Hurry Up and Wait

Isaiah 40:31 (KJV) But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Growing up in church, I heard the idea of waiting on the Lord preached many times.  It was always presented as an indefinite lingering, not for those with a patience deficit.

But I think it's worth taking a second look at.

The word "wait" in this verse is translated from the Hebrew "qavah," meaning, according to Strong's, "to bind together, i.e. collect; to expect:--gather (together), look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon)."  The word "expect" caught my attention when I saw it.

The idea of binding together to expect gets a lot of traction when you consider how "qavah" is translated in other verses.

Job 7:2 says, "an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:"  The word "looketh" here is translated from "qavah," so the hireling has completed the assigned task and has now come expecting his agreed upon wages.  He's not hanging out just in case he gets paid; He has come expecting to receive.

In this light, waiting on the Lord isn't patiently hoping for something from God; It's coming to Him with the expectation of receiving from Him.

Let's look at another verse.

Genesis 1:9 says, "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:"  The phrase "be gathered together" is also translated from this same "qavah."  I can just imagine the waters collecting together and rising up in expectation of what God is about to do.

I've had young people ask me why they generally have better altar experiences at youth convention or camp than at their home churches.  I believe it's because they come together at those events expecting to get something from God.  When they're at their home churches, their attitude is more, 'if it happens it happens.'  The experience has less to do with the music, the preaching, or even God, and more to do with the attitude they go in with.

I would suggest that the true meaning of waiting on the Lord is to come to Him with great anticipation that something is going to happen.  This seems to be a common characteristic in congregations that regularly experience powerful moves of God.  Those are the folks whose strength gets renewed, who run and don't get weary, who walk and don't faint.

So hurry up and wait!

Dear Pastor (Part 2)

The first of these letters is to the pastor of the church at Ephesus, founded by the apostle Paul.  We gather from Paul's writings, as well as from the book of Acts, that the Ephesus church was a strong and thriving group of local believers.  So it's not surprising that this letter opens with high praise of its pastor.  

"I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted."

(Revelation 2:2-3)

This pastor is hardworking, thinks longterm, has zero-tolerance for posers, and shows great stamina.  So perhaps he/she may have been caught off guard a bit by the next statement.

"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."

(Revelation 2:4)

"First love."  For years, my understanding of this term was thrown off by my cultural referencing of it.  Every once in a while, I hear someone say something like, "I married my first love."  I know that they're probably referring to the first person they ever had romantic feelings for, perhaps a high school sweetheart.  With this as my reference point, I superimposed this understanding of "first love" over Revelation 2:4.  But it doesn't work.

From a chronological standpoint, spiritually speaking, our first love was the world, not Christ.  Obviously, the Lord wouldn't "have somewhat against" anyone for leaving the world.  So I took a closer look at "first love."

"First," from the Greek protos, meaning, firstly (in time, place, order, or importance).  Having already ruled out "firstly in time," I explored the alternatives.

A pastor friend of mine once said that, "the best commentary on scripture is scripture."  So I decided to see where else in scripture protos was used and in what context.  Here's what I found.

Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;

(Luke 20:46)

Both "highest" and "chief" in this verse are from the Greek protos.  These weren't the first seats you came to in the synagogue.  They were first in importance as it pertained to their occupants.  These weren't necessarily the first rooms you stepped into upon entering the house.  They were reserved for those distinguished few whose names appeared at the top of the guest list.

In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.

(Acts 28:7)

"Chief" here is from protos.  Publius wasn't the first man to live on the island, but he was apparently the most prominent man living on the island.

"For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:"

(Acts 24:5)

Here, "Ringleader" is from protos.  Paul isn't accused of being the first member of the sect of the Nazarenes, but rather of being a leader within the sect of the Nazarenes.

"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him;"

(Luke 15:22)

"Best" here is also from protos.  The servants didn't grab the first robe they saw in the closet, but it was a first-class robe.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

(I Timothy 1:15)

Again, "chief" here is from protos.  Obviously, Paul wasn't the first sinner, but as sinners go, he ranked himself at the top of the baddies list.

"...worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator..."

(Romans 1:25)

In this verse, "more" comes from protos.  The Samaritans of 2 Kings 17 who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods" come to mind.  They didn't understand that serving God meant "him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8).  He wasn't first to them.

"And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father... And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house."

(Luke 9:59, 61)

"First," protos.  This time, there is a chronological aspect, but the connotation here is that they chose something else over following.  This is in direct contrast to James and John, who didn't say, "Let us finish mending our nets first, and then we'll follow you."  It was about prioritizing.

