Alive

So... I turned 54 this past week - kind of a weird number/age. 50 is significant and brought all sorts of thoughts about what's next, what have I accomplished etc.. 60 is big - I think. Even next year - 55 has a ring to it like "I can't drive 55!" or the lure of being able to order off the Denny's 55+ menu - can't wait!

   But 54 ... it sounds so routine, nondescript, insignificant ... bland. Now that's a word I would not want to describe myself with! The dictionary says it means "pleasantly agreeable, nonirritating, indifferent - all passive words. To me it points to just passing time, lacking any impact, without a definable purpose - lacking in life, color and passion.

I hate to say it but that could often describe me  - perhaps 54 is not only my age but is a fitting description of what I have allowed my life to become!

On Sunday we will be unpacking Ephesians 2:4-6  "even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ..." Romans 6 says that we were raised to "walk in newness of life!" To have been made alive is to be freed from sin, it is to have purpose and focus in His kingdom, it is to be brought in to share in His work and His life, it is to be brought from the dead so that color, passion, creativity and a fresh vision for the day can be generated by the Lord through my life! Why would I ever embrace blandness? I am not altogether sure but I think it slowly creeps into our days, sapping them of vitality, dulling our minds and creating the deception that this is what life is.

It isn't! As Ephesians 2:10 reminds us - "we are His workmanship (masterpieces) created in Christ Jesus for good works ..." Created for purpose, focus, wonder, mystery - to be pulled into the eternal working of our creator as He continues it in  the midst of our everyday activities. His calling to me at 54 is "I have made you alive - live!" "I have prepared you - step forward!" ""I am in all your days ahead - embrace them with gratitude, expectation and delight."

So - Lord, a year from now when I am eating breakfast at  Denny's - may I have learned to see Your Life anew - press me to keep me alive to the moments You give and do whatever You need to do to rescue me from my own blandness. amen

Dead

Our passage for Sunday appears to be some really bad news! Ephesians 2:1-3 starts out;

"And you were dead..."

What a contrast to the wonders of what we have in Christ as declared in chapter One. I think the Holy Spirit wants us to fully understand the desperate condition we were in because grasping that we were really dead opens the door for a life fully alive to Him. At least two troubles assail us when we fail to grasp that before Christ we were dead.

1) As a little kid I knew I needed Jesus but I didn't really get that I was dead. As a result I think I harbored the notion that my efforts and abilities helped Jesus redeem my soul. That sort of beginning leads to what Tozer calls a "Jesus and ..." approach to the Christian walk. I hold the idea that I can reform my own life, if I just try harder I can overcome sin ... I depend on Jesus - sort of, but it is mostly up to me. It leads to a christian life marked by struggle and defeat - the Lord didn't intend that for us.

2) The second problem is that because I didn't realize I was really dead - I don't think the world is really dead either - it just needs a bit of Jesus and a bit of moral reformation and all will be well - or at least better. Our country had periods when it was very "religious" and had a moral veneer - God had to bring a Great Awakening to bring real redemption - real life. During that event people suddenly saw how dead they were and that is what led to great stories of redemption. I am afraid that too many in the church just want to morally reform the world and actually think it is possible - God wants people to see that they are dead - there is NO LIFE outside of Him .... then and only then can people be alive and awake to the Lord.I am not sure that our purpose is to help people be better - rather, through the Spirit  - to enable them to see that they are dead.

So, we will consider in our service that we WERE dead, enslaved and condemned. Then we will reflect that through Jesus it is not our present condition - we are NOW alive, redeemed, His portion, His beloved.!!

