Friends . . . and Family

Many years ago, two fathers paced expectantly in the waiting room of a Southern California hospital.  Both of their wives were laboring to bring a child into the world, and as the two husbands waited impatiently for the moment they would see their offspring, they struck up a conversation that would lead to a lifelong friendship.  One of the two men, a pastor, welcomed a daughter that day.  The other, a restaurant owner, welcomed a son.  Years passed, and the friendship between the families grew.  Then the pastor moved his family to Oregon.  They did not forget their friends in California; in fact, they invited them to join them in the lovely Willamette Valley.  So the restaurant owner and his family packed up and headed north as well, where they started a successful new restaurant.

Meanwhile, a college girl in South Dakota was bored.  That is, she didn't have any plans.  She had another bored friend, and they had one friend who had moved to Oregon.  This friend invited them to join her in the lovely Willamette Valley.  So they packed up their cars and headed west.  The college girl needed a job, so her friend told her about a restaurant that was hiring -- a new one owned by a Californian.  The college girl got the job, and she met up with the restaurant owner's son.  It wasn't long before they fell in love, then they got married, and the pastor who was there the day the son was born happily officiated at the wedding.

The restaurant owner's son and the college girl are none other than my parents.  Through their friends, God brought them from their widely separated homelands and introduced them to each other . . . and here I am!  God is splendidly creative, and there is no detail that doesn't tie into the story He writes for each of us, from one's birthdate to a wild "why not?" whim.  Very often, He uses our relationships with others to shape our own lives -- how might He be using you in the story of someone else?

 

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them.

Psalm 139:16

When God Gets Angry

Canyons, deserts, coastlines, plains, downs, hills, mountains, cliffs, crags, bluffs . . .  As I journeyed through widely varied terrain recently, I was struck by the awe-inspiring beauty of even the most forbidding and untamed landscapes.  In the days of Noah, God displayed His wrath against sin in a truly violent fashion with a world-wide flood.  Yet even in this terrifying revelation of anger, God was masterfully creative.  Whatever the world may have been before the flood, it was transformed by this raging catastrophe into a vast gallery of breathtaking scenes carved and sculpted to monumental perfection.

Why a flood?  Why didn't God just send a plague to destroy all the wicked people and leave the earth the way He originally created it?  And why do we actually like the "revised version" so much if it's a destruction of what we were made for?  God displayed His holiness in the flood -- He hates sin so much that He had to purge the earth itself of it, and a flood was certainly the most practical way to do it.  God also showed His awesome power through the flood, creating reminders everywhere of how majestic He is.  Never again would anyone be able to miss the fact that God's power is infinitely superior to man's.  The power to shape the earth so dramatically in endless variety is a power to be feared!  Perhaps God knew that man needed the limits that the redesigned earth would impose -- mountain passes definitely slow people down, even today.  The obstacles that the flood created serve to control the spread of wickedness so that the unchecked corruption of Noah's day may not reoccur on that scale.

God designed us for grandeur of the kind that the flood brought about.  Though they came about as a result of sin, we respond to such things as mountains and canyons because they are intrinsically beautiful and good.  They teach us of God's character, they humble us, they lift our hearts.  Through His response to sin, God gave us a great gift.  In destroying, He created, in hate of sin, He showed love for man, and as the ark shows us, in wrath, He showed mercy.  He still does the same today in the lives of His children -- He will destroy our sin, often violently, and recreate our hearts to display more of Him.  Sin is always ugly, but God in His wisdom turns it into a great tool for His glory.  After the flood, He will bring mountains out of the waves!

God's anger toward sin is a vital part of who He is.  He could not be God without it, not in Noah's day, not today.  And two thousand years ago, God again took out His wrath for a wicked world, not in another flood, but in the death of His Son, Jesus.  The earth still bears her scars, Jesus still bears His.  And they are both unspeakably beautiful.

