At His lowest moment, they needed Him

How close are you with your cousins?

I wasn’t all that close to mine, mainly because we lived so far apart that it was unlikely we’d see each other more than once a year.  However, I have met other people that tell me they are so close to their cousin, they may as well had been raised as siblings…even to the point that their cousin knew and understood them better than their actual siblings did.

Did you know Jesus had a similar family situation?

Growing up, and even into His ministry, Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in Him (John 7:1-9).  Can you imagine having a literally perfect older brother?  Yeah, I wouldn’t be too thrilled with him, either.  But Jesus did have a cousin whom He was close with.  His name was John.

John was born six months earlier than Jesus, but even in the womb, he recognized who Jesus really was (Luke 1:44).  John’s mission was to announce to the nation of Judah that the Messiah was coming (Luke 3:1-6).  He was even given the honor of baptizing Jesus (Luke 3:21-22), signifying that a new era in God’s relationship with mankind had begun.  John was the last of the Old Testament prophets, those chosen by God to point the people toward the coming Messiah and King.  But John was the only prophet to actually know the One he was pointing people to.  John knew better than anyone on the planet what Jesus had come to earth for, giving up his own opportunity for fame and fortune among the Jewish people.  His understanding is wholly encapsulated in his statement:

John 3:28-30
You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the groom.  But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice.  So this joy of mine is complete.  He must increase, but I must decrease.

John’s mission as a prophet wasn’t just to announce the Messiah, but to also bring the people to recognize their need for the coming Messiah.  His teaching routinely convicted people of their sin – some wanted to know how to deal with their sinful state, but others wanted to hide from it.  And John wouldn’t just call out the average citizens…he had no issue calling out the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and political leaders for their selfishness.

As you can imagine, this caused John some trouble.  At one point, King Herod arrested John and had him thrown in prison.  Then through some shrewd political maneuvering, others manipulated the King into beheading John (Matthew 14:1-12).  This act shocked the people and word spread quickly to Jesus.

Matthew 14:13
When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone.

I don’t blame Him one bit.  You find out that your closest friend – your cousin that’s practically your brother – has been murdered on the King’s orders.  The person who understood your life’s mission the best has been violently taken away…and all Jesus wanted was some time to Himself, some time with just Him and the Father.  But that’s not what He got:

Matthew 14:13-14
When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns.  When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd

How deflating that must have felt.  Jesus wants to grieve, but even in His lowest moment, the people still needed Him.  They were still drawn to Him.  So much so they ran around a body of water to chase down His boat, in the hopes of meeting Him on the other side.

I admit that if I were Jesus, I would have been mad at that scene as I brought the boat into shore.  Too emotionally tired to explode with anger, I likely would have shut down in depression.  Every instinct in my body would have been to turn the boat around and go drop anchor in the middle of the lake…and I’m pretty sure I would have given in to doing so.  My internal dialogue would have been screaming, “Don’t they know how broken I feel right now?  Can’t they see I need to get away!”

Instead, this is how Jesus saw them:

Matthew 14:14
When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

Jesus had compassion on them because He still saw them as they were, instead of viewing them as hinderances to His own desires.  They were sheep without a shepherd.  They were listless and leaderless.  They were drawn to Jesus, even if they couldn’t fully explain why.  They just knew He had what they needed.  Jesus did get His time alone with the Father a little while later (Matthew 14:23), so He could properly grieve and process the loss of John.

Therein lies the challenge for us.  When life punches hard – and it will happen – are we going to see people through the lens of our suffering or through the lens of compassion?  When you’re ready to leave and your classmates or coworkers ask you to help them out again…or that little hand reaches under the bathroom door when you just wanted a minute to breathe…or you’re in a rush at the store and down the aisle comes an elderly lady with a lost and confused look on her face…how will we see them?