In all of these examples, protos carries a sense of 'highest rank,' 'greatest value,' 'most important,' or 'top priority.'  

So when the Ephesus pastor is charged with leaving his/her protos love, it would seem that there had been an adjustment in priorities, that "most important" had slipped to "important."  Not that he/she didn't still love Jesus or was shirking his/her responsibilities.  But as T.F. Tenney might say, the Ephesus pastor failed "to keep the main thing the main thing."  

How serious was this charge?  Read the next verse in the letter.

"Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

(Revelation 2:5)

Remember that per Revelation 1:20, the stars represented the pastors, and the candlesticks represented the churches.  The consequence for  the Ephesus pastor failing to repent in this matter would be losing his/her church.  We, as pastors, would do well to take note of this example.

There are a number of important things in our lives.  "But seek ye first [protos] the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).  

The next verse in Revelation 2 slips back into the vein of the beginning of the letter.

"But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate."

(Revelation 2:6)

Note this distinction.  The Ephesus pastor didn't hate the Nicolaitanes, but rather the "deeds" of the Nicolaitanes.  We need to preach against sin in all of its forms and fashions, but I get a knot in my stomach when I hear a pastor preach against people, politicians, social groups, etc.  God gave his only begotten son because he "so loved the world" (John 3:16), not because he hated it.  "We love him, because he first loved us." (I John 4:19).  So let's preach the truth without fear or favor, but "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Otherwise, we are "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (I Corinthians 13:1), just making a lot of noise.

The letter closes, as all seven letters do, on a positive note.

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

(Revelation 2:7)

The pastor is encouraged to keep the faith, and is reminded of the hope and promise of our eternal home.  A great way to end any letter, and a great way to end this blog post.  :-)

Dear Pastor (Part 1)

Letters.  They can be fascinating glimpses into personal thoughts of people past and present.  Our New Testament is saturated with them.  

Growing up, I heard a lot of teaching on and from these epistles in midweek Bible study.  But there were some letters that more often made it into the Sunday sermons.  I’m referring, of course, to the letters contained in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of John’s Revelation.

I always heard them referred to as the “letters to the seven churches.”  But are they?

The easiest way to determine a letter’s recipient is, of course, to check the salutation.  Reading the salutations of New Testament epistles shows that many are addressed to an entire group of believers within a city, or even across entire regions.

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” 

(Romans 1:7)

“Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus” 

(I Corinthians 1:2)

“...unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia” 

(II Corinthians 1:1)

“...unto the churches of Galatia” 

(Galatians 1:2)

“...to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus” 

(Ephesians 1:1)

“...to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons” (Philippians 1:1)

“To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse” 

(Colossians 1:2)

“...unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 1:1)

“...unto the church of the Thessalonians” 

(II Thessalonians 1:1)

“...to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” 

(James 1:1)

“...to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” 

(I Peter 1:1)

Often, these recipients were even encouraged to share their letters with each another.

“And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.” 

(Colossians 4:16)

The salutations of other New Testament epistles show that they were intended for a solitary reader.

“Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith” 

(I Timothy 1:2)

“To Titus, mine own son after the common faith” 

(Titus 1:4)

The letters in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation are often talked about as if fitting into the former category, a letter to the church in Laodicea, for example.  But this is not entirely accurate.

The introduction to the book does state, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia” (Revelation 1:4), and John is told in the 11th verse of the first chapter, “What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”

But within this letter we call “Revelation” are contained seven smaller letters that are more recipient-specific:

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write...” (Revelation 2:1)

“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write...” (Revelation 2:8)

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write...” (Revelation 2:12)

“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write...”  (Revelation 2:18)

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write...” (Revelation 3:1)

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write...” (Revelation 3:7)

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write...” (Revelation 3:14)

Not, “Unto the churh of,” but “Unto the angel of the church of.”

Now most can agree this is not a reference to the traditional noncorporeal being the average person thinks of when they hear the word “angel,” but rather the consensus is that this refers to a pastor, which is consistent with “a messenger,” the meaning of the Greek word “aggelos,” from which “angel” is translated.

To say that a letter to the pastor of a church is, by extension, a letter to the church body seems a bit of a stretch considering that the Lord, himself, clarifies them as distinct and separate.

“The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” 

(Revelation 1:20)

Reading these as letters to pastors then, rather than to congregations, brings a fascinating twist to their context, especially if you’re a pastor.