It's All Good

And what adventure it has been!  In the past few weeks, I have:

. . . Seen the Grand Canyon from the air

. . . Prayed for favor with border guards

. . . Visited Mexico to participate in the ministry of FFHM

. . . Worshiped in Spanish

. . . Made dozens of duct tape bracelets

. . . Built new relationships and improved old ones

. . . Prayed for rain and seen it come

. . . Gotten lost in Mexico

. . . Been rescued by a “Harley-riding angel”

. . . Gotten out of Mexico to get stranded in San Diego

. . . Gotten out of San Diego to America’s Midwest

. . . Met the cutest cousin ever for the first time ever

. . . Explored the ruins of a historic house

. . . Been “on tour” at Mt. Rushmore’s stage

. . . Stood by an overheated truck on top of a mountain

. . . Seen a moose in Yellowstone

. . . Found no room in the inn

. . . Seen a handful of bolt halves and an axle sticking through the hub

. . . Been rescued by a “pot-smoking angel” mechanic

. . . Come home humbled by God’s provision

Through all the culture differences, beautiful scenery, and unexpected delays, God has showed Himself exclusively good and tremendously in control. The clear blessings and the “mishaps” were all opportunities to see Jesus and praise Him. It’s all good because He is good! Amen!

You are good, and do good;

Teach me Your statutes.

Psalm 119:68

Going on an Adventure

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:16-20

Before Jesus returned to Heaven, He sent His followers on the greatest adventure of all time: we call it the Great Commission. Most Christians know it well, but few actually follow it -- perhaps we need to take another look. What Christians usually have memorized is Jesus' words in verses 19-20, but the passage really starts before that. Let's get the backstory: a while before this moment, Jesus had given his disciples instructions to gather on a certain mountain away from their normal surroundings. This is the first step for us, too: we need to have such a relationship with Jesus that we will do the relatively small and easy things He asks of us without question. We need to get away from our everyday lives to a special place where we can be with Him and hear His voice.

And what happens when we get there? For the disciples, when they saw Jesus, they had no doubt about who He was. They couldn't help responding to Him with worship, but they still had other doubts. The word is also used of Peter when Jesus rescued him from his failed attempt to walk on water: "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31) It seems to me that after the first step of faith, we inevitably have a moment of wondering, "What on earth was I thinking? I can't do this!" And we're right. Doubt is a key element of any adventure because if we can handle it just fine, there's really nothing adventurous about it. The first step of following Jesus doesn't seem too hard, but once we realize what we've gotten ourselves into, doubt is natural.

But Jesus reassures His disciples and us, "All authority has been given to Me." In other words, He's in control; we don't have anything to worry about. We are right to doubt ourselves, but He is more than enough to compensate for our weakness. We can't go on our own authority, we go in response to His authority, knowing that all that exists is under His command. And His command for us is, "Go." Go down from the mountain, go out into the world, and keep going until you've reached all the nations with the gospel that has changed your life. You will never hear of anyone staying on an adventure. You have to go on an adventure. If you don't go, nothing will happen. For most of us, we will never make the effort to accomplish Jesus' commands, baptizing and teaching, unless we go somewhere -- across the street, at least. It takes active obedience, an effort of will on our part; hardly ever will the unsaved come to us.

Going is scary. It can make a mess of your plans and your comfortable life. You might lose friends. Chances are, you'll run off unprepared or meet up with trouble you don't feel at all ready for. But never fear, Jesus gives His simple reassurance once more: "I am with you always." If we say yes to the discomfort, the misunderstanding of others, the gigantic obstacles at every turn, He will be there every step of the way, even when we feel alone. Oh, He'll be there too if we decide to stay home, but we'll miss out on seeing Him do some amazing things. We'll miss out on Him guiding us through lessons that will make us stronger. We'll never know what kind of great adventure we might have had if we said yes and joined Him where He was working. And at the end? Yes, all His children will go home with Him, but only the ones who chose the adventure will take treasure with them. Are you going? I am!

Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

Psalm 139:7

Remember!

I will remember the works of the Lord;

Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

Psalm 77:11

Many times in scripture, God's people are commanded to remember God's miraculous works for them, as well as their own failings, so that they will trust Him and not repeat their sin.  The psalmists often bring to mind God's past goodness to encourage them in troubled times.  We humans tend to live very much in the moment -- whatever is going on right now is the determining factor in the state of our lives, which leads to a lot of frustration when the present situation is less than ideal.  Today's drudgery and tomorrow's unknown take center stage and throw us onto a downhill slope of plain ol' negativity.  It's hard to remember a time when we really enjoyed life.

So we have to be told to remember.  We've all seen God do amazing things in our lives, but the ecstatic moment passes and we're back to normal, wondering when God is going to show up and bless us.  Think again.  He already has.  Remember the day you were saved?  Or that extra cash at the right moment?  Or that time you should have died?  Or the friend you talked to just this morning?  Or the air you're breathing right now?  Yes, God is good.  But we forget.

This week marked one year since my epic lost-and-found experience.  I saw God at work in dozens of amazing ways in less than twenty-four hours last April, but since then, I haven't always remembered God's goodness, even though He has continued to bless me, day after "ordinary" day.  I have so much to thank Him for, not just that I'm not still wandering in the woods somewhere, but that He has given me everything I need and more.  God, help me to remember You!

His divine power has given us

everything we need for life and godliness

through our knowledge of Him

who called us by His own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3

Passion

"You still have passion -- that matters more!"  I love this line from my favorite movie, "Amazing Grace", spoken by Barbara Spooner to her future husband, William Wilberforce.  From 1787 to 1807, William Wilberforce battled to end the slave trade in England.  Though he was voted down eleven times, he kept coming back, kept fighting against the overwhelming odds.  For twenty years, he ate, drank, slept, breathed, lived the abolition of the slave trade.  The cost was immense, but he refused to let anything stand against his vision to change the world.  Now, that's passion.

Passion is a rich word.  Webster's Dictionary has about a dozen definitions, one of which is, "intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction."  Passion is associated with suffering, anger, and romance.  It is "a strong feeling that causes you to act in a dangerous way."  Passion breeds recklessness and disregard for consequences.  A passionate person is unstoppable, destructive to whatever stands in his way . . . bad or good.  True passion consumes a person's entire being.  The greatest heroes and the worst villains have this in common -- it's downright dangerous.

Another definition of passion is, "the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and His death."  Today is Good Friday, commemorating the Passion, those agonizing hours when Jesus endured supreme humiliation and appalling death.  It was not easy for Him.  Passion in the form of suffering weighed on Him as no other person has ever known it.  Every muscle and vein of His body rebelled against the torture of the cross, to the point that He sweat blood -- a very rare condition in cases of extreme stress.  His soul pleaded for a way out of the flood of God's wrath.  But there was only one way out, and that was in.  To go into being betrayed and deserted by all His friends, into mocking, lies, rejection, into scourging of the kind that often killed its victims, into being brutally nailed to wooden beams, displayed as the worst of criminals before His people, the people He loved.  And worst of all, God, His own Father, would not even look at Him.  He died there, completely alone.  And why all this?  Passion.

Jesus had a consuming passion: to do His Father's will.  He ate, drank, slept, breathed, lived it.  He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work (John 4:34)."  He knew that God's will included His death for the sins of the world (John 12:27), and when He cried "It is finished!" He knew that He had fulfilled His mission.  Nothing could stop Him; not ridiculing Pharisees, not confused disciples, not angry mobs, not Roman executioners.  He could have put an end to it all with one call for an angel army.  But He didn't.  He carried through with perfect focus from beginning to end.  And why?  Love . . . passionate love.  He loved His Father, and He loved us.  It was intense, driving, reckless.  It was dangerous and destructive -- the power of sin was crushed forever.  That is Passion.