I hope we choose compassion.  We cannot go wrong when we see people through that lens.  Even when we’re low, we can still compassionately connect and even meet some needs.  When we do, I’m convinced God will grant us the time we need to rest and process.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Fulfilling our need to be reconciled

I was sitting in church recently, when the pastor included a familiar passage in his message.  When this situation happens, it’s an easy trap for believers (especially if they have been taught from the Scriptures for a few years) to think, “Oh that passage.  Yeah, I’ve heard this one before.  I know what that means.”

And while it is 100% true that God’s meaning of His word does not change, the depth of our understanding and ways in which we apply the truth of God’s word most certainly can change.  Often these two arrive hand-in-hand – when we understand better, we can become better at applying.

That’s what happened as I sat there listening.  Our pastor was discussing what we share as believers by being a part of God’s family, and he took us to the familiar passage in Paul’s second letter to the believers in Corinth.  This is where Paul says that we share a mission to be Christ’s ambassadors to the world, specifically reaching out to others with the message of reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5:18-20
Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making His appeal through us.  We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

Now, I’ve heard a number of sermons cite this passage, and they typically emphasize each believer doing their part in getting the good news about Jesus out into the world.  Those sermons focus on Paul’s use of the word ambassador and the ambassador’s job to represent God and His interests, purpose, and design for human life.

However…my mind went somewhere else.  I made a connection that I hadn’t thought of before…one that left me both stunned and (honestly) a little agitated.  It wasn’t about the job of an ambassador; I understand that part.  Instead, it was realizing exactly how God expects us to do the job of an ambassador. 

Let me take you through my thought process:

C.S. Lewis famously said in Mere Christianity that “Every Christian is to become a little Christ.  The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”  God’s plan for our lives is to make us more and more like Jesus, such that when the world encounters us, they have the opportunity to see Jesus.  And if, according to Paul, Jesus reconciled the world to God the Father THROUGH HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS…and I, as a Christ-follower, am to become more like Jesus…who has given the message of reconciliation to us…

THEN…for me to be an ambassador that clearly and correctly represents God…I have to be willing to die, just like Jesus was…and whatever God asks me to let die, for the sake of others being reconciled to Him, I need to give up – just like Jesus did.

As this conclusion dawned on me, sitting in church…my immediate, raw, and unfiltered thought was “Oh, come on!  Really?” 

I mean, I get that we need to be “good ambassadors”, play nice, and be good neighbors in the world…but that’s not what we’re called to do, is it?  No, after becoming the new creation through Jesus’ free gift of eternal life (John 3:16), He then calls us to take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24-25).  The cross is an instrument of death.  We’re not supposed to just carry the cross, we’re meant to use it.

So, ever since this realization, the question I’ve been pondering is “What in me has to die so others can be reconciled to God?”  I’ve grappled with a few ideas…several of them are hard to let go of.

That’s a tough question, isn’t it?  What about you?  What in you has to die so others can be reconciled to God?  What has to die so you can become more like Christ?  Here are a few options:

Our need for validation from others.
Our self-centeredness.
Our shame.
Our suspicions of people not like us.
Our desire to appear like we have it all together.
Only seeing people as tasks or obstacles.

I’m sure you could add something of your own, too.  I suggest picking one and taking it to God.  Tell Him you want to be a better ambassador, and that you’re willing to give up what He asks of you so that others will be able to hear the good news – Jesus sets us free and gives us eternal life, all we have to do is believe in Him for it.

The question still stings a bit, but we can trust that God’s answer is for our good and His glory:

What in me has to die so others can be reconciled to God?

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Believe me, I swear!

Growing up, it seemed like any time another kid wanted to be believed, he would say something like, “I swear on my mother’s life” or “I swear to God”.  It was because he wanted to be seen as telling the truth, no matter how outlandish his claim was.  Even still now, among adults, I hear similar phrases like, “That’s the God’s-honest truth” or “May God strike me down if I’m lying” or simply “On God”. 

These qualifiers have always seemed to me as, well, a little weird to say.  And apparently, so did Jesus’ half-brother James:

James 5:12
Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath.  But let your “yes” mean “yes”, and your “no” mean “no”, so that you won’t fall under judgment.