06 You Have Redeemed My Soul

You Have Redeemed My Soul

Written by Don & Lori Chaffer

You Have Redeemed My Soul
from The Pit Of Emptiness
you Have Redeemed My Soul
from Death

i Was A Hungry Child
a Dried Up River
i Was A Burned Out Forest
and No One Could Do Anything For Me

but You Put Food In My Body
water In My Dry Bed
and To My Blackened Branches You Brought The
springtime Rain Of New Life
and Nothing Is Impossible For You

Harold

I was recently teaching at a Christian gathering over at the University of Arizona and in my message I referred to the children's book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon." I was shocked to discover that the vast majority of these students had never heard of the story. (Now I know what is wrong with our world.) Next to "The Pilgrim's Progress" it is my favorite not to mention being a literary classic! Now I could write a post about the parallels between Harold and Christian from "Pilgrim's Progress" or how the Image of God is demonstrated through the story, or how there is a tree with an apple and a scary dragon (think serpent) in the tree - but I won't. I could actually show that there are also many significant differences between Harold's story and the Gospel. At it's heart - Harold's adventure is about a little boy who loses his way and eventually ends up back at home - in truth, he never left.

The reality of our lives is quite a different story, although the ending - getting home, is the same. In Harold's story he decides to draw a forest, but because he doesn't want to get lost, "he made a very small forest, with just one tree in it." In truth, sin is a big forest and we are desperately lost! In the story Harold finally remembers some things about his home and bedroom and simply, and on his own, makes his window, colors his bed and "drew" up the covers and "dropped off to sleep." In reality, Jesus came into the forest, died on a tree and in destroying the power of the forest - brings us home again - a place of genuine rest!

I have been struck with the wonder of what we have as our church has been working through Ephesians 1. I have been amazed at how we have been described - His portion/inheritance, to the praise of His glory, His own possession, the fullness of Christ ... Considering how lost we were - considering how much we now have - it is incredible! In a couple weeks we launch into chapter 2 as we prepare for remembering His work on the cross and His resurrection. It is here that we discover that we can't just "draw" our way back home but that it took the "riches of grace" and the sacrifice on the cross to obtain for us all these wondrous things. So, be amazed, be worshipping, be thankful and be at rest today - the work of bringing us home is already done.

purpose

   On occasion I get this glimpse of being a part of some grand movement of God - some lofty goal and purpose that will override all of the usual, busy routines of my day. On other occasions - OK, usually - I just plug along through my day. I check items off my list, I respond to the needs or demands on my time. The majority of the things I do are a repetition of the prior day and there is no real sense of a great, eternal purpose or calling. We just live and hope that perhaps at some point we will get to do something of significance. For many of us this(the belief that there is more but we will never be a part of of) leads to discouragement, a marked lack of zeal and a deep weariness of soul. Others just ignore the questions about purpose and significance and go along as though this is it - we proceed to find things that give a false value to our life.

At church we have begun our 25 week journey through Ephesians and get right into the thick of it this week as we look at Eph. 1:3-6. No matter what view you may take on election and predestination it is impossible to miss the truth in this section that God moves with intention and purpose. He chose us and destined us for a purpose - to be a part of His ongoing and eternal Kingdom work. So, what were we destined for? Sonship - to be heirs with Christ. And what does the passage say is the mark of sonship that God has destined in us? Love - love embodied in holy and blameless lives.  What a grand purpose - yet He called us to something even greater than that - to give "praise to His glorious grace!"

As a believer - every moment, every detail, every mundane task, every errand I run, each load of laundry, every conversation, each line I stand in ... everything has a design and purpose and God is in the middle of it. He made me His child and accomplished His redemptive purpose in me to make me holy and blameless, a reflection of His love so that my life - yes, my very normal, routine life - would point to and magnify His grace!!

There is no such thing as an insignificant moment, hour, day or life for a believer. The most routine and "seemingly" unimportant days of my life are all shaped and marked by a magnificent Savior and a glorious purpose.  He will exalt His grace through me today! There is no "great purpose" to look for - He planned it before the foundation of the world and is carrying it out right now in us! Enjoy today, receive it - we are not destined to a great calling someday - we are in the midst of it right now.

eat

In Exodus 24 Moses and 70 of the Elders of Israel go up to the mountain. In verse 11 it says "they saw God and they ate and drank." What a great meal that must have been sitting in the very presence of God. They later must return to the camp below - apart from God. Last Sunday we looked briefly at Deuteronomy 14. The Israelites were instructed to take 1/10th of their harvest and create a meal for their family to enjoy. There were no special instructions about what food to eat - rather it was to be "for whatever your heart desires." It was huge, extravagant feast. It says in verse 26 "you shall eat in the presence of God and rejoice!" There is something moving and inviting about sitting in God's presence and enjoying a meal.