A Response to the 1 Timothy 2:2 Kerfuffle

The recent US election has elicited strong reactions from apostolics, but the big kerfuffle in the Twitterverse centers around 1 Timothy 2:2, which says, “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”  Some use this verse to say we should pray for the sitting president.  Others contest this, saying it is preposterous to suggest that we lend prayerful support to anyone whose policies are contrary to or even in direct opposition to biblical principles.  Several have even imagined the scenario of early Christians praying for Nero to combat this notion.  But to quote my neighboring pastor, Louis Pio, “the best commentary on scripture is scripture.”  So let’s examine scriptural precedent.

Let’s start with these two verses:

But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. (Psalm 75:7)

...he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: (Daniel 2:21)

We love to quote these when we like who’s sitting in the Oval Office, but when we don’t, well, not so much.  Nevertheless, we have a great example of God orchestrating power into the hands of someone we would not have endorsed.  Let’s read Jeremiah 27:5-8:

“I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.”

Did you notice how God referred to  Nebuchadnezzar as “my servant”? This was not because of the king’s policies or platform, certainly not.  It simply meant that God was using Nebuchadnezzar, with or without his knowledge, to accomplish his will on the earth at that time.  Granted, by and large, this didn’t immediately go well for most of God’s people, but (without getting into a lengthy history lesson) if you step back and examine the big picture, it had far-reaching impact and ultimately resulted in a renewed devotion among the people of God on a level not seen since the days of Solomon.  These events had a lasting effect on the Jewish people that persists even to this day.

I concede that “four more years” under President Obama may not immediately go well for most of God’s people, but he is no less a servant of God than Nebuchadnezzar was.  We just can’t yet see the full big picture that is still unfolding.

I think we all agree that “all things work together for” our good (Romans 8:28), but “all things” includes bad things, not just good things.

Also notice in the above passage that those who refused to put their neck under the yoke of the king risked punishment from God himself.  And in case you might be thinking this is an isolated Old Testament notion, consider this:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” (Romans 13:1-2)

Does this mean we should support the current administration’s policies or even pray for their success?  Not at all.  It simply means we should accept their role in God’s plan, not fight against it.

A good example is Daniel and his companions under Nebuchadnezzar.  These young men were taken from their homeland, castrated, educated in the ways and language of Babylon, given Babylonian names and placed in positions of authority in the kingdom of Babylon.  Yet they seemed to recognize God’s hand in all this, for we never see them use their positions to influence the king’s policies or rally support against him.

Whenever they found themselves in direct conflict with the king’s decree, they simply took a personal stand, not against the king, but for God’s law.  There were no calls for a referendum on worshipping the golden image.  Why?  Because this wasn’t Jerusalem.  It was Babylonia.  They recognized that they were foreigners in a strange land.  They knew where their true citizenship lay.

Now see the parallel in 1 Peter Chapter 2:

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims...Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors...For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”

You see, this is not New Jerusalem.  It’s America.  Like Daniel & friends, we must know where our true citizenship lies.  Our stand should never be against administrations, but for righteousness.

Look at Daniel's response to Darius' lions' den decree:

"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." (Daniel 6:10)

And this brings us full circle back to 1 Timothy 2:2.  For better context, let’s include the verses before and after:

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;”

There are a couple of aspects to this.  First of all, God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  Yes, Democrats have souls, too.

Secondly, we can give thanks for President Obama because we understand that he is a servant in God’s big-picture plan for our greater good (dare I say even end-time revival?).  And given the warning in Romans 13:2, we can see how doing so might result in “a quiet and peaceable life.”

So while we may be “perplexed” by recent political events, we need not be “in despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8).  If history is any indication, we are now in a better position to experience the revival in America that we have so longed for.

The Fugitives: A True Story

During the late 1990s, my wife, Stacey, and I were living in a secluded wooded area out a dirt road in Blaine (suburb of Mars Hill), Maine.  This is one of the most quiet rural areas one could live in.  Life is slow and laid back, and pretty much nothing of note ever happens there.  Being in the northeast corner against the Canadian border, it's not an area people generally pass through to get somewhere else.  If you come to northern Maine, it's usually because your destination is northern Maine.

One beautiful summer day, the tranquility was broken by the sound of gunshots ringing out across the countryside.  Somehow, a pair of fugitives from Michigan had ended up in northern Maine and had a run in with police in Bridgewater, the small town directly south of us.  They managed to escape the shootout unscathed and fled the scene in their vehicle.  They drove right past the end of our road, with the police in hot pursuit.  They abandoned their vehicle and fled into the woods directly across from the Apostolic Pentecostal Church of Mars Hill, where we were on staff at the time.

As details of these events made their way to us, my wife became extremely concerned.  We lived in a beat-up nineteen sixty-something trailer that was less than secure.  The frame was so off kilter that the door didn't truly close.  You didn't even have to use the doorknob to open our door.  A simple push was enough, even if it was locked. 