Another translation for so that you won’t fall under judgment would be so that you won’t fall into hypocrisy.  Ouch.  No one wants the stigma of being viewed as a hypocrite.  This thought isn’t unique to James, either.  Because his big-brother Jesus covered this same topic in His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:33-37
Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, “You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord”.  But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; or by the earth, because it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.  Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.  But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’.  Anything more than this is from the evil one.

How bad of a look is it if we’re “swearing” by heaven or by earth…and we are actually wrong on whatever it is we’re trying to convince others about?  We have no control over the heavens, the earth, or what color our hair naturally grows out as.  So what does all this “swearing” mean?  A whole lotta nothing, honestly.  But wow, phrases like this are commonly said in today’s culture.  It’s as if we’re so used to people not following through that we need an extra layer of promise to get people to believe us.

It might not seem like a big deal to simply let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’, but the difference is that it will stand out in comparison to what people have typically experienced.  If that statement sounds far-fetched, I would have likely agreed with you, if it weren’t for a recent experience at work.

I was given a small task of updating a few accounts, so I contacted each of the account owners via email on a Friday, telling them that their account credentials would change on the following Wednesday afternoon.  Then, on that next Wednesday afternoon, I communicated their updates.  I thought nothing of the task until I received an email back from one of the account owners with the following statement:

Thank you for making this process so smooth!

I was pretty surprised at getting a “thank you”, but also really surprised at being told that I made the whole thing “so smooth!”  All I did was follow through with what I said I would do – and that apparently stood out to this particular person, enough for him to feel the need to express his gratitude to me.

It was still just a small thing…or was it?  If we are to be Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), then it is appropriate for us to be reliable ambassadors.  If we’re not following through on the “small things” or we have to “swear” or “On God” what we say…how will they believe us when the opportunity comes to talk about the most important thing they could ever know?

And it’s really just as simple as James and Jesus made it out to be – let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Them boys came to work

Sometimes, weekend plans can be completely scrapped due to unexpected events, especially when you are a homeowner.  You cannot predict when most appliances will need repair, or when a piece of furniture breaks, or when you’ll find a water leak in the yard…it just comes with the territory of owning/managing property.  This past week for me – it was a tree that suddenly collapsed in our yard.

This past Thursday, we had a soaking rain with lightly gusting winds.  However, the weather wasn’t the cause of the damage so much as it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Or that broke the massive tree limb, anyway.

Bradford Pear trees are a non-native species to North Carolina that property developers loved to plant in the 90s and early 2000s due to their rapid growth and pretty spring flowering.  However, they have many drawbacks – their aggressive growth can be invasive, with sprawling root structures that outcompete native trees for resources.  Their pretty white flowers also stink – like dead fish.  Lastly, and most consequential to my weekend plans, their branches are often weakly attached to the trunk. 

So, during a typical NC rainstorm last Thursday, one of the massive limbs on our Bradford Pear broke off and dropped into our front yard.  Thankfully, it didn’t land on the house or in the street.  However, the crashing limb so severely ripped the trunk that there was no saving the tree.  I snapped a picture and sent it to our church’s men’s group chat, lamenting that I suddenly had new plans for the weekend.  These are the guys that meet weekly on Zoom to go through the Scriptures, sometimes a book, or we take the time to check in on each other.  The group has been rolling for years and it’s always good when we can catch a lunch together or find another way to hang out, outside of saying hello on Sundays.

Since we live in the county and not in a city, the debris removal was totally on me.  Immediately, guys were offering chainsaws and assistance.  From Friday evening to Saturday evening, multiple guys showed up in waves to help, with a couple of them bringing an extra family member to assist.  With chainsaws and a pole saw, we lopped off several still-attached branches, took down the tree, and cut it up.  We were able to haul the debris off to one guy’s nearby burn pile.

Left to myself, on my own time and with just my own effort, a tree that size would have taken me two weeks to take down and likely another two weeks of shuttling everything in my truck to the local compost facility.  Or, at least, I’d have to pay someone two grand to come do it all for me.