As wonderful as these scenes are, they are just a shadow of what we get to enjoy. Before the cross these were special occasions but because of the life, death and resurrection of our Redeemer the barrier between us and God has been removed and we get to sit in His very presence at all times. As partakers of the Bread of Life (John 6) we enjoy a meal of blessings - not just someday - but in every day. A feast of "every spiritual blessing" has been prepared for us to take and enjoy and embrace!

hungry

Camps often advertise as "the best week of your life." Although I am sure that is usually the case, my first - and last - camp experience was the worst 2 weeks of my life. I was 8 years old - read  that as not ready to leave mom - I went to Honeyrock. It is a camp about a million hours of drive time north of Chicago and is run by my Alma Mater - Wheaton College. I did know 2 others at camp - my brothers - but they were with the "older kids" and really wanted nothing to do with me. Bottom line - I was deathly homesick through the entire experience. They had a special "quiet hour" during which you were supposed to write home - I never finished a letter because I just cried the whole time. There was one highlight. The entire camp  - from something in the food - got a severe 1 day stomach illness and they were running to the bathrooms all day. I was the only one unaffected simply because I was too homesick to eat!

The heart of homesickness is this deep longing for someplace or someone. It runs so deep that it dominates one's thoughts and attention. Psalm 73:25-26 states

            "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

                      My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever."

Whenever I read that I think - REALLY? Can I have that kind of single-heartedness - that kind of desire for God. It is what John Piper calls a "homesickness for God." It is interesting that the Psalmist declares this when his flesh is failing. The truth is, I sometimes do have that hunger and heart for the Lord. It is also true that sometimes my heart is dulled to Him, "used" to His presence, unappreciative of His gifts. In Piper's outstanding book  on fasting - "A Hunger for God" - he suggests that our longing and homesickness for God is because we nibble so much at the table of the world - we are not hungry for the Lord anymore. In Deuteronomy 8, the Lord tells the people that He let them be hungry to show what was in their hearts and to lead them to understand that "man does not live on bread alone." He uses hunger to enliven their hearts to Himself. Later in the chapter - after telling them to enjoy the food and fatness of the land - He warns that those same good delights can cause dullness and a loss of hunger for God.

It seems we go through cycles of being alive to the Lord - desiring Him above all things - and then we get filled up on other things - even good things - and our hunger for the Lord is stilled. So what is the solution. There are perhaps many... I think the regularity of Sabbath (ceasing and resting) is one practice that reorients our heart. Another practice is fasting - to come before the Lord for one meal or for days - and say - "a renewed hunger for You, Lord is more important than food - more important than life!" Somehow - in fasting - we are reshaped, awakened to His good gifts, filled with gratitude and prepared for His callings. I am reminded in fasting how good all of God's great gifts taste.

Visit

People make a difference. We make a difference in the lives of others. It is such an obvious truth but in actuality I often enter the lives of others not intentionally but as an afterthought of the many other things of my day. In the meantime there are dear brothers and sisters in my path needing a note, a hug, a voice, an encouragement, a smile.

Last week was not the norm for me - perhaps I was just more in touch with myself - I was burdened, weighted,  a bit overwhelmed and disheartened... disheartened would be a good word. I needed some insight or words of hope - perhaps a visit of something really good.  Sunday morning I got that visit! Completely unlooked for, my brother arrived at church here in Tucson having driven all the way from Chicago. He arrived with a gift and he arrived bringing himself! I cannot describe the depth of joy and delight and surprise and wonder that I felt. He only had a couple hours and then was flying back home but I was left moved, encouraged, revived and refreshed!! My whole family was lifted up for the day.

Proverbs 25:25  "Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land." Even better is when that good news arrives in person. We are called to be that 'cold water' to weary souls. They are all around - I've touched shoulders with them already today - people needing a visit of encouragement, a visit of listening, a visit of hope. It has been a calling that I have too often ignored and neglected. It seems as though that is mostly what Jesus did - He visited needy people. After a miracle in Luke 7:16, the people shouted out "God has visited His people!" As imitators of God, we should do the same.