Build Your Wall

“…Each one repaired the section immediately across form his own house.”

Nehemiah 3:28

I’m preparing for the next time we are meeting as FYG Leaders and for some reason (God?) this part of the story in Nehemiah came to mind.  (Of course, the fact that our pastor has just started a sermon series in Nehemiah probably helped too!)

In case the correlation between FYG and Nehemiah isn’t coming to mind for you (what, you can’t read my mind!?!) let me tell you.  The job of the builders was to build what was in front of them.  Was the job bigger than that?  Absolutely.  But each person’s job was to do whatever was in front of them.

This is true for every Christian.  We are part of a global team that God is using to ‘rebuild’: restoring people to a relationship with God.  Sometimes we get to see how God is using someone on their part of the wall (a missionary visits our church, we read a blog, etc).  Sometimes we get to go help someone on their part of the wall (short term missions trips, giving money, etc).  And those times are really encouraging and lift our eyes to our amazing God.

But most of the time, we’re looking at our own section of the wall: the neighbours in our apartment; the cashier at the grocery check out; the people in our small group.  God has given each of us a very specific section of the wall to build with Him.

In the case of FYG, it’s not just a section for an individual; it’s a section for our Leader’s Team and our supporting churches.  Each time we have an event or Bible study we are in the process of building a wall; declaring there is a God who loves deeply and rescues sinners.

How are we doing at building the wall?  As a team?  As an individual?  God is working in us, moving us to be His builders.

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.”  Philippians 2:13

The Spotlight

It was an accident.  The book I chose for us to study for Ladies Sunday School is titled “Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy”.  I’m not sure what I was expecting but I know I was NOT expecting almost every lesson to be about the Holy Spirit!

When I first realized this, I was a little disappointed and worried: talking about the Holy Spirit for 10 weeks straight?!?!?  But then I realized that this is a person of the trinity that I have not spent much thinking about at all.  As we’ve been reading the different verses, it’s surprising how many times the Holy Spirit kind of sneaks in there without you even realizing it!

For example, I had not noticed that the Holy Spirit show up in the major moments of Jesus earthly life:

His Birth

His Baptism

His Temptation

His Death

His Resurrection

I’ve also been surprised to see how often the Bible lists the Holy Spirit as also responsible for things that I usually think of as Jesus’ work.  For example:

Some of you were once like that.  But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT (Italics added)

I’m not really sure how to work that all out in my head yet.

One thing I do know, and the study has confirmed, is that the Holy Spirit points to Jesus.  That’s His thing.  I read an illustration about this this week.  It’s like at a concert where the lights go down and there is a lone musician in the middle of the stage with a spotlight centered on him.  This is a time to be amazed by how intense and awesome the musician is; no one is thinking about how clear or bright or amazing the spotlight is!  The Holy Spirit doesn’t point to Himself; He points to Jesus.

Since I had already planned to speak about “Who is the Holy Spirit?” next month at SafeHouse I’m going to keep enjoying thinking and reading about this ‘forgotten’ person of the Trinity!

Mercy

As I’ve been teaching FYG Deeper: The Bible in 20 one thing that has stood out to me is God’s mercy.

In “In the Beginning” it’s maybe not exactly mercy we see, but we do see Him give people huge amounts of freedom.  He places them in a beautiful garden, full of food and things to do.  Adam and Eve have a great relationship with God, and with each other and have all they need.  God encourages them to eat from any tree they want from any part of the garden…except one.  They’ve been handed the world.  God’s being extravagant in His care for them.

In “What Went Wrong” it’s in the middle of the curses that we see God’s mercy.  Adam and Eve have done the one thing they were told not to do and now are facing the consequences.  As God curses the snake for his part in tempting Eve, God says that one day a descendant of Eve will crush Satan’s head.  As soon as sin enters the world God’s already showing a picture of hope and mercy!

