Thursday, January 26, 2012

Focus On God


And Another Thing . . . Focus

As I sit down to write this blog, on my desk are two computers, an iPad and an iPhone. I am looking at four different screens and I have an expectation for each one. I know a text will be coming through any moment. And now I see a new Groupon.

Focusing is a challenge.  We are surrounded by images and ads and shiny things.  Everywhere we look we have multiple opportunities for distraction. Years ago, only the aristocracy could afford entertainment and background music in their homes.  Today, nearly every life comes with a soundtrack; in fact, I am listening to one of my “playlists” as I write this.

Ps 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  That truth was written before there were noisy combustion engines; before the printing press and ubiquitous literacy; before artificial light.  When David, the shepherd, wrote these words, if a person were to act on his advice and become still, the sounds of nature and silence were much more likely to come rushing in.  God would come into focus.  God is everywhere, but we can miss him if we never stop; if we never choose to become still and look for him. 

If people who could never travel faster that the speed of a horse needed to be encouraged to slow down, how much more do we need these words today?  If people with no access to mass communication, whose worldviews were shaped primarily by the things they saw and experienced in their small communities, are encourage to be still and know God, how much more do we need to take these words to heart?

God told Moses in Exodus 3:14 that his name was “I am.”  Jesus said in John 8:58, “before Abraham was, I am.”  The place where we encounter God is in this moment.  The present is the only place we can be, so it is the only place we can be with him.  Each breath; each second is an opportunity to encounter God.

Satan’s main strategy in each of our moments is to direct our focus somewhere else.  To essentially say, “Hey, look at this. Keep going. This is funny. This is upsetting. Worry about this. Puzzle over that. Don’t stop. Faster.”  His intention is to distract us so that we miss the moment God has for us. He can distract us with relatively benign things, or he can double down and direct our attention to self-gratifying or even evil things. But his overarching goal is to get us to think of anything besides Jesus.

Jesus says in John 12:32, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” In John 14:6, Jesus says, “"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” When a person sees Jesus, they are drawn to him. When a person encounters Jesus, they find life.  John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came that we might have life to the “full.” The enemy’s strategy is to get everyone to look any place except the place where Jesus is lifted up.

The truth of David’s Psalm remains forever. Be still (stop moving, clear your head of distractions), and know that I am God (embrace the truth that brings clarity and life to everything else).

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tell It Like It Is

And Another Thing . . . Testimonies

John David Webster spoke about how he became a Christ follower at last night’s Gathering. As I watched JD share his story, I looked around the room and saw several people wiping away tears. I saw others smiling and nodding in agreement. As he shared some of the painful parts of his story, I saw several empathetic looks; I did not see anyone sneering or judging.  His story was familiar—not in the details, necessarily, but in the journey. We have all started in or found our way to lost places.  We have all discovered that the lost places were painful and scary and damaging to our life.  Any person who has found their way to a faith relationship with Jesus will feel a crescendo in their spirit when someone like John David begins to talk about how he cried out to God. Tears come when he describes how God hears and saves.  People who have not found their way to faith are presented with a dilemma, because the story resonates.  The testimony sounds credible and seems to be existentially true. 

I think that testimonies are a great argument for faith. When I was young, apologetics were the thing. The rational argument and objective proof were seen as incredibly important tools for defending the faith. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” When I was a teenager this verse was used to establish the need for a well articulated apologetic, or defense of faith. Through most of church history, however, this verse meant tell me the story of how you discovered God. Tell me about your journey to faith. Our “hope” was born out of an encounter with the person of Christ, not out of a set of propositions.

Apologetics are less compelling today because most people do not really believe in objective truth.  They believe in personal truth. Apologetics are a wonderful study for new believers because they offer a strong support for the faith that they have recently found, but many men and women who have been termed “seekers” by the church culture, view rational arguments as spin. They believe that every group can make a rational argument for anything, and ask, “Are those facts the ‘real’ facts?” Our culture has heard “point and counterpoint” so often that they doubt everything and believe that all such activities are mostly a commercial for your cause. In our culture, the reason is less compelling than the person. The personal story of a journey to faith, a testimony, is compelling, even if all of the reasons are not. People believe the truth of a changed life much more than they believe arguments.

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Doctrine is a church word that means the principles and truths of faith. What we believe is very important. In fact, according to John 8:32, truth is what sets us free.  But truth statements are a less compelling starting point in our culture. Changed lives are always compelling. Matt 5: 14-16 says, “You are the light of the world.  . . . let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

St. Francis of Assisi is commonly attributed with saying, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.

And that is all I have to SAY about that . . . for now.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Taking It To The Streets



And Another Thing . . . Culture

The culture has quit coming to church, so we are taking the church to the culture. Jesus would have been amazed at the way we cloister. Cloistered means enclosed. Monks who lived in monasteries with enclosed inner courtyards were said to be cloistered.  They cut themselves off from the world and tried to spend their time meditating on God inside the protection of this sequestered environment. Of course, “the world” is not really an external thing; it mostly resides between our ears and behind our eyes. We carry the world in our hearts and heads. We can change the external stimulation, but, for most of us, an internal fire still rages.

Our modern cloistering is different from what the ancients practiced. Many today have resolved to cloister God rather than themselves; to cloister faith life solely within the walls of church services and calendars.  The attempt is not to lock ourselves off from the world, as much as it is to lock God away into a small manageable corner of our life.  Places we can visit and then leave. We cloister, enclose, compartmentalize the part of our lives we let God into, and take no notice of him as we pursue our “secular” lives in the world. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” God will not be cloistered inside of our church services or our designated “holy times.” We can find God in those moments because he is present everywhere.  God is in our worship services, just as he is in our workplaces, hospitals, courts, malls, jails, houses, cars, showers, bars, restaurants, streets, sidewalks, . . . you get the idea.  The last thing Jesus tells his followers in the book of Matthew is, “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

We cannot cloister God. He is always everywhere.

Psalm 139 says:
 7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
New International Version (NIV)  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

When the people of God gather, they are called the church.  When we say we are taking the church to the culture, we mean that we, God’s people, are going to join him where he already is. He is everywhere and the church needs to expand the number of places where we seek to reveal him.

Rich Mullins once wrote,

And go to the city and sing out the song
For the walls of the Temple will be shaken
And the music will transcend the concrete and the chrome
And the minds of the children will waken

                                          O Come All Ye Faithful, Rich Mullins, Sparrow 1983

The message was never meant to be kept inside our walls.  Let’s shake it out of our temples and into our streets.

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!