"What if they come here tonight?" Stacey asked.  I assured here that the police had the area where the fugitives were hiding surrounded, and that, even if they did manage to sneak past the authorities, we were miles away and had absolutely nothing to worry about.  She agreed with my assessment, and that evening, we went to bed as usual.

In the early morning hours, when it was still pitch black in our corner of the woods, Stacey, who is a light sleeper anyway, woke up to the sound of activity in our kitchen at the other end of the trailer.  Compelled to investigate, she quietly made her way down the narrow hallway.  When she got about halfway down, she noticed the door was wide open.  It was at this point that she called out to me.  When she did, whoever was in the kitchen, ran out, bumping the door as they went, causing it to swing back and forth.

Being the heavy sleeper that I am, it took me a minute to get my bearings and make my way to her in the hallway, at which point she told me what she had just witnessed.  I told her she was letting her imagination get the best of her.  I told her that it was probably just the wind blowing the door.  I told her the noise she heard was likely Zeek & Daisy, our two ferrets who had free run of the trailer.  She agreed, saying that my explanation was more realistic.

With the door now wide open, we assumed our ferrets had gotten outside, so Stacey tried to coax them back by shaking their can of treats.  As she made her way towards the front of our shed, I stood on the steps, not yet fully awake.  The sun was not yet up, and my eyes were still adjusting to the starlight.  As I stood there trying to focus my vision, I thought I saw a shadowy figure standing next to the shed, but I kept in mind how many times I had mistaken a tree stump for a moose alongside of the highway before.  And since it wasn't moving, I now accused myself of letting my imagination get the best of me.  That is, until the shadowy figure turned and ran into the woods without making a sound.  I asked Stacey if she had seen anything, but she hadn't.  At that point, our ferrets came running out from under the shed and up to Stacey.

We then returned to our kitchen and turned on the light.  The kitchen had been ransacked.  There were dishes everywhere, even on the floor.  As mischievous as our ferrets were, they were not capable of anything on this scale.  And then we saw them, the large muddy prints all over the kitchen counter.  And there, on the window of the door, a distinct muddy print and the streak of mud down the door where the paw had slid as the door swung open.  Our intruder was not a fugitive from Michigan, but a Maine black bear.  As we began to take stock of our kitchen, we realized he had taken our can of hot chocolate powder.  I was not happy about that.

Not long after that, our intruder was downed by bear hunters.  He weighed in at over 400 pounds.  Ever since, I have warned people not to mess with my wife, because she once scared a 400-pound bear out of our home.  We had incidents with bears on our property after that, but none ever came inside again.

Oh, and as for the fugitives, they fell victim to something much more aggressive than the bear.  They were attacked by a swarm of Maine mosquitoes.  The next morning, they exited the woods, covered with bites, and surrendered themselves to the safety of police custody.  And we all lived happily ever after.  The end.

The Storm of '92

Twenty years ago today, I had a winter experience that eclipses all my other winter experiences, and as a Canadian, I have a plethora amazing winter memories.

It was February 1, 1992.  I was living in the Moncton area in New Brunswick, Canada, at the time.  It was already snowing hard when I got off work at the BiWay in Champlain Place.  I cleaned the snow off my car and headed for Salisbury, where I was boarding with a wonderful elderly couple.  But to get onto the highway, I had to drive up an access ramp that was drifted in with so much snow, I couldn't break through.  I turned and went back down the ramp into downtown, but the snow was falling so hard and fast I was having difficulty driving even on the flat streets.  I realized I wouldn't be able to keep driving for much longer, so I pulled into a Tim Horton's and parked.

I remembered that some folks from the church lived a few blocks away, so I locked the car and headed out on foot.  There was snow and ice and wind galore.  I was unprepared for the weather and only had a summer cap for my head.  By the time I arrived at their house, it was dark, and I literally had chunks of ice hanging off my ears.

I'll never forget watching the storm from their living room window and seeing lightning, the only time in my life I've ever seen lightning in a snowstorm.  It lit up every flake in the sky, and was just amazing to behold!

The next morning, there was too much snow to open the front door.  Fortunately, the back of the house was L-shaped, and the wind blew just right so that the snow drifted in such a way that it left a large cavernous quarter-circle of no snow around the back door, so we were able to get out.  The snow was so deep that we were unable to tell where vehicles were.  They were completely buried.  This created problems all over town as plows would strike cars abandoned in streets.