Instead, with about 6 hours of work over a 26-hour time period, 5 guys from the men’s group (plus 2 of their family members)…everything was done.  Them boys came to work.  And my neighbors noticed.

Here’s a few quotes from some of the guys in the neighborhood, at different points of the process:

Neighbor 1 (while work was on-going): “Are these guys from your church group?”
Me: “Yeah”
Neighbor 1: “That’s pretty cool.”

Me: (everything hauled away, I’m raking the last of the leaves) “I had some good friends come help me out.”
Neighbor 2: “I hope that if I’m ever in a similar situation, I can pull off what you did to get some help.”

Me: (after everything was done, during a dog walk) “Yeah, my men’s group from church jumped in to help me.”
Neighbor 3: (rubbing his chin) “Huh.  How about that?”

I’m pretty sure none of these men have believed in Jesus for eternal life.  But because of my tree-wrecked weekend plans, they all had front-row seats to the kind of community God made us for.  What they saw was a live-action application of one of Jesus’ teachings in His famous Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:14-16
You are the light of the world.  A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

My neighborhood saw our light shine, and I was able to tell many of them where that light was coming from.  My undesired inconvenience became my opportunity to talk about God.  I think we all could use a perspective like that when our plans are interrupted.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The littlest psalm

If something is both well done and done well, we typically assume it was done on a large scale.  A master’s degree thesis paper can easily end up over 100 pages long, with PhD papers reaching up to 300 pages.  We’re impressed by large collections of art, cars, or historical artifacts.  Huge bridges and tall buildings receive ooohs and aaahs that single-story structures do not.  People with millions of social media followers are clearly better and more newsworthy than someone who has less than 100 followers, right? 

We’re so used to being wowed by the large, that it’s easy to skip over the small.  I think that kind of mindset can sneak into our personal Bible study and Sunday services, as well.  While most sermons will talk about Jesus – and rightfully so, He is the focus and reason for everything – if the preacher’s topic involves someone else in the Bible, odds are it’ll be about Abraham, Moses, or David.  This is certainly understandable, as these three men partnered with God in great ways to bring out His plan and purpose for humanity.  However, if we only talk about God in relation to “the big three” then we will miss out on seeing God in the lives of people like Ruth, Philemon, or John Mark.

And what of our worship songs?  The trend in recent years has been to repeat the chorus of a song 7x, 9x, 11x, or more.  But that’s not entirely something new…the longest psalm in the Bible is Psalm 119, which holds 176 verses (notably not repeating the same words over and over, either). 

That said, brevity and simple, clear truth was not lost on the psalm composers.  Just before Psalm 119 – the longest psalm – is Psalm 117, which is the shortest psalm.  Psalm 117 consists of just two verses and 23 words in total (only 17 words in Hebrew).  This psalm definitely qualifies as “small but mighty” when you look at what the composer wanted people to sing:

Psalm 117:1-2
Praise the Lord, all nations!
Glorify Him, all people!
For His faithful love to us is great;
the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.
Hallelujah!

Whether your day has been good or your day has been a struggle – being reminded of God’s faithfulness makes the day better.  Remembering that we are not alone, that the Creator of the Universe is active and interested in our lives is a source of both comfort and confidence.

The words faithful love come from the Hebrew word hesed – which is hard to wrap the full meaning of the word into English, but here is a good description of what the psalm’s author had in mind when he wrote about God’s hesed toward us:

It is an unfailing love, a loyal love, devotion, kindness, based on a covenant relationship between the two parties.

The Israelites had their covenant with God, and we have ours through Jesus.  We don’t deserve that kind of love and loyalty.  We can’t earn it or do anything to convince Him that we’re worth it.  The only thing we can do is accept His choice for how He loves and then receive it.

That is how God feels about us…and remembering God’s hesed toward us brings up the praise we find in Psalm 117, the littlest psalm.  Praise the Lord, indeed!

