. It is a fair assumption on my part that you have also had days of delay, disruption and discouragement.

When those days come, how do you respond?  I would like to think that I always tap my spiritual reserves and quote scripture, act joyfully, and use the disruption as an avenue of opportunity to show God’s love and grace. But I don’t!  Can you relate?

As I was thinking over my reading in the book of James recently, it was evident that I knew the principles … I just don’t always practice them. You may feel the same way! When we are not looking to the Father, delays and disruptions will be anything but an avenue to show His grace. Look at a few of the principles that the book of James gives us.

Consider it pure joy when you encounter trials- I know that!
If you lack wisdom, ask God for it- I know that!
Be a good listener- I know that!
Be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer- I know that!
Faith without action is not faith- I know that!
The tongue is hard to handle- I know that!
Resist the devil and he will flee- I know that!
Get close to God and He’ll get close to you- I know that!
Life is fleeting- I know that!
Prayers of the righteous are powerful- I know that!

Like me, you probably knew those principles. But I want to always be moving from knowing to practicing the principles. God builds depth into our lives as we take the delays and discouragements and use them for His glory. When our daily value system is to view life from God’s perspective (you can do it), then what we know begins to be what we do. Along the journey there will always be moments of knowing the Word, followed immediately by a failure to practice it. God is so gracious to forgive and restore us when we confess those moments.  And after doing so, desires that we strive onWord!

So what do long delays and missed connections have to do with the “knowing and doing” of the Word? Everything! They provide an illustration of the opportunities we have each and every average day to reflect Christ from within our circumstances. We don’t need God to remove them, or to remove us from them.  We can call on His power to reflect the image of Christ from within them.  There are people all around you who will see your faith in action.  Don’t be a hearer only …

James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

What do you fear?  If it’s possible, hibernate your computer for a couple of minutes, find some quiet, and meditate on that question.  In the still, ask yourself, “What do I fear?”

<insert soothing, chamber-style hold music here>

Alright, so what were your answers?  In my own time of meditation, I came up with wildly different things.  Things as weighty and serious as, “something tragic happening to my family”.  Things as serious, yet temporal as, “losing my job or my house”.  And things as ridiculously trivial as, “being embarrassed”.

I am especially curious, assuming your complete candor and honesty, if anyone had “God” on their list.  Because if you are anything like me, and probably the church at large in the modern age, you lack a real sense of fear when it comes to God.   We can read the Old Testament stories and prophets (like Amos), and we can be quick to judge after natural disasters or acts of terrorism, but have we lost the personal sense of the fear of God?

I don’t pretend to fully understand what this fear should look like.  But I am pretty sure it is not just an extreme reverence or awe.  There are sufficient accounts in the Bible of those who have either personally encountered God or one of His angels, and exhibited something entirely different from reverence or awe.  Saul struck blind, Moses’ glowing face, John falling “at his feet as though dead” (Rev 1:17).  In Exodus 33:20, God says to Moses, “… you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”  None of these sound very awe-ish to me.

But having said that, I am also pretty sure that fearing God is not the “afraid” variety either.  The physical effects illustrated above might lead one to a physical sort of fear.  But I don’t believe for even a minute that God desires that we be scared of him.  He desires a relationship with us, so there has to be something more unifying about this fear.  As I began to search this out, I came across a specific passage and a specific character that I believe begin to put this fear into the proper context.  First, Proverbs 9:10 …

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

And then as someone who consistently showed a healthy fear of God, I submit for consideration, the great leader Joshua.  In reading the book of Joshua, and seeing what God did through him, I see a vivid picture of someone who properly and consistently feared God.  Read for yourself, and take note of his interactions and responses to God in leading the nation of Israel.  This is a man who I could learn much from in the pursuit of a real and genuine fear for God in my own life.

I have taken the first few steps in my fear journey, and I encourage you to begin your own.  However long it takes, this journey is paramount to truly knowing God, and is just the beginning, as Proverbs notes, of true wisdom.  With God’s Word as our first and last reference, inspiration, challenge and encouragement, we can live as a good and faithful servant possessing a true and genuine fear of God.  My prayer is that God can say of me, as He did of Joshua, that I am “a man in whom is the spirit” (Num 27:18).