Then God also has mercy in removing Adam and Eve from the garden.  This doesn’t seem like mercy.  But God doesn’t want them to live forever in sin.  By not letting them eat from the tree of life He makes a way for them to die physically so that they (and we) can live with Him forever in the New Earth where the Tree of Life will again be accessible.

Then when we get to “Downpour” we see that even though God decides to destroy all living things He doesn’t do it immediately.  Instead He gives people 120 years to realize what they are doing and to turn to Him.  He even has Noah build a massive boat so people couldn’t even avoid the warning that was right in front of their eyes.  Then, at the right time, God closes the door to the Ark.

Reminds me of how it is now.  God’s promised that the earth is not going to keep going as it is.  He will not tolerate all the sins of people forever.  He is coming to end that and establish a new world.  And one day the ‘door’ is going to close and the ‘flood’ will come.  But right now, we’re in the ‘120’ years.  Years that God is showing mercy, calling people to see their sin and turn to Him.  Years where anyone can go through the ‘one door’, which is Jesus, and avoid the destruction that’s coming.

Isn’t our God good?

The 90 Day Challenge

The most exciting thing going on right now is that I just put up an event page for our new FYG challenge (The 90 Day Challenge) and already six people are ‘attending’!  Now, what is the 90 Day Challenge?  The challenge is to read the entire Bible cover to cover in 90 days.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and I thought I would invite others to join.

(If you are also interested you can get your reading plan here.  If that’s too crazy but you’re still interested, you can get your Tour of the Bible in 90 Days plan here.)

I want to do this because I’m feeling the need to get to know God better.  Even though I have read through the Bible cover to cover previously, I think it might be helpful to do again.  It’s a pretty rigorous reading program (you get through Leviticus in less than three days) but I’m hoping that reading the whole thing in a short time will bring out some big themes, some reminders of what God is like and how He interacts with His people.

This is also timely because this year for FYG Deeper we’re doing The Bible in 20.  Twenty sessions following the story line of the Bible from Creation to Revelation.  I’m excited to relearn and remember as I prep and teach some of the sessions.

So, care to join?

Why should we read the Bible?

For this week’s ISCF I was given the topic “Why should we read the Bible?”  Sometimes it’s hard to ‘get anything out of’ a Bible reading session.  I find it easy to be thinking about a lot of other things.  In fact, I wrote a song some time ago that says, “It’s easy to meditate on anything but You.”  Can I hear an “amen”?

I do find the following reasons to read the Bible encouraging though and so I’m looking forward to this week’s discussion.

Why should we read the Bible?

It teaches us who God is and what He is like

Um, the whole book is about Him…

It shows us who Jesus is

Luke 24:27

(And Jesus reveals who God is)

John 1:18

It is actually God’s words

2 Timothy 3:16

The Bible is true and is a guide to test for what is true

Acts 17:11

The Bible shows us how we can be saved from sin and its consequences

2 Timothy 3:15

It is a source of encouragement

Romans 15:4

It fully trains us for everything God gives us to do

2 Timothy 3:16-17

It gives us power to live a pure life

Psalm 119:9

It’s an offensive weapon against Satan

Ephesians 6:10-18  *v. 17

Dancing with Tambourines

In youth we are in a study about four different judges.  Last night we read the story of Jephthah (Judges 11-12:7)  We mostly focused on Jephthah’s vow that if God gave him victory in battle then he would sacrifice to God whatever came out of the doors of his house first when he returned home.  To Jephthah’s surprise, and grief, what came out the door first was his only child, a daughter.  Jephthah did keep his vow but not without tearing his clothes and feeling deep pain.

We did focus more on Jephthah’s perspective of the story but I was struck by his daughter.  Someone made a comment that if their dad came home and then said he would have to kill them because they greeted him they would run away.  One reason Jephthah’s daughter didn’t run away or try to avoid the fulfilling of her dad’s vow is because submission to a father and upholding the family’s reputation was entrenched in her value system.  I don’t think she would have thought twice about avoiding this sort of death simply because it was her duty as a daughter.