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Passing down diamonds

There’s been a big change in our family this year: our younger son proposed to his girlfriend – and she said YES!  She’s a wonderful girl, and we’re thrilled for the both of them.

Our son worked hard to make sure the ring he offered was just right.  He had several conversations with the jeweler about the layout, shape, stone size, etc. as they constructed the ring.  The final design incorporated a main diamond with two smaller diamonds, one on each side.  The ring is quite pretty, and it looks good on her.

What’s special for my wife is that the two smaller diamonds came from a ring that she owns, but rarely wore any more.  The ring was a gift from her father.  He gave it to her when she was a teenager.  She’s delighted to have contributed to the new ring, being able to pass down a gift like that, now to a third generation.

This got me thinking about what else we have passed down to the next generation as our son and his bride-to-be begin to plan a wedding and rest of their lives together.  What we pass on, especially to our children, has always been an important topic to God.  You see this theme repeatedly throughout Scripture.  Here are just a few examples:

Moses speaking to the Israelites:

Deuteronomy 6:6-7
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.  Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

A psalm written by Asaph:

Psalm 78:1-4
My people, hear my instruction; listen to the words from my mouth.
I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past –
things we have heard and known and that our ancestors have passed down to us.
We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation
the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, His might, and the wonderous works He has performed.

A psalm written by David:

Psalm 145:4
One generation will declare Your works to the next and will proclaim Your mighty acts.

Paul writing to his protégé, Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:1-2
You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

It’s mind-blowing to think that the Creator of the Universe has given us the responsibility of sharing His reputation to the generations that come after us.  Out of all the mechanisms He could have used…He chooses to work in and through broken, flawed humans to tell other broken, flawed humans that there is more to life than being stuck as broken and flawed.

So, if we take an honest look at what we are saying and how we are living…what are we passing down to the next generation?  Is it something valuable, like diamonds?  Or is it something that just looks shiny but has no real worth?

We all have something about God we can share.  Don’t beat yourself up if you feel that what you have to offer isn’t the biggest diamond…because all the diamonds in the setting work together to make something beautiful.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Bring your whole self to God

Over the past decade, there has been a push to make places of employment “more inclusive”.  While that term has a variety of definitions and applications, one phrase that I’ve frequently heard is the desire to “bring your whole self to work” – and this idea is often hooked up to the argument that we’re not autonomous worker-robots simply there to do the company’s bidding.  Instead, we’re told, the ideal would be to foster belonging and acceptance, because a unified group gets more accomplished than a fractured group.

The counter-argument doesn’t necessarily advocate for a fractured group, rather the question is more around “How much of ‘our whole self’ really needs to be identified, shared, and celebrated within the workplace?”.  And this debate has volleyed back and forth over the recent years, with many businesses and employees caught in the cross-fire.

Regardless of how you view the idea of “bringing your whole self to work” – I have to wonder how much we have this same struggle in our relationship with God.  Are we holding back?  Are we over-sharing? If you’re not sure, try a few of these questions:

Do we approach God in prayer with the same robotic, formula-driven phrases because that’s what we think He wants to hear? 
Are we afraid He will get mad at us for being less-than-perfect or frazzled by the day’s events? 
Have we convinced ourselves that our issues are too small for the God of the Universe to be bothered with?
Do we feel guilty after we have an emotional outburst (anger, tears, etc.) while talking to God?
Do we think that God will “bring down lightning” or punish us for questioning His plans?

When we’re troubled by questions like this, the best place to go is to the Scriptures.  One famous psalm that is familiar to most people is Psalm 23, which starts out like this:

Psalm 23:1
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Reading through that psalm, we can find many truths that can be very comforting.  But did you know that the psalm just before it, Psalm 22, starts out very differently:

Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Completely different feeling and situation from what we read in Psalm 23.  Both psalms are authored by the same guy, David.  He’s talking about the same God in both psalms.

Most importantly – don’t miss this – God considers both of these psalms to be acceptable worship.  Psalms were not just words written on a page, but they were songs to be sung.  Can you imagine singing “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” in a church today?  And yet, the ancient Israelites sang it to God.