What about us?  Passion will destroy -- either it will ruin our lives with selfishness, or it will obliterate evil in striving for Jesus.  Do we have the kind of passion that would go to a cross for people who hate us?  Do we have the kind of passion that would persevere for a cause for twenty years?  Most of us don't even have the passion to accomplish an all-day project, let alone hold down a job or have a lasting marriage.  Good passion isn't easy.  It's painful.  But the end is unspeakably worth it.  Think of William Wilberforce's joy when the slave trade finally ended.  Think of Jesus' joy when He sees all His redeemed loved ones praising Him in Heaven.  What really matters more -- the odds against you, the fear of failure, the comfort of avoiding the labor, or the joy at the end of it all?  God does not want half-hearted servants.  Passion matters more!

The Evergreen Oak

All winter long, while other trees were bare, one proud oak remained green and leafy.  But on closer inspection, the leaves proved not to be its own: it was the host of masses of evergreen mistletoe and lichens.  Slowly, the parasites had taken over this once mighty tree, lending it an illusion of continual life even while draining it of its strength.  When the trees around it that had appeared dead began to show their lively young green once again, its own appearance of life began to pale in comparison to the real life it was now too enfeebled to display.  It remained dull green, leafy . . . and dead inside.

How often do our lives reflect the false life of this oak?  We are ashamed to look bare and empty, so we cover ourselves with substitutes to disguise the lack we feel of the real life God would have for us.  But upon encountering true life in its humble vibrancy, we can see the worthlessness of our sorry attempts.  We would not wait for God to bring color to our lives in His time and His way, and now we reap the reward: weakness and inability to live an unhindered, growing life.  The parasitical substitutes must be cut away before they kill our hearts and leave us nothing but a dead host for dull, worthless habits.  In the seasons of dormancy, let us not be deceived by our lack of glorious life, but be assured that God is preparing us in the winter for a flourishing spring of His grace.  Wait for Him!

A Child's Faith

“The stranger himself did not make her afraid.  On the contrary, he reassured her. . . . Since she had met this goodman in the wood, it seemed as though all things were changed about her. . . . Before her soul was cold, now it was warm.  Cosette was no longer afraid . . . she was no longer alone; she had somebody to look to.”

~Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

It is the nature of young children to be trusting.  Indeed, they often must be taught to be wary of strangers, because to them, any kind person may instantly become a friend with whom they will be willing to go anywhere or do anything.  They do not take into account their companions’ appearance, reputation, name, or status, only the affection and acceptance they offer.  They will readily believe anything that a trusted adult tells them.  Innocently gullible as they are, they possess a refreshing trait which most of their elders have lost: they are uncalculating in their response to love, their hearts not yet hardened and skeptical.

In adulthood, experience too often leads us to demand assurance before we will risk opening our hearts to another person.  We have to know first: well-informed (or perhaps uninformed) judgments and suppositions about others take the place of child-like trust.  We have concluded that we must guard our own safety, manage our own provision, and depend on no one.  A child trusts only because he can’t manage alone; we can take care of ourselves.

Just as a child’s trusting attitude toward man can be so easily directed in simple faith to God, the grown-up’s independent distrust of his fellows likewise may correspond to his view of his Creator.  It is a great risk to put his whole life in the hands of One he cannot see or understand.  He continually seeks proof of God’s goodness, afraid to respond unreservedly, like an innocent child, to the love showered on him.  No wonder Jesus says that only the childlike will enter His Kingdom!  A child’s faith can put his teachers to shame – he is told that God is good, and he believes it without question.  He may know next to nothing about theology, but to him, God is real, and He is his Friend.  Such a child knows what we are so quick to forget: we are not alone; we have Somebody to look to, if we will.  May we become like children again, throw all self-preserving skepticism to the wind, and take His hand in fearless trust.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the

Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Mark 10:15

Dominion

With my family's recent bathroom remodel and thoughts of an addition, I've been thinking a good deal lately about a home, a place to call my own.  The thought of a palace, a dominion, a land to tend and rule however small, excites me, just as it has countless souls since the world began.  This quest for a homeland has been the drive that scattered mankind to the farthest corners of the earth -- the command to "fill the earth and subdue it" is stamped forever in the very core of our being.  Pride has corrupted the urge into a lust for power and supremacy, but still the desire to do as we were made to do is inescapable.