Most of the reports say there was just over five feet of snow, but I'm 5'7", and when I dug a path from the front door to the car, I couldn't see over the sides of my path!  We later heard that there snowdrifts so deep that they came over the top of even the biggest highway plows, and I believe it.  When I finally did get back to the BiWay, there was a drift over the outside doors to our stockroom that went all the way onto the roof of the mall.

One of the most amazing sights was Main Street.  When they cleared the snow, it left a massive snow wall between the street and the sidewalk so that you couldn't even see the storefronts.  The merchants cut out doorways through the snow and spray painted  their business logos on the street side of the snow wall.

Unfortunately, in 1992, we didn't all have cameras in our pockets, so I don't have any photos to say, "Look!  This was the mega storm I got caught in!" And that makes it seem all the more surreal now.  But I can say that I was there, and it sure makes for great conversation at social gatherings.

In my travels, I have met people who can count on one hand the times they've seen even a little bit of snow, but I experienced a snowstorm that even most Canadians have not seen.  And somehow, that makes me feel special.  I shall never forget The Storm of '92!

Noah's Facebook Wall

Noah
Day 1:  God shut the door to the ark.  Feels like I forgot something.  Oh well, too late now.
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Noah
Day 2:  Remembered what I forgot--toothbrush and deodorant.  Eh, it's just family, right?
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Noah
Day 3:  Someone came knocking today.  Thought we were a preschool & daycare.
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Noah
Day 5:  Sitting and waiting.  Quite relaxing, actually.  Should have done this years ago!
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Noah 
Day 7:  Sounds like someone pouring water onto the roof.  Weird.
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Noah 
Day 8:  A lot of screaming and mayhem going on outside.  So thankful to be in the ark!

Noah’s Wife and 6 others like this
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Noah 
Day 19:  Nothing like lying in bed listening to the sound of rain outside.  Don’t wanna get up!
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Noah
Day 47:  The rain stopped.  Now I can’t sleep.

Noah's Wife  Now I can sleep.  You don’t snore when you’re awake.                   
Japheth  Got a song on my heart today:  “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone!” 
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Noah
Day 72:  Caught Ham’s wife trying to light a match in the elephant room.  We really dodged a bullet today!

Ham's Wife  “Flammable” and “Explosive” are so not the same thing.  You need to change your sign! 
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Noah
Day 157:  Feels like we’ve run aground.  Door still closed, though.
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Noah
Day 269:  The crew seems to be suffering from cabin fever.

Ham's Wife  Well, yah.  You won’t even open the window!
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Noah
Day 270:  Opened the window today.

Ham's Wife  Should have done that, like, weeks ago!
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Noah
Day 271:  Doing a little experiment with a raven and a dove.  The wife doesn’t get it.

Noah's Wife  You’re the one who doesn’t get it.
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Noah
Day 272:  The dove came back.

Noah's Wife  You see?  I told you a dove would never mate with a raven!
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Noah
Day 273:  Curious.  Ever since I opened the window, the dogs have had their heads hanging out.
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Noah
Day 320:  Celebrated my 600th birthday! Kids gave me a parrot that’s been next to the roosters, so it crows.  However, unlike roosters, it doesn’t wait until morning to crow. Thinking of trading it for a rabbit or hamster.  Or a rooster.
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Noah
Day 377:  God opened the door.  In the scramble to get out, one of the winged unicorns was trampled to death, leaving the last surviving female with no mate.  So sad.
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Noah
So beautiful!  Thank you, God, for your promise!

 Profile Picture
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Noah planted a vineyard in FarmVille!
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Noah
Just signed a deal for a new reality show, "Big Brother: Ark Edition!"  I'm going to become a household name!

Celebrity God

Celebrity:  (n) a celebrated person

There are probably more celebrities in society right now than have ever been at one time.  An increasing number of ‘nobodies’ are becoming household names seemingly overnight.  Casually dropping one of these names into a conversation will almost certainly get a reaction, sometimes even drawing strong emotional responses from those in the room.  

These celebrities are instantly recognizable to their fans who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know and so much more about their favorites, naming every title an actor has played in, and probably quoting their lines to you; naming all the albums an artist had released, and probably singing the lyrics to all their songs; listing endless stats on sports heroes.  Oftentimes, they even know details of their past and personal lives.

But in spite of a fan knowing a celebrity so well, they oddly never go out for coffee together or send each other text messages.  Why?  Because they don’t actually know them.  They just know a lot about them.  They’re fans, not friends.