Take a look for yourself and survey the first verse of any number of the 150 psalms in the Bible – you’ll find that the ancient Israelites indeed brought their “whole selves” to God, looking to Him for truth, rescue, comfort, relationship, excitement, guidance, and support.  Regardless of circumstances, God welcomed them, just as they were.

So let’s stop with trying to say “the right prayer” or worrying that we don’t sound like our pastor when he prays.  Bring your whole self to God.  There’s no need to hide or pretend to be perfect.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Do not memorize this verse

Did you know that the numbering for chapters and verses in the Bible are not original with the text?  Instead, they were added later on to help us navigate the text in a consistent, reliable manner.  In fact, chapter numberings were first introduced around 1227 AD and verse numberings not until 1448 AD for the Old Testament and 1551 AD for the New Testament.

As such, we should not consider these numberings to be at the same level as the inspired Scripture text; instead, they should be viewed as helpful navigational landmarks.  Most of the time, chapter breaks and verse numberings make sense within the text; however, there are more than a handful that seem a little random or even interruptive to what the author was writing.

Many times we use these chapter-verse landmarks to help us identify truths that we want to recall later – to hide them in our heart, as the writer of Psalm 119 states.  Scripture memorization is an awesome tool to help us keep God’s perspective in focus through whatever life throws our way.

That said, not all verses are equally helpful, taken at face-value.  Check out this verse from the Mosaic Law:

Leviticus 11:30
geckos, monitor lizards, common lizards, skinks, and chameleons.

Feeling edified and uplifted?  Ok, maybe not so much.

While we might not find this particular reference to be a statement we want to immediately recall…we need to avoid thinking that because we shouldn’t memorize a verse that it means the verse isn’t all that useful.

Admittedly, taken by itself, this verse is kinda odd.  Since this is the back-half of a sentence, let’s go back to verse 29 and see if we can figure out why God would bother listing out a bunch of lizards:

Leviticus 11:29-30
These creatures that swarm on the ground are unclean for you:
weasels, mice, any kind of large lizard,
geckos, monitor lizards, common lizards, skinks, and chameleons.

Ok, well, that gives a little more perspective.  God is telling the Israelites that these lizards were unclean for them – meaning they should be avoided.  Interestingly, God gives them additional clarification about handling these creatures:

Leviticus 11:31-35, 41
These are unclean for you among all the swarming creatures.  Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening.  When any one of them dies and falls on anything it becomes unclean – any item of wood, clothing, leather, sackcloth, or any implement used for work.  It is to be rinsed with water and will remain unclean until evening; then it will be clean.

If any of them falls into any clay pot, everything in it will become unclean; you are to break it.  Any edible food coming into contact with that unclean water will become unclean, and any drinkable liquid in any container will become unclean.  Anything one of the carcasses falls on will become unclean.  If it is an oven or stove, it is to be smashed; it is unclean and will remain unclean for you…All creatures that swarm on the earth are abhorrent; they must not be eaten.

Well, that seems like a lot, doesn’t it?
Why would God get so seemingly bent out of shape about lizards?

When reading Scripture, not only is it important to read individual verses in context, but it’s important to remember the timeline context, as well.  At the time of the Mosaic Law, there are no refrigerators or freezers.  Food is always prepared fresh, otherwise it spoils.  None of the cleaning supplies we use everyday are available.  If a dead lizard fell and landed in your clothing or food or water, it would be contaminated.  Just because they didn’t know about bacteria and microbes doesn’t mean they couldn’t become seriously sick from them.  Getting a clay pot or clay oven cleaned out?  There’s no way they could guarantee that they had disinfected all parts of that super-porous material…the Israelites really were better off smashing them and moving on.

God gave these rules (and others) to both set them apart from the practices of the surrounding nations and to protect them from potential dangers/illnesses they could not foresee or understand. 