But I think it’s more than that.  I might be reading into the story but I notice the way she greets her dad.  She comes out of the door "to meet him with tambourines and with dances."  She’s excited to meet him.  To me that speaks of love.  And Jepthah’s response of tearing his clothes and saying "You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me.  For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow" make me think that he really loved his daughter too.  Because she was secure in her father’s love she could do what he asked of her. 

Well, we have a Dad who loves us, only this Dad does not make rash vows.  Sometimes it may seem that He is taking away our future of happiness and bringing our lives to a quick end.  But because He is fully good we can rest in His love for us that His action is not rash but rather is for our good as well.  If Jephthah’s daughter can trust her dad because of her love for him and his for her, how much more can we trust our Father? 

Worship

I’m quite immersed in the ‘worship’ culture and yet I find the concept of worship to be elusive; intangible.  I listen to ‘worship’ music.  I coordinate a praise and ‘worship’ service monthly.  I teach others how to lead a ‘worship’ service.  I was a ‘worship’ leader this past Sunday at church.  I read Bob Kauflin’s blog WorshipMatters.  I’ve read several books on ‘worship’; how to ‘worship’; what is ‘worship’. 

In a sense I know what it is.  Or maybe I should say what it is not.  In recent years the point has often been made that worship is not just about Sunday morning, it’s about all of our life, which comes right out of Romans 12:1.  But I started wondering if in our efforts to make sure we don’t have a traditional view of worship, if we’ve made it more complicated than it is or, at the very least, specifically defined to OUR definition, which is of course new and profound.

I’ve been highlighting the word worship as I’ve been reading the Word.  It’s used without really explaining itself or giving it much fan fare.  While we make worship an event unto itself (despite our proclaiming that worship is about all of life) it seems to be used simply as an action that can often be skipped over in the reading of a story.  The Bible is full of worship and yet I don’t find the obsession with the word and concept that I’m seeing in my own life and Christian culture in general. 

So today I looked ‘worship’ up in my Bible dictionary and got this: reverent devotion and allegiance pledged to God; the rituals or ceremonies by which this reverence is expressed.  I find this to be a simple definition that takes worship out of the gray haze a bit for me.  It doesn’t demand emotional fluttering and even accepts the idea of ritual, which would mean that we cannot exclude Sunday morning as part of worship. 

 I’m especially struck by the idea that worship is pledging allegiance to God.  I’m going to keep thinking about that one rather than continue on here.  Maybe in the future I’ll have more to say?

This is Home

On Sunday we studied Psalm 91 in Sunday School.  It opens with, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty."  In a response to the question "What does it mean to dwell?" one lady said, "It’s where your home is."

 

I’ve been muling over that thought since.  It conjures up images of driving into the yard after a physically or emotionally draining day or evening.  Just walking in the door causes muscles to relax.  The next step might be to head to bed or do the dishes but it’s home.  A place to breathe.  A place to let go.   

 

That’s what God is.  Our dwelling place.  No matter where I am I can go ‘home.’  It might just be a sentence prayer in the middle of a day at work.  It might be silence while overlooking a lake.  It might be fervent silent pleas while looking into the eyes of a loved one and not knowing what to say.  It might be a cry for help right before a confrontation.  Anywhere, anytime, ‘this is home.’

 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Jesus (Matthew 11:28)

Josiah

Lately I’ve been reading in 2 Kings, which is a history of the kings of Judah and Isreal.  Amid a lot of evil kings and a few good kings we come to Josiah.  His grandfather, Manasseh, was the most evil king that Judah ever had.  Manasseh did a lot of horrible things to worship other gods, including sacrificing his own son.  Josiah’s father Amon wasn’t much better.  And then along comes Josiah.  He started to reign when he was eight years old.  Then when he was twenty six the Book of the Law was found.  As it was read to him Josiah realized that Judah and Isreal had done everything they could possibly do to make God angry so he started cleaning house.  "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him."  (2 Kings 23:25) 

 

You can read for yourself what all he did but what was really interesting to me is that it says that Josiah destroyed the high places that Solomon had built.  Hundreds of years had passed since Solomon had reigned and built high places for his pagan wives to worship other gods.  There had been several good kings in those years but the Bible often says something like "so and so did what was right in God’s eyes but did not destroy the high places."  These high places were stronghold’s that had been in Judah from almost the beginning of the rule of kings right up to within years of the end of the era of the kings before they were exiled.