When I was growing up, the song “Jesus Fan” was quite popular.  It seems we’ve created a lot of Jesus fans since then.  They love to come to church and celebrate Jesus.  They often clap harder, sing louder and praise with greater exuberance than most others present.  They can tell you anything you want to know about the life and ministry of Jesus.  Many of them can quote scripture better than I can, and I’m a former Bible quizzer and Bible college graduate.  Yet, because they are just fans, they don’t actually know Jesus.  He’s just their favorite celebrity.

Many of them are even in the ministry.  We read about them in Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV):

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

So “wonderful works” is not an indicator of one’s spiritual condition.  Similarly, working for the Lord doesn’t make you a friend of God anymore than being a government employee makes you pals with your head of state.  You can busy yourself with church maintenance, groundskeeping, bookkeeping, outreach, etc., etc., but if you never take time to acquaint yourself with the one you’re working for, you’ve missed the point.  

Enter Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV): In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

The word “acknowledge” in this verse is translated from the Hebrew word, “yada,” meaning “to know.”  As a matter of fact, this word is used dozens of time in scripture and is almost always translated into our English translations as “know.” So a better translation of Proverbs 3:6 might be:

In all your ways know Him, and He shall direct your paths.

When I go to the store, if I decide to buy something for my wife, I don’t need to call her mother to ask what she likes.  I know my wife likes Mars bars and roses.  I know her favorite color is pink.  I know she doesn’t drink soda pop, but she likes Kiwi-Strawberry Vitamin Water.  My knowledge of her directs my path in choosing what to purchase.

Back when WWJD was at its peak, church kids everywhere wore WWJD hats, T-shirts, arm bands, etc.  The idea was that when they found themselves facing a difficult decision, they would ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”  Unfortunately, many of them couldn’t answer that question.  They had no idea what Jesus would do in that situation, because they didn’t know him well enough to say.

So how do you get to know Him?  The same way you get to know anyone, by spending time with them.  I once heard C.B. Dudley say, “You don’t fall in love, you learn to love.”  It’s a process requires your time.  As you spend time talking to God in prayer and allowing Him to speak to you through His Word and by His Spirit, a relationship develops.  

Exodus 33:11 says, “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.” (NKJV)

I wish every young minister could get ahold of this verse.  The young man, Joshua, has the amazing privilege of job shadowing Moses.  What young man wouldn’t want that gig?  You would think Joshua would spend every moment he could with his mentor.  But when Moses left the tabernacle, Joshua didn’t follow.  He remained in the presence of the Lord.  He understood who he really needed to know.

When I was in Bible College, we would occasionally get a visit from a representative from headquarters in St. Louis.  While there, they would usually speak to the student body in chapel service.  However, they usually had just enough time to preach and give an altar call before rushing out the door to catch a flight.

Without exception, he would be accosted by the same contingent of starry-eyed young men hoping to impress him with their flattery, and hoping that he would remember them, giving them a vital contact for future use.  Perhaps they even thought that by rubbing shoulders with a great man of God, maybe some of his anointing might rub off on them.  Most of them are not even in the ministry today, some of them not even serving the Lord.

But the ones who chose rather to seek God in the altar and draw closer to Him, they are the ones who went on to do great things in ministry.

The more you get to know Him, the more you love Him.  The more you love Him, the more you want to please Him.

One year, I was the children’s evangelist at Bannon Camp in New Brunswick.  While walking across the campgrounds one day, I noticed several boys rolling up a hill.  This struck me as odd, because in my childhood memories, it was more fun (and much less work) to roll down a hill than up it.  Nevertheless, up the hill they rolled.  When they reached the top, they came and stood proud as peacocks in front of a girl.  

By this time, I was close enough to hear what was being said.  She looked at them intently and then said, “Okay, now, if you like me, roll in the dirt!”  And boy, did they.  Dust flew everywhere as they all competed to see who could get the dirtiest.  They didn’t care how ridiculous they looked.  They didn’t care what anybody else thought, because all they wanted to do was please that girl who said, “If you like me, roll in the dirt.”

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:5), yet so many struggle with doing so because they’re afraid of what others might think of them.  They’re less concerned with pleasing Him and more concerned with pleasing themselves or others.  They don’t know Him.  It would be easy if they truly knew Him.

I John 2:4 says, “If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.” (NLT)

And Jesus said in John 8:31-32 (NLT) “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (NLT)

Don’t just celebrate Him.  Know Him.  He’s coming back for them that know Him, not for His fan club!

Pseudoanointed Preaching

An acquaintance once told me about a sermon he preached for homiletics class when he was in Bible school.  He used no scriptures and made no reference to God, salvation or eternity.  He simply recited the alphabet.  However, as he progressed, he named each letter with more conviction in his voice and increasing enthusiasm in his demonstrativeness.  By the time he had reached the final letters of the alphabet, his classmates were on their feet, clapping and shouting.  He concluded his sermon with the statement, “It’s not what you say; It’s how you say it.”  The class instructor gave him an A (no pun intended).