This is where the ancient rules in Leviticus actually teach us modern-day believers something…there are some commands that God gives in the New Testament that we might not fully understand.  For those instances, I would propose that God is doing with us the same thing He did for Israel – He wants us to live distinctly from the culture around us and He wants to protect us from potential dangers that, right now, we can’t foresee or fully understand.

So maybe you don’t memorize a verse from Leviticus that is nothing more than a list of lizards…but do remember the principle that God has a purpose in everything He commands, even if we don’t fully understand it at the time.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Depressed, messy prayers

There is a lot of nervousness right now about the economy and job security.  Government jobs are under heavy scrutiny, and while many private-sector companies are cautiously optimistic about the future…they’re also worried about budget constraints, talent shortages, foreign politics, domestic politics, and waning consumer sentiment – because many Americans still feel the impact of high prices.

If you’re feeling like your job security is low, then public perceptions, partisan divides, and loudly-shouted mixed opinions about economic data do nothing to alleviate your fears.  While I’m not currently there, I have been before.  There have been times in previous positions where I’ve been worried that I might lose my job for something I did, or times that I worried about moves the company was making that could eliminate my position, or times when fear and nervousness spiked because a “reduction in force” happened with no warning at all.

And in all those times, you know what always grew?  The amount of time I spent praying.  Nothing drives you to increase your time talking with God as much as having your paycheck security threatened. 

But what of those prayers?  How do you pray for help when the world around you feels so uncertain?  Especially if you haven’t talked with God 1-on-1 in a while…just letting the preacher on Sunday talk to God for you.  Should I sit up straight, fold my hands, bow my head, and close my eyes?  Do I need to drop down to my knees and (politely) beg?  Should I recite the Lord’s Prayer five times…ten times…more?  What are the right words to say?  Pastor Tony Evans has this advice:

If you have wrongly assumed that all prayer should be dignified and employ only theological jargon in your petitions to God, you have not understood prayer rightly.  Let David be your model. He approaches God honestly, pleading emotionally for deliverance.  As a troubled child depends on his or her daddy, go to your heavenly Father in your turmoil and open your heart to Him.

That is exactly what David did.  In Psalm 142, the beginning header recounts that this was written when he was in the cave.  How dark was it?  How confining?  How much despair and depression did the sloped walls communicate?  They certainly contributed to his mood and the raw words he prayed:

Psalm 142
I cry aloud to the Lord;
I plead aloud to the Lord for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before Him;
I reveal my trouble to Him.
Although my spirit is weak within me, you know my way.

Along this path I travel they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see: no one stands up for me;
there is no refuge for me; no one cares about me.

David certainly felt isolated and unsure of his future.  When he looks to the right and sees…no one, he feels utterly alone.  There was no one there to be his “right-hand man”; a warrior would have his trusted ally on his right to help protect his flank while holding his own shield with his left hand.  But for David…he looks and finds no one to care about him.

Alone.  Surrounded by cave walls.  No support.  All he sees are hidden traps up ahead. 
Perhaps you can relate. 

So David does the only thing he can do, and it is a model for us as well:

I cry to you, Lord;
I say, “You are my shelter, my portion in the land of the living.”
Listen to my cry, for I am very weak.
Rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
Free me from prison so that I can praise Your name.
The righteous will gather around me
because you deal generously with me.

There are no highbrow words, no flowery talk.  David doesn’t posture, fake being strong, or try to bargain with God.  Instead, he readily admits: I am very weak…they are too strong for me.  He can’t do this on his own.  The future, apart from God’s rescue, has no hope.

Looking at David’s example…it’s ok to pray this way.  Be raw.  Be real.  Be honest.  Tell God that you are weak, but you trust that He will be strong.

David made it out of that cave, because the God he trusted took care of him.  You can, too.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Round 2: Pause on prayers and regrets

Pause on prayers and regrets
Originally posted on February 03, 2022

There’s a running joke in Christianity that says you should never ask God for patience, because if you do, you’ll hit every red light, you’ll be late for everything, and no one will behave like you expect them to.  “Ask God for patience,” you’re warned, “and you’ll regret it!”