God created earth to be inhabited by Man, a special being created in His likeness to be a reflection of the Great Ruler.  All that God is, He desires us to be on a humble, finite scale, pointing always to Him.  The position of authority afforded by a dominion, even the smallest, is an ideal platform from which to portray the attributes of the Creator; it is a thing to be taken very seriously.  Not even in Heaven will we lose the inborn requirement of a home of our own -- Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many mansions (dwelling places, rooms); I go to prepare a place for you."  We will continue the mandate given from the beginning, no longer tainted with the will to supplant God's Lordship, but as the faithful stewards we were designed to be.  Let us begin now with what palaces and lands as we are given!

"Well done, good and faithful servant;

you were faithful over a few things,

I will make you ruler over many things.

 Enter into the joy of your Lord."

Matthew 25:21

Finite Grace?

"Grace is not infinite." I instinctively recoiled at these heretical words, as I deemed them, yet on further consideration, I conceded that, depending on what kind of grace we're talking about, there may be truth in them. For me, as for most Christians, the word "grace" instantly brought to mind saving grace, God's gift of salvation through Jesus, or, "God's Riches At Christ's Expense." But that definition leaves out far too much. Perhaps a better definition of grace would be "something good that you don't deserve." Saving grace definitely falls under that, but it is not the only kind of grace, nor is grace strictly limited to being expressed by God.

Another kind of grace is what I might call general grace: the grace that all mankind receives, regardless of their relationship with God. Every living human being is sustained by God's hand. Air, light, food, water, DNA, an earth to live on . . . all of it is grace. God is in no way entitled to give us life or anything else, but He chooses to do so. Some will complain, "But so many people suffer for lack of those things -- God isn't fair." You're right, God isn't fair; He shouldn't give any of us anything at all since none of us deserve it. By definition, grace cannot be "withheld" since it isn't merited in the first place.

In context, the statement "grace is not infinite" actually referred specifically to yet another kind of grace, what I would term special grace. This is the sort of grace we typically pray for, that extra help for particular needs.  The shifting of circumstances, material abundance beyond our labor, unexplained strength of body or mind in a crucial moment . . . these are grace. Special grace is supernatural aid for a particular situation, and it rarely happens the same way twice. This is the sort of grace we most often try to "earn", forgetting that God is not impressed by our efforts to be deserving. True, He often gives rewards to His obedient children, but even these are grace, since we did nothing to earn the saving grace that originally brought us into His favor.

So then, is grace really infinite or not? In the case of saving grace, it is infinite in the sense that a child of God will never "fall from grace" once he is born into God's family. But saving grace is also unique in the sense that it must be asked for, in which case it may be said to be finite, though it is enough to cover all who come. How about general grace? Surely in this fallen world it cannot be infinite -- a quick glance over the ruins of sin will reveal many seemingly "God-forsaken" lands. Yet even in the middle of the Sahara life may be found. Though that might more likely fall under special grace! Special grace is easy to call finite: it is certainly not always available at our slightest wish.  Still, is not God infinitely powerful?

In the end, it is in a sense true that grace is not infinite. But God is. Grace is not God. God gives grace. Because it is part of His infinite nature, His supply of grace is endless, but the manifestation of it is carefully measured by His infinite knowledge and wisdom. Some of us act like we can wheedle grace out of God, but if we could, it would not be grace at all. Let us be thankful for the grace He chooses to give us, and strive to be like Him in giving grace to others!

Now to him who works, the wages are

not counted as grace but as debt.

Romans 4:4