This story puts a knot in my stomach, because I have seen this scenario play out in actual church services, where the sermon content had value not much greater than that of the alphabet, but because he delivered it with such charisma, people walked away talking about how anointed the preaching was.  I wondered if they even knew what they were so excited about.

I’ve also been in services where the minister taught profound and life-changing truths, but because he lacked charisma in his delivery, people felt the service was dead.  It makes me wonder what kind of an experience Bible reading is for these same people. Do they get excited about words sitting silently on a page, or do they require it to be read aloud with fervor for it to resonate with them?

It seems we have raised a generation who cannot distinguish anointing from emotion.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying the two are mutually exclusive.  Anointed preaching is often very emotional.  What I am saying is that they are not interdependent.  

Another popular modern method used to enhance “anointing” is rhyming.  The more consecutive sentences ending with “ation” you can throw into a sermon, the greater response you will get from the amen corner.  If these sermons were preached through an interpreter in a global missions setting, would the anointing get lost in translation?

Whatever happened to the days when we got more excited about WHAT the Word said regardless of HOW it was said?  Is our attention span so short that we cannot sit through a sermon that isn’t dominated by showmanship?  Are we so influenced by a society that demands over-the-top entertainment that we expect nothing less from our apostolic preachers?  

I’m not discounting creative presentation, not at all, but I wonder if we have become more concerned with the packaging than the actual contents.

Despite my ranting, I am hopeful.  It seems the next generation has a hunger for the old ways.  They’re not content with the status quo.  

I follow a number of them on Twitter.  Unlike their predecessors, their tweets are not always clever.  Often it’s just a scripture verse, no commentary, just the Word.  Perhaps it’s something they read that morning that really spoke to them.  Whatever they case, they felt it could stand alone.  It didn’t need help to be powerful and relevant.  It is this love for the Word that will compel them to affect their world in ways not seen in recent history.  

Pentecostal pep rallies can get us excited about church for a few days or even weeks, but it’s the Word of God that elicits lasting life changes that sustain us when the superficial wears off.  “Preach the word” (II Timothy 4:2).

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

I’d like to share with you an event that happened to a real-life couple.  This couple was well-respected in their community.  They were independently wealthy.  They had a large family by today’s standards, 10 children to be exact.  God had blessed them abundantly.  But their world was turned upside-down seemingly overnight.

In a freak accident, all 10 of their children, who had come together for a social event, were tragically killed at once.  Then, due to unforeseen circumstances, this couple lost all of their wealth in a single day.  As if this wasn’t enough, his health began to fail.

Now the point I want to make here is that although this husband and wife both experienced these same life events together, their responses to these events were very different from one another.

The wife responded by suggesting to her husband that he curse God and die.  But Job’s response was, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

We all experience trials and tragedies in our lives.  In this respect, we are all the same.  The differences lie in our individual responses to these events.  Those who focus on their circumstances...well, their emotions tend to fluctuate in sync with said circumstances.  But others recognize that while their circumstances may have changed, God has not.  He’s just as good now as he was before, and this is their focus.

Now I’m not suggesting we should somehow be impervious to emotion.  We’re still human.  It’s natural to feel like the writer of Psalm 42:9 when he wrote, “I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”  We all ask “Why?” at one time or another.  

Even Job asked, “Why?”  But if you read through the entire book of Job, nowhere does God ever answer that question.  Job simply had to trust God.  His own words were, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15).

“Trust in God.”  We all say it, usually while giving advice to someone else.  But it can be very difficult to put it into practice in our own lives.  We all want to have the victory, but many often forget that all victories are preceded by battles.  If you want to see a rainbow, you might have to get wet first.  If you want to see a sunrise, you may have to wait through a dark time.  To experience God’s healing power, you may have to first experience some pain.  

Possibly the greatest example of trust in scripture is found in Daniel 3:16-18: 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Notice that they believed God was able to perform a miracle in their situation, but their decision wasn’t contingent upon that miracle actually taking place.  Their unconditional trust in God is encapsulated in those three little words at the beginning of verse 18, “But if not...”

I wonder how many of us today can demonstrate that level of trust.

“I know God can deliver me from my situation, but if not...”

“I know God can save my family, but if not...”

“I know God can heal this cancer, but if not...”

God did NOT prevent those three young men from being thrown into the fire that day.  But here’s the thing.  He went in with them and saw them through their ordeal.