But have you ever asked God for something and later regretted asking Him?  Maybe you asked God for something, but you never received it, so you felt guilty for asking in the first place.  It could have been a relationship with who you thought was “The One”, that “perfect” job opportunity, or public recognition…and they didn’t turn out the way you wanted. 

There’s a flip side to this also – what if God answers your request, but not in the way you were expecting? 

My wife is a good example.  When our boys were young, rambunctious, and not yet in school, my wife was struggling.  She knew that she needed to carve out time for herself.  She wanted to spend that time with God.  But little boys do not make it easy to schedule quiet time.  So she prayed about it, asking God to help her find/make/squirrel away some time where she could read the Bible, pray, and just breathe for 15 or 30 minutes.   

God answered her prayer…but He did it in a way that neither of us anticipated.  During one doctor appointment, she described her struggles and how she was feeling – and, based on their discussion, the doc diagnosed her with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  At the time, we lived in a very cloudy city that didn’t get much sun throughout the winter months.  So her doctor prescribed blue light therapy, meaning that she had to sit with a blue light to help with her mood and sleeping patterns.  Suddenly, she had 30 minutes to kill every morning as a blue light box shined across her face.  She got the result she asked God for, but certainly not delivered in a manner she would have chosen.

The moment in Scripture that we’re going to pause on was filled with tension and sorrow.  Jesus was slowly dying as His naked, beaten body hung from the cross.  For the handful of followers who watched, it must have been gut-wrenching to see Him like that.  Among those who were brave enough to risk being seen there, Matthew noted the following:

Matthew 27:55-56
Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after Him were there, watching from a distance.  Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

This may seem like an odd moment to pause on, but we need to focus in on the unnamed woman who is listed last: the mother of Zebedee’s sons.  Both of her boys – James and John – were Jesus’ disciples.  And not just any disciples, but they were also part of Jesus’ inner circle, typically mentioned as Peter, James, and John.  Yeah, those were her boys.  They were among the first disciples chosen and they had followed Him everywhere.  Their mother also believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  But as she watched her Messiah slowly die on that cross, how could her mind not flashback to this recent scene?

Matthew 20:20-23
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached [Jesus] with her sons.  She knelt down to ask Him for something.  “What do you want?” He asked her.

“Promise,” she said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and the other on your left, in your kingdom.”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

“We are able,” they said to Him

He told them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right and left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Whoever sat at a ruler’s right hand held the top position, while the ruler’s second in command would sit at his left.  In effect, the mother was asking Jesus to ensure that her boys were placed in the top spots in His kingdom.  Notice that Jesus did not rebuke her for asking, nor did he reprimand James and John for desiring those positions.  However, all three of them were unaware of what such lofty positions would cost.

In Scripture, to drink from a “cup” is figurative for following a divinely appointed path or outcome, in the form of a blessing, wrath, punishment, or, in Jesus’ case, His upcoming suffering.  While Jesus could not promise the top positions, He warned the brothers that to have an opportunity for that honor, they must be prepared to suffer as He would soon suffer.

After their meeting, the other disciples found out and were not happy about the mother’s request:

Matthew 20:24-28
When the ten disciples heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers.  Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them.  It must not be like that among you.  On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

The path to greatness is paved with service to others.  Jesus will rightfully rule in His kingdom because He suffered the most and served the most.  The seats at His right and His left have been prepared for those who similarly serve.  There is nothing wrong with desiring the high positions in Jesus’ kingdom, but those seats come at a high price – a “cup” of suffering service.

Back at the cross, what was James’ and John’s mother thinking about?  How did she feel, watching Jesus die, knowing that after her petition, Jesus said her boys would drink from the same cup?

Did she regret her request?
Did she desire to somehow protect her boys from the same horrific path?
Did she still trust Jesus when He said that being great actually means sacrificially serving others?

Those are good questions for us to wrestle with, as well.

Keep Pressing,
Ken