 

This is a convicting passage.  Josiah was violent and complete in his treatment of sin.  It wasn’t enough just to clear out the temple, or just the really obvious sins.  He went all the way.  I’m not that harsh with sin.  Just recently a specific area of sin and hypocrisy that has been a part of my life for about three years was laid bare and revealed for what it was.  After ignoring and defending it for so long, I finally started to deal with it.  It starts subtly and if not dealt with it grows to be a monster. 

 

Josiah also wasn’t willing to just get rid of what everyone else had gotten rid of in the past.  A friend of mind had been doing a 60 day online purity program for a while now.  When she first started I was a little surprised.  Isn’t that just for people who are addicted to pornography, or into adultery or sleeping around?  What she was dealing with was just thoughts so why be so extreme?  Because she wants to be violent and complete about getting rid of sin in her life, even sins that would be easy to justify and explain away. 

 

One last thing.  After Josiah did his cleansing campaign throughout the country he gathered all of the people to celebrate the passover.  So many things could be taken from this but what I want to take from it is this: When we radically deal with sin we are able to enjoy the presence of God in a new and deeper way.  This side of eternity we will not deal with sin completely of course but as long as we allow it to fester and grow unneccessarily our worship and relationship is hindered.  God is looking for "broken and contrite" hearts that are ready to weed out sin.

Arrogant, Overfed and Unconcerned

  Ezekiel 16 is a fascinating passage.  It is a graphic allegory of GOD’s relationship with the people of Israel.  As GOD is speaking against the people for their sins, He says this: "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." (v.49, 50)

  She was ‘arrogant, overfed and unconcerned.’ 

  This is her sin. 

  This is the Sodom as in Sodom and Gomorrah which GOD destroyed by fire.

  That hits pretty hard.  If arrogance is the opposite of humility, I’m definitely there.  Overfed.  I don’t think we think about this one very often.  I often comment in humour how every gathering or party must have food.  In our North American culture, our social lives are to a large degree intertwined with snacks, dinners and coffee outings.  Statistically, we are definitely in the overfed category rather than that of the starving. 

  Unconcerned.  The next statement is "they did not help the poor and needy."  A few months ago I read a blog that stated that in preaching the emphasis should be put on what the Word talks about a lot.  What keeps coming up as I read is the matter of the poor.  Often in the old testament GOD lists neglecting the widows and orphans as one of the major sins committed.  In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about seperating the sheep from the goats.  The difference highlighted is how they treated the poor and the oppressed.  James says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  To name a few examples.  It comes up again and again and again.  This is clearly something very close to GOD’s heart.  The people of Israel did not do so well.  How well are we doing?

  I sponsor a child with Compassion Canada.  Her name is Lydia.  She’s 16 years old and lives in Uganda.  Every time I get a letter from her I am so blessed to see how she’s growing and developing.  I could pat myself on the back for this, but I don’t think I can say I’m done my job.  To have that $35 sent to her every month is relatively painless.  But it’s hard for me to be compassionate.  I am not always moved by the statistics, the promo videos, the stories.  But even worse, I’m often blinded to the poor in my very own neighbourhood.  Here they don’t look like bums living in a cardboard box or bloated children.  Here they look like nice little old ladies who do puzzles, wierdo kids and many other things that are subtle disguises for the "poor."

  I’m writing this entry because I’m feeling challenged by this.  GOD makes it abundantly clear that it’s a big deal to Him.  So it should be a big deal to me.