No matter what tragedy befalls you, it is not an indication that God has forsaken you.  That is a lie from the enemy to be rebuked.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).  You’re not sent in; You’re led through!

Still more promises:

Hebrews 13:5 (KJV) ...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Matthew 28:20 (KJV) ...lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

If we can remember these things going into our situation, it will be a lot easier to praise God in spite of our circumstance.

If most any one of us was arrested on false charges and incarcerated without due process, our first response would probably be to lawyer up.  But when it happened to Paul and Silas, they had church.

It’s a lot easier to walk by faith when you remember that your steps are ordered by the Lord.

David had this all figured out.  He went from being Israel’s biggest celebrity to Israel’s most wanted all in the space of four chapters.  His king and mentor was now seeking to take David’s life, and David was on the run.  Seeing his friend was against him, he sought refuge with his enemy, the Philistines.  When King Achish turned him away, David left Gath and headed for the hills.

On the way, he crossed the Valley of Elah, where, not that long before, he had defeated Goliath.  Such contrast.  How often are our greatest victories thrown in our faces during our lowest moments to remind us of how bad things have gotten?

When David finally arrived at the caves of Adullam, he did was most of us would probably do in his situation.  He crawled into a hole in the ground.  However, most of us would not have done it with the same attitude as David.  You see, it was during these events that David took out his writing instrument and wrote the first verse of Psalm 34:  

“I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

David was not in denial of his situation.  He was in acknowledgment of an unchanging, ever-present God who knows the end from the beginning.  And He’s good all the time!

All for One

For much of my life, whenever I thought of the ministry of Jesus, I always pictured him ministering to large crowds of people.  I imagined the “great multitudes of people” that followed him from far and wide in Matthew Chapter 4.  I imagined the 5,000+ people in Matthew Chapter 14, sitting and waiting for bread and fish.  I imagined the standing-room-only crowd at the house in Capernaum in Mark Chapter 2.  I imagined a gathering in Luke Chapter 8 so packed that Jesus’ own family members couldn’t get to him.  That’s how I used to think, but my thinking has changed.

Jesus never solicited an audience.  He didn’t send fliers ahead to promote his soon arrival to a town.  His fame spread by word of mouth only, and most of the people who came to him either wanted something, such as a healing, or they were groupies, if you will, hoping to see a miracle in action.  As a matter of fact, when Jesus dove into some heavy teaching in John Chapter 6, many of them walked out and never came back.  They hadn’t come for that.

Jesus never sought crowds.  Crowds sought Jesus.  Jesus sought individuals.  Sure, he had compassion on the crowds, and he did minister to them when they came, but he preferred personal encounters.

In John Chapter 5, there was “a great multitude” by the pool Bethesda, but Jesus ministered to “a certain man.”

In Mark Chapter 5, Jesus crossed the sea, delivered one demon-possessed man, and then sailed back home again.

Relations between Jews and Samaritans were so strained that they didn’t even associate or speak with each other. Yet in John Chapter 4, Jesus detoured through Samaria and revealed that he was the promised messiah to a social outcast before he’d even told his own disciples.

In Matthew Chapter 15, Jesus even took time out of his vacation to deliver a pagan woman’s daughter from demon possession.

Even when in a crowd, Jesus took time out for individuals.  When the woman with the issue of blood touched his clothes in Mark Chapter 5, Jesus halted the entire procession and refused to move on until she came forward.  In Luke Chapter 19, he invited himself into Zacchaeus’ home, leaving the crowds of Jericho outside to probably wonder what had just happened.

To Jesus, one mattered.  He talked about leaving 99 to find one.  While we count heads, he numbers the hairs on each individual head.  We get excited when we hear the reports of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people baptized in Jesus’ name and/or filled with the Holy Ghost at one event, and justifiably so.  But in Luke 15:10, Jesus said, “…there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

In casting our net for great numbers, we often miss hooking that one who may be the key to many.  In Mark Chapter 5, after Jesus delivered the man from the legion of demons, the locals asked Jesus to leave.  The man whom Jesus had delivered wanted to go with him, but Jesus refused, telling the man, instead, to stay and share his personal testimony.  When Jesus returned three chapters later, 4,000 people came out to meet him.  Never underestimate the power of one.

In an age when it’s much simpler to put up a church website or Facebook page for the masses than it is to minister to people one at a time, we often opt for the easier method of the two.  But technology should complement, not replace, personal evangelism, especially if we want to be like Jesus.

Take an informal survey among some of the people in your church about what brought them to their first church meeting.  You will have no doubt that there is no substitute for personal